History

A brick building was built here in the 15th century. The contemporary house is the effect of merger of three older buildings: Cyglarowska house, Kortynowska house, and Ryntowska house. The Cyglarowska house, a neighbour of the future Under the Tin Palace, was built at the beginning of the 14th century. The one-storey house, erected on a rectangular plan and measuring 6 by 6 m, was located in the central part of a corner plot, at some distance from the market square. It belonged to different bourgeois families, including the Cyglers. The house was enlarged at the turn of the 16th century. In 1572 it belonged to Jan Zakowski and Anna Zakowska née Fogelweder. In the following century, it remained idle as a deserted ruin. At the beginning of the 18th century, it was owned by the Dembiński family, and at the end of the same century, by Zofia Duninowa née Małachowska, the starost of Zator. She bequeathed the property to Saint Lazarus Hospital. Authorised by the hospital authorities, the Kraków Cathedral Chapter sold the property in 1795 to Piotr Małachowski and Tekla Małachowska née Wodzicka, the owners of the adjacent Kortynowska house. The Kortynowska was a corner house and overlooked ul. Szewska. It belonged to Marcin Krokier, the university rector (1559), next to Walenty and Anna Krokier, then in the years 1640-1667 to Rudolf Cortini, magistrate in Magdeburg Law and lord of the Jakubowice estate, and finally to Andrzej Kortyn, a councillor who died in 1672. After the Kortyns, the house was owned by Anna Drużyńska, wife of the councillor Andrzej. In 1736 the building was heavily damaged by the explosion of gunpowder stored inside by a careless merchant. The wrecked building that nobody wanted to rebuild was acquired by the Archconfraternity of Mercy and recreated. The rebuilt house was sold to Piotr Małachowski, the last voivode of Kraków, in 1784. The house called Ryntowski was in ul. Szewska. It was built in the 14th century and abandoned in 1736. Previously, it was famous for its routs and balls. It belonged to Mikołaj Zith (1537) and then to Krzysztof Rynt, the owner of Swoszowice (1639), and to his wife Zofia. After her death, the building became the property of the Dzianotti family; finally, it was acquired by Piotr Małachowski. All the three houses were successively purchased by the Archconfraternity of Mercy in the years 1733-1740. They launched a conversion project after 1740. The houses were merged into one spacious edifice, which went into the hands of Piotr Małachowski towards the end of the century. Małachowski upgraded the building and gave it to his wife, Tekla née Wodzicka, in 1799. In 1826 she transferred the building to her brother, Józef Wodzicki, in her last will. The palace remained the Wodzicki family’s property until 1911. The palace was permanently modified. The building acquired its final shape at the beginning of the following century. The author of the design was, among other artists, Feliks Radwański. The frieze with Napoleonic (?) eagles, typical of the architecture of the early 19th century, can be seen in preserved iconography no earlier than in 1840. The palace was partially intended for commercial purposes. It was one of those residences “whose owners no longer maintained lavish apartments for themselves but let some part of them. The second floor…was rented by Dr Giesy,” besides “Rudolf Jenny and Henryk Aebli ran a large English store in the house.” In the years 1865-1874 the building was remodelled again and decorated with a new façade. Further changes to the structure of the house were made during the renovation in 1942. In 1942 the house’s garden was combined with the garden of house no. 29, and a modest flower bedding was made. In 1984 the two plots were separated by a wall with a gate. The post-war renovation projects were carried out in 1965 and 1983-1984 (the “Viennese” Alvorada Café opened at that time).

Description

A three-wing edifice with spacious outbuildings on the west side. It boasts spacious interiors in the market square section, among them a large hall on the first floor with the remains of classicist decorations. Inside, wooden ceilings, Baroque portals and 19th-century paintings in the Pompeian style have survived. There are four-level cellars under the building. Some of them were exposed in the 1990s during the conversion of the ground floors into a McDonald’s restaurant.

The site is partly available: freely from the outside but inside only during the working hours of the stores and institutions.

Author of the note Roman Marcinek, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 20/04/2016

Bibliography

• Dyba O., Kraków. Zabytki architektury i budownictwa, Warszawa 2007
• Encyklopedia Krakowa, Warszawa – Kraków 2000.
• Fabiański M., Purchla J., Historia architektury Krakowa w zarysie, Kraków 2001
• Komorowski W., Sudacka A., Rynek Główny w Krakowie, Ossolineum 2008
• Parki i ogrody Krakowa w obrębie Plant, ed. J. Bogdanowski, Warszawa 1997
• Rożek M., Przewodnik po zabytkach i kulturze Krakowa, Kraków 1993
• Marcinek R., Kraków, Kraków 2001