History

The front building was built with a stoop was erected in the mid-14th century. The brick west annex was built in the same period. The upcoming changes involved the alteration of the front building (a case well in the basement). In the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th century, the house was owned by the bourgeois families of German origin, Schillings and Schoenbecks. Later it belonged the large Markowicz family. Jan, the master of a painting guild (1634) and Jan, a merchant and town councillor (1666), were among the wealthiest Kraków residents. In the 17th century, the owner was the spice trader Jan Jerzy Krzeczyk, an Englishman by origin. Ennobled by King John III Sobieski, he was awarded the Old Horse coat of arms. The image of the coat was placed on the façade, hence the name of the house. The building was completely remodelled in the mid-17th century; it had a unique design solution, i.e. an external staircase. From 1754, the house belonged to the printer Stanisław Stachowicz, who also ran a bookshop here. In 1768 his son Michał was born in the house, later a well-known romantic painter and bard of the Napoleonic era. After Stanisław Stachowicz’s death (1791), the bookstore was purchased by Jan Maj, editor at the Gazeta krakowska magazine. In the first half of the 19th century, the building frequently changed hands. In 1854 it belonged to Jan and Zuzanna Fischer. They extended the building vertically (3rd floor) around 1854 and installed a new façade designed by B. Trenner. In 1861 Jan Matejko lived and worked here for several months. In 1883 the house was linked to the neighbouring building (Januszowiczowska house) and remodelled according to the design by Władysław Fiszer and Paweł Barański. Following this project, Fischer’s spice shop and stationery were closed. In the 1930s, the building hosted the Drab Bowler literary cabaret led by A. Polewka and B. Hoffman. In 1913 the houses were separated again, and the classicist façade was renovated in 1974. The last major renovation was carried out in the years 1991-1992.

Description

A four-storey, three-axis townhouse with a low attic with small skylights. The building has the character of a 19th-century tenement house with a well-preserved interior and some older ornamentations. There are some preserved traces of the 16th-century retrofitting (the Gothic and Renaissance windows of the large rear chamber). The wooden porches of the annexes have survived, making up a three-wing complex along with the front building.

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
• Rożek M., Przewodnik po zabytkach i kulturze Krakowa, Kraków 1993
• Marcinek R., Kraków, Kraków 2001