In 1978 the renovated house was officially renamed Dom Polonii (Polish Diaspora House).

History

First references to a brick building in this location come from 1373. Gothic, five-metre-deep cellars have survived to the present time. The building was altered in the 16th century, and after 1577 it received a Renaissance décor. A wooden footbridge was installed to connect the building with the Under the Golden Head house. For ceremonial occasions, such as monarchs’ visits, the porch was decorated to resemble a triumphal gate. In the 16th century, the second floor was added (the window mullions from that time have been preserved). Over the following centuries, it was owned by Kraków merchant and craft families (Delpac, Belli). In the second half of the 18th century, the building was purchased by the painter family of Orłowski. In 1792 it was in the hands of the local goldsmith Jan N. Herczka. From 1795, the building housed Jan Tomaszkiewicz’s spice store. The third floor was added, and the interior was re-designed. In the years 1832-1850, the property belonged to Józef Wawel Louis. He had a neo-Baroque façade installed, referring to the early Roman Baroque. During the 1850 fire of the city, it house burnt down. After reconstruction, the building received its present-day interior and a staircase finished with Pompeian frescoes. The façade was recreated in the neo-Gothic style. The frescoes and wall decorations of the Arcade Room on the first floor were made in that period. In 1897 the building was remodelled according to Karol Scharoch’s design; the statue of the house patron was removed from the façade. During the 1938 reconstruction overseen by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz, the house was given in present-day façade; the designer restored the form of a modern house by creating a attic travesty on the top floor. All in all, replacing the neo-Baroque façade with an eclectic and modernist one did not prove to be the best solution. The interior was completely renovated in the years 1974-1978; it was when the annexes were demolished. Since 1978 the house has been the seat of the Polish Community Association and Dom Polonii.

Description

A three-story house with a habitable attic. A slightly sloping sheet metal roof. The ground floor houses a restaurant (in the front section of the building) and the so-called Rear Hall. The first floor is dominated by the Arcade Room boasting rich wall paintings (plant, mythological, and animal motifs). The original 19th-century tiled stoves have been preserved. The room is bisected by an arcade supported on one column. From the garden side, there is the Renaissance Room with jambs and windows; an oak ceiling and a tiled stove have been preserved. Until 2005 the house had been connected through passages on each floor with the neighbouring house at ul. Grodzka 1.

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