The edifice has a simplified form but appears monumental, despite its relatively small size, with modest decorations as a harbinger of upcoming Modernism.

History

A stone building was erected here already at the turn of the 13th century. From 1311 the house was owned by the Tenczer family trading in furs. During King Jagiełło’s times, Konrad Tenczer was an armourer and Hinczo a mason. The house was rebuilt after a fire in 1525 and altered in the 17th century. After the alteration, it obtained the letter “L” plan and remained so until the 19th century. The house belonged to Anna Soszyna (1595), the goldsmith Jakub Soszyc (1627), the medical doctor Maciej Bronikowski (1640), and the pharmacist Jan Różyca (1645).

Further renovations were held at the beginning and in the mid-18th century. In the years 1696–1721, the owner of the house was Jan Bystrowski, a magistrate, then his wife Katarzyna (until 1723), who donated much of her assets to convents. Next, the house belonged to Jan Cęczkiewicz, a magistrate, and his wife Domicela, daughter of the councillor Paweł Soldadyni. As Jan’s widow, she sold the building to the merchant Antoni Wilhelm who sold it later the councillor Jan Kanty Fachinetti (1750). In 1769 the house was purchased by Tomasz Kikulinus. In 1773 he offered it to Kajetan Ignacy Sołtyk, the bishop of Kraków. However, he returned the house, so in 1775 it was sold again to Józef and Marianna Sędrakowski. From the end of the 18th century, one of the first cafés in Kraków opened in the house. The café and house manager was Magdalena Sędrakowska. She served coffee to guests personally, charging 3 groszes each. The establishment had modest furnishing. Metal spoons were attached to the tables on chains; there were benches against the walls. Before her death in 1836, Sędrakowska donated the house to Seweryna Nikoledon. Later on, the owners were Hilary and Feliks Górzyński and then the confectioner Rudolf Grosman.

In the years 1913-1920, the site of the Tenczerowska house was built up with a completely new building. Initially, the plant was only to build an extra floor of the existing house, given that the narrow plot would limit the room for horizontal extension. However, after removing the roof, the building turned out to be unable to bear extra load. After 1912 the house was demolished to make room for the Kraków branch of the Polish Industrial Bank. The new building was designed by Kazimierz Wyczyński and Ludwik Wojtyczka (décor). The design was selected in a competition held in 1911. Most proposed designs relied on historical motifs. Wojtyczka and Wyczyński’s idea was to reduce decorations to simplified classical motifs. In 1938 a new façade designed by Tadeusz Tombiński and Stefan Świszczowski was made. Another alteration and renovation took place after 1945 and 1992.

Description

A one-and-a-half-bay, four-storey, brick building connected with a neighbouring house through the interior. The edifice has not preserved its original form: it was altered in 1938 according to classic Modernism. The building has a two-axis façade from the market square and a seven-axis façade from ul. Szewska. The ground floor has a high plinth supporting monumental pilasters of the three consecutive storeys with a frieze of the third floor. The façades are flat, faced with artificial stone and topped with a simple cornice. Over the three central axes of the wider façade, there is a flat lucarne with two windows and a stepped tympanum. The façade seems lighter thanks to large, square windows on the ground floor, topped with semicircular arcades. The furthest axis from the market square has a simple portal with a cornice. The narrow façade from the side of Rynek Główny lacks a lesene separating the axes but has a flat piano nobile balcony.

The site is available to a varying degree: freely from the outside but inside only during the working hours of the bank.

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