History

The residence has an exceptionally convoluted history, even compared to other Kraków historical buildings. What it regarded as Spiski Palace today is a building enlarged in 1735 for Teodor Konstanty Lubomirski, the voivode of Kraków. It was a structure merged from the original Spiski Palace (south part of the plot) and the Schedel family’s house (north plot). The combination of the buildings offered space for an exceptionally sizeable residence. The old Spiski Palace was the Maciejowski family’s house going back to the end of the 13th century. The new name was coined during the ownership by Sebastian Lubomirski, the starost of Spiš, at the beginning of the 17th century. The building was gradually altered and upgraded while in the hands of the same family. Some of these alterations were attributed to the famous designer Tylman van Gameren. The splendour of the décor and equipment allowed the Lubomirski to host the most outstanding guests, including King John III Sobieski. The construction projects continued until 1710. The neighbouring, and also equally ancient, house was owned by the Kraków patrician families, including the Bethmans, and took its name from this family of printers who owned it in the 17th century. In the 18th century, the house fell into disrepair. The new owners, the Łodzińskis, offered the plot with the debris of the house, which had collapsed in 1726, to the Lubomirskis. Teodor Konstanty Lubomirski remodelled the building. He left the layout of the old palace but installed a staircase with two-flight stairs (partially preserved). He made a two-level ballroom and numerous elegant enfilade rooms. The new building received an impressive façade crowned with heraldic cartouches. In the 18th century, the palace frequently changed hands (the Massalskis, T. Czacki), and in 1799 it was purchased by Jacek Kluszewski, who also rented the ballroom (he staged theatre and opera performances there), and the owner of the neighbouring Under the Krzysztofory Palace. After the city was seized by the Austrians in 1796, the Austrian governor moved into the palace along with other Habsburg officials. In the following years, the palace was the seat of the Austrian administrative authorities, the ground floor being used by fashionable stores. In 1808 the façade was re-designed: the outdated coats of arms were removed, the third-floor mezzanine was remodelled into a regular floor. The huge building, somewhat weakened by a fire in 1809, had numerous owners (often of parts of it) and multiple tenants. Authorities would often occupy the building: the governorate commission, delegations of the national government, the starost office, and the delegation of the governorship. The heads of local administration also had their apartments in the building. To accommodate them, the top floor was altered again, and the roof was changed to a gable system (1847). Henrykowa Lubomirska occupied a spacious apartment on the first floor; she made it even larger by renting the chambers in the adjacent Under the Krzysztofory Palace. However, there was room to accommodate a female high school, Kraków-first cinema, the editorial board of the Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny daily and a gallery of the Association of Polish Artists. The most famous tenant was the colonial goods store and restaurant of Antoni Hawełka, who moved here from Under the Krzysztofory in 1913. It occupied a newly built annexe and an elegant room on the first floor, decorated with a frieze by Włodzimierz Tetmajer. These works were part of an upgrade project in the building carried out in the years 1911-1920 according to the design by Kazimierz Wyczyński and Ludwik Wojtyczka. Further renovations were made no earlier than in 1950 and 1967. They also covered the front premises of the famous Grosse colonial and wine company operating in the years 1879-1950 (once fashionable delicatessen, today an ordinary convenience store). In 1945 the building was taken over as a seat of various trade unions. The main tenant today in the Jagiellonian Univeristy.

Description

Multiple alterations have much distorted the former, representative form of the palace. Today, it is simply a large townhouse that seems to overwhelm this part of Rynek Główny. The four-storey, eight-axis façade with carefully made horizontal and vertical divisions alleviates this problem to some extent. Also, the relatively free arrangement of windows add a sense of lightness. The interior features many elements of earlier buildings, yet they no longer create a uniform system. Places worth seeing are the so-called delicatessen and Tetmajer’s Room.

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
• Komorowski W., Pałace miejskie Krakowa 1. połowy XIX w., “Teki Krakowskie”, vol. XIII
• Rożek M., Przewodnik po zabytkach i kulturze Krakowa, Kraków 1993
• Marcinek R., Kraków, Kraków 2001