History

The building of Fire Watchtower was erected on the then Kolejowa Street (today Westerplatte Street) in the years 1877-1879. It was built at the initiative of the Capital Magistrate Board of the Royal City of Cracow and President of Cracow Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz who considered this investment a part of a larger undertaking implemented in this part of the city: hi wanted to make the streets around Planty Park a showcase. The building was designed by Maciej Moraczewski, municipal architect who designed, among other things, the main building of the Academy of Fine Arts. The investment - owing to the vivid memory of the great fire of Cracow n 1850 - was a priority for the city. On 3 September 1880, Emperor Franz Joseph visited the building and made an entry in the visitors' book. In 1925, adaptation works were carried out in the rooms on the 2nd floor.

Description

The fire brigade is located at 19 Westerplatte Street which runs around the Planty Park, between the Main Post Office and the building of the Guild of Butchers. It is neo-Gothic in style. The seat of the fire brigade has been preserved until today without major transformations. Only after the World War II, one of the entry gates was dismantled to enable passage of modern extinguishing vehicles. The complex consists of three buildings delimiting an internal yard. The front building housed, at the first floor level, headquarters of the commander and officers of the fire brigade, and on the second floor - bedrooms for fire-fighters. The building on the southern side of the yard, standing deep within the plot, was used as stables, workshop, and forgery, and in the building on the northern side, there was a station of extinguishing equipment, hose drying room, and a gym. At present the buildings on the north and south are used as garages. The front building was erected on a rectangular floor plan, it has three bays, with a corridor in the middle bay. The building has three storeys, it is covered by a gable roof, and in the middle part, there is a tower topped with a pyramid tented roof. It is made of brick and not plastered. Its roof is laid with sheet metal. The front façade at the ground floor level features 11 axes with an entrance portal, and in the upper sections, it has 12 axes. It is decorated with friezes in cornices, made of brick. The building is one of the 16 structures on the Cracow Industrial Heritage Route.

The monument can be accessed from the outside.

compiled by Olga Dyba, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Krakow, 5-11-2014.

Bibliography

• Budownictwo pożarnicze w Krakowie do roku 1939. Katalog wystawy w Muzeum Inżynierii Miejskiej w Krakowie 18-06-2001-31-07-2001. Kraków 2001.
• Purchla J., Jak powstał nowoczesny Kraków. Kraków 1979.