DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0302
Fronting the palace is a statue of the Cracow Mayor Jozef Dietl by
Xawery Dunikowski.
South of the square alongside Grodzka Street stretches the
former Okol area. The adjoining Poselska and Senacka Streets
form picturesque alleys with the Benedictine nuns monastery, the
Church of St Joseph, and another monastery once home to the
austere order of Discalced Carmelites. This last building, some-
what overbearing and grim, starting in the late eighteenth century
served as an Austrian prison, well-remembered from the Spring-
time of the Nations era. Now it houses the Archaeological
Museum, which plays a significant role in research on ancient
Cracow and has a rich collection on the pre-history of Lesser
Poland, as well as other regions.
The centre of Okol, both in the early Middle Ages and after
the Ladislaus the Short’s charter, was in the neighbourhood of
St Andrew’s. A market place was probably situated here, and
fragments of eleventh-century buildings were also discovered,
along with relics of a fourteenth-century town hall and cloth hall.
The distinct character of Okol vanished for good before the
mid-fourteenth century, its original street pattern largely lost, but
the district is now one of the most historic and picturesque areas
of Cracow. It is characterized mostly by the concentration of
religious buildings. Directly adjoining each other here are three
churches: St Andrew’s, SS. Peter and Paul’s, and St Martin’s.
Further down Grodzka Street, St Giles’ can be seen, and until the
early nineteenth century the Church of St Magdalene stood on the
present-day Wit Stwosz Square.
The Church of St Andrew is the best-preserved Romanesque
structure in Cracow. It was founded by Sieciech, Palatine to
Prince Ladislaus Herman, built from 1079 to 1098, and expanded
probably at the turn of the thirteenth century. One of the first
masonry buildings in the neighbourhood, it proved an impreg-
nable fortress during the first Tartar raid. In 1316 the austere
order of Poor Clares moved here from the monastery at Gro-
dzisko, founded by Blessed Salomea. Erected then was the Gothic
287
Xawery Dunikowski.
South of the square alongside Grodzka Street stretches the
former Okol area. The adjoining Poselska and Senacka Streets
form picturesque alleys with the Benedictine nuns monastery, the
Church of St Joseph, and another monastery once home to the
austere order of Discalced Carmelites. This last building, some-
what overbearing and grim, starting in the late eighteenth century
served as an Austrian prison, well-remembered from the Spring-
time of the Nations era. Now it houses the Archaeological
Museum, which plays a significant role in research on ancient
Cracow and has a rich collection on the pre-history of Lesser
Poland, as well as other regions.
The centre of Okol, both in the early Middle Ages and after
the Ladislaus the Short’s charter, was in the neighbourhood of
St Andrew’s. A market place was probably situated here, and
fragments of eleventh-century buildings were also discovered,
along with relics of a fourteenth-century town hall and cloth hall.
The distinct character of Okol vanished for good before the
mid-fourteenth century, its original street pattern largely lost, but
the district is now one of the most historic and picturesque areas
of Cracow. It is characterized mostly by the concentration of
religious buildings. Directly adjoining each other here are three
churches: St Andrew’s, SS. Peter and Paul’s, and St Martin’s.
Further down Grodzka Street, St Giles’ can be seen, and until the
early nineteenth century the Church of St Magdalene stood on the
present-day Wit Stwosz Square.
The Church of St Andrew is the best-preserved Romanesque
structure in Cracow. It was founded by Sieciech, Palatine to
Prince Ladislaus Herman, built from 1079 to 1098, and expanded
probably at the turn of the thirteenth century. One of the first
masonry buildings in the neighbourhood, it proved an impreg-
nable fortress during the first Tartar raid. In 1316 the austere
order of Poor Clares moved here from the monastery at Gro-
dzisko, founded by Blessed Salomea. Erected then was the Gothic
287