Kazimierz Town Hall

In 1335, on the basis of the privilege of the Polish king Casimir III, the settlement, which was located on the right bank of the Vistula , received the status of a city. This city received the name Kazimierz in honor of King Casimir III. Priviley Casimir III determined the plan of the Main square of the city, 195 meters long. The first town hall of Kazimierz was a wooden building. In 1414, construction began on a stone building of the town hall. Fragments of this building in the basement and on the ground floor have survived to our time. In 1528, the town hall was rebuilt in the Baroque style. In 1557, the north entrance and a tower with a conical roof were added to the building. In 1619-1620, the building was rebuilt again and existed in this form until 1875. In 1623, the town hall was damaged by a fire, after which the upper floor was attached to the building with various architectural elements in the form of an attic , preserved to this day.

At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Kazimierz became part of Krakow and lost the status of a city, after which the town hall came into poor condition. In 1806, the town hall building was put up for auction with subsequent plans for its destruction. During the Free City of Krakow (1815–1846), the Main Square of Kazimierz was expanded, as a result of which it acquired a modern look and became known as the Wolnica Square. In 1829, the town hall was rebuilt and a craft trade school began to be located in it. Since the second half of the 19th century, the building was transferred to the Kazimmer Jewish community and an elementary Jewish school began to operate in it. In 1875-1876, the building was again rebuilt according to the project of the Polish architect Stefan Zholdany. At this time, the south entrance was added to the building in a pseudo-baroque style.

Since 1947, the Krakow Ethnographic Museum began to be located in the Kazimierz Town Hall. From 1962-1966 there was a restoration of the building, during which the appearance was maximally reduced to its original form. At this time, friezes with sgraffito elements were placed on the upper part of the town hall on the eastern side according to the project of the Polish artist Vaclav Taranchevsky.

On October 16, 1965, the building was included in the register of cultural monuments of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (No. A-99 ^[1] ).

In 1996, a memorial plaque by Henryk Gohman in memory of Casimir III, who allowed Jews to settle in Poland, was erected on the eastern side of the building. A similar plaque was installed in 1906 on the north side of the building and was removed from the building in 1939 during the German occupation of Krakow.

• Leszek Ludwikowski, Muzeum Etnograficzne w Krakowie, Kraków 1970.