The Wawel Cathedral in Krakow is Poland’s most important sanctuary. Starting with Władysław the Short, the coronation of almost all Polish kings took place here. It’s also the burial place of many distinguished Poles. The first church, a Pre-Romanesque rotunda, appeared on Wawel Hill after establishing the diocese in Krakow in 1000 AD.
The later building, a Romanesque one from the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, was a three-aisled basilica of limestone and sandstone with two towers. Its fragments, including St. Leonard’s Crypt and the lower part of the south tower, are still intact today.
The Krakow Cathedral became the center of worship for Saint Stanislaus, Bishop of Krakow. Canonized in 1253 he later became patron of Poland. He died as a martyr in 1079 by order of King Bolesław the Bold. Pilgrims from both Poland and adjacent countries would visit his grave. The cult of this saint had links with the idea of unification of the Kingdom of Poland fragmented into provinces.
Crowning of Polish Kings
On 20 January 1320, Wladyslaw the Short’s coronation was next to this relic. Since then, all kings except for Stanislaw Leszczyński and Stanislaw August Poniatowski received their crown in it. Also other important state ceremonies, like weddings, baptisms, and royal funerals, took place in front of the main altar.
The first king laid to rest at the Wawel was Wladyslaw the Short. Kings were buried in the burial chambers beneath the floor. Many of the coffins and sarcophagi are masterpieces of casting art. Starting with Casimir Jagiellon, rulers’ tombs were in separate chapels built onto the temple.
A new Gothic basilica
The Romanesque cathedral, weakened by time and a fire in 1305, could no longer serve as the main church of the Diocese of Krakow. Completed in stages between 1320 and 1364 was a new Gothic three-aisle basilica with a transept. This building is almost unchanged until today. Already during its construction, bishops, and magnates founded the first chapels by its external walls.
The process of their foundation lasted throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. Noteworthy is the oldest Holy Cross Chapel with King Casimir Jagiellon’s magnificent tombstones. It’s a masterpiece of late Gothic art.
16th century and further
The 16th century brought further changes to the interior of the cathedral. New Renaissance altars replaced some of the medieval ones. This included the main altar. Some tombstones for kings and bishops and epitaphs were also created.
The Italian sculptor Francesco Fiorentino initiated the Renaissance style in the temple. He’s the mastermind behind the tombstone of King John Albert which has the form of an ancient triumphal arch.
Renaissance and affective equipment were also the work of other prominent artists settled in Krakow. Examples are Bartolomeo Berrecci, Giovanni Maria Padovano, Santi Gucci and Jan Michałowicz of Urzędów. One of the greatest works of the Renaissance is Sigismund’s Chapel, founded by King Sigismund I the Old.
The design is by Bartolomeo Berrecci. It was made by Italian artists between 1519 and 1533. It holds the tombstones of the founder, his children Sigismund II Augustus and Anna Jagiellonka as well as a silver altar.
Black and pink marble
In the 17th and 18th century, the cathedral changed its interior again. Contributions by kings, bishops, and magnates allowed replacing equipment from earlier periods with new altars, tombstones, stalls, and paintings. The interior gained a Baroque character. Black and pink marble became the characteristic material of the new era.
The Baroque interior of the cathedral was the work of Italian artists. Known names are Giovanni Trevano, Giovanni Battista Gisleni and Francesco Placidi.
After Poland lost its independence at the end of the 18th century, the cathedral became impoverished. But its status as a national sanctuary grew. In the 19th century, it became a place of patriotic pilgrimage and a place of celebrations commemorating important events in Polish history. Best known are the relief of Vienna and the Battle of Grunwald. For Poles living in the annexed territories, it was a symbol of Poland’s former glory.
Burial place for national heroes
Of special significance was the burying of national heroes who had fought for Polish independence in the vault. There are Tadeusz Kościuszko and Józef Poniatowski, as well as the romantic poet and spiritual leader of the nation, Adam Mickiewicz. These burials raised the cathedral to the status of the national pantheon.
In the 20th century, the remains of another poet-bard, Juliusz Słowacki, found their place in the vault, as was the first Marshal of Poland, Józef Piłsudski. In 2010 President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, who died in the Smoleńsk plane crash, found their final resting place in the vestibule of the Cathedral’s Pilsudski crypt.
Present day Cathedral
The present look of the cathedral is the result of the great restoration of 1895-1910. The historical stratification of successive eras of art was respected. But a part of the Baroque interior disappeared. New works of art appeared as well. Some of these are outstanding examples of Art Nouveau. Stained glass windows and murals in the Szafraniec Chapel and the vault by Józef Mehoffer are examples of this. The 20th century was a period of continuous conservation of the cathedral. Before 2000, all facades and some of the chapels were renovated to celebrate the millennium of the Diocese of Krakow and the Great Jubilee of Christianity.
John Paul II had a special connection to Wawel Cathedral. On 2 November 1946, still a priest, he celebrated his first mass here, next to the Neo-Romanesque altar in St. Leonard’s Crypt. He became a bishop in September 1958 and in March 1964 his archiepiscopal inauguration to the cathedral took place. He became a cardinal in July 1967.
John Paul II Cathedral Museum
In 1906 the Diocesan Museum opened next to the cathedral and was transformed by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła into the Cathedral Museum in the 1970’s. It exhibits regalia and religious artifacts of exceptional artistic and historical value.
The exhibits include the spear of St. Maurice presented in 1,000 AD during the Congress of Gniezno to Bolesław the Brave by Emperor Otto III.
There also are a crown, scepter, and orb of Casimir Jagiellon from 1492, a velvety coronation coat of the last King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, from the second half of the 18th century, a rare element of liturgical vestments given with a special papal decree, made of precious fabrics, decorated with elaborate embroidery as well as precious and semi-precious stones, miters and vestments.
The Papal Hall presents John Paul II memorabilia.
| Address | Wawel 3, Krakow |
| Telephone | +48 12 429 95 16 |
This defensive church with thick walls made of mining ashlar is from the 11th century. This is one of the oldest buildings in Krakow. It’s also the best preserved example of Romanesque architecture.
Its stern style contrasts with its two towers, Baroque cupolas and Baroque interior including rich stucco decoration, the high altar of black marble allegedly by Francesco Placidi, the boat-shaped pulpit and the Rococo organ. The church adjoins the Monastery of the Sisters of St. Clara founded in the 14th century.
Treasury and Library
The Monastery’s treasury and library house valuable monuments. These include 13th century reliquaries, the Byzantine-style unique mosaic icon of Virgin Mary from the turn of the 12th and 13th century, 14th century nativity scene figures, as well as early Gothic illuminated books.
| Address | Grodzka 54, Krakow |
| Telephone | +48 12 422 16 12 |
The Franciscans’ 13th-century Gothic Church was one of the first brick buildings in Krakow. The church and the adjacent monastery burned down during the Swedish invasion in 1655. The interior was rebuilt in the Baroque style.
Gothic frescos are still in the galleries of the monastery. The great fire of Krakow in 1850 marked another disaster in its history. Reconstruction work continued until the beginning of the 20th century. It brought with it many stylistic transformations (Neo-Gothic, Pseudo-Romanesque).
Design of the Church of St Francis
In the years 1895-1902, Stanisław Wyspiański created outstanding colorful stained-glass windows in the Art Nouveau style. He was a painter, playwright, poet, scene designer, and theater reformer. He was one of the most prominent artists of Polish Modernism. Wyspiański decorated the walls of the presbytery, transept, and a part of the central nave with Polish flowers.
Pastel and delicate lilies, pansies, common mullein, dandelions, nasturtiums, and sunflowers, as well as hundreds of golden stars on the place and sapphire ceiling. Some of them have the form of magnified snowflakes.
Interior of the Church of St Francis
Glass windows decorate the High Altar representing the patron saint of the church. He’s barefooted, with his face raised to the sky. It’s Christ whose outstretched arms are with stigmata.
There’s also a Blessed Salomea, the first Polish sister of St Clara (buried in the church), as well as symbols of the elements of fire and water. The most beautiful glass window, entitled “Become!” is on the western side above the organ gallery.
It’s an expressionist vision of the world’s creation with a monumental figure of God leading the world out of chaos. Józef Mehoffer painted 14 pictures of the Stations of the Cross in the years 1933-1946. He was one of the leading representatives of Symbolism from the turn of centuries.
The most interesting picture is “Death on the Cross” (Station 12). Angels’ hosts go with the crucified Christ. The light of their candles illuminates figures standing at the foot of the cross and the way to heaven.
In the Lord’s Passion Chapel, there’s a copy of the Shroud of Turin in a glass sarcophagus. The Church of St Francis was one of the favorite houses of prayer of Karol Wojtyła, the Holy Father John Paul II. The bank in the central nave he used to sit in has a commemorative plate.
| Address | pl. Wszystkich Świętych 5, Krakow |
| Telephone | +48 12 422 53 76 |
The monumental Gothic Church of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary is the 2nd most important church in Krakow. The High Altar, funded by the City Council of Krakow and built in the workshop of Wit Stwosz in the years 1477-89, is a masterpiece of sculpture.
It’s one of the largest and most precious Late-Gothic altars in Europe. It returned to Krakow in 1946 after the Nazis moved it to Nuremberg. After a thorough renovation, it returned to its original spot.
Carved in lime-tree, oak, and larch wood, the colorful and gilded pentaptych consists of the main cabin and two pairs of sides, movable and immovable ones. In the altar’s cabinet, the artist placed an expressive, golden scene representing the Dormition of Mary in the arms of St James surrounded by apostles. Above this is the scene of Christ assuming her body and soul into heaven.
Coronation of Our Lady
The Coronation of Our Lady assisted by the two main Patrons of Poland, St Stanislaus and St Adalbert continues the motifs and occupies the crest of the altarpiece. The reliefs on the folding doors depict scenes from the life of Christ and Mary. These include The Annunciation, The Birth of Christ, The Homage of the Three Kings, the 12-year-old Christ teaching in the temple, The Crucifixion, The Resurrection, and The Ascension.
Wit Stwosz joined the sacred and the profane, mysticism with naturalism, and loftiness with banality in a moving way. Mary is shown as a classic medieval beauty, but apostles have ordinary clothes worn by citizens of Krakow and features that were far from ideal. The artistry of Wit Stwosz is also brought to the fore by outstanding ornamentation. The ceiling of the Basilica has a painting imitating a starry sky, painted by Jan Matejko in the years 1889-1890. He is the most prominent representative of Polish historical painting.
Two towers close to the façade of the Basilica. The lower tower houses church bells, while the trumpet signal called “Hejnał Mariacki” plays from the higher tower every hour. Legend says that an arrow struck a guard playing the signal while alerting the city when the Tatars invaded in 1241. To this day, the melody breaks off on an abrupt half-note.
| Address | plac Mariacki 5, Krakow |
| Telephone | +48 12 422 05 21 |
The Church of St. Anne (Kolegiata św. Anny) dates back to the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. The design is by Tylman van Gameren. It’s considered one of the most beautiful Baroque buildings in Poland.
The architect modeled it after Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome. This is an academic church of the Jagiellonian University. Two towers topped with cupolas stand on both sides of the bright, 2-floor facade.
Niches house statues of saints. You’ll find St. Casimir, St. Florian, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and St. John Cantius. A relief of the Blessed Virgin with Infant Jesus is above the main entrance. The Eye of Providence, a symbol of the Holy Trinity, crowns the whole. The facade is also decorated by massive columns and moldings.
Interior of St Anne Church in Krakow
The interior of the church is light and spacious. The painting decoration and stucco work on the ceiling are a design by Baldassare Fontana and Karol Dankwart, among others. 6 chapels decorate the nave. The High Altar includes a picture representing St. Anna Samotrzeć and sculptures of St. Adalbert and St. Stanislaus. In the right transept, there is a monumental Confession of St. John Cantius. He’s the patron of Krakow, the Jagiellonian University, professors, and students.
A tomb with the saint’s remains is in the arms of four allegoric figures symbolizing the faculties of the university. Theology, philosophy, medicine and law. Four spiral columns surround it. It’s modeled after the Confession of St. Peter in Vatican. Each of them crowned with a figure of a different St. John.
A Classicist monument of Mikołaj Kopernik made of black marble is in the left-side transept. Poland’s first monument of the scientist dates back of the first half of the 19th century. The 17th century pulpit held by an angel and the 18th century baptismal font are examples of Baroque illusionism. Paintings imitating sculptures are more reasons to visit to the church.
| Address | św. Anny 11, Krakow |
| Telephone | +48 12 422 53 18 |
The Wawel Hill, for many centuries the seat of kings and their final resting place, looks back on the most important events in Poland’s history. The Wawel Hill is a special place. It is associated with the most important events in Polish history. First, it was the seat of princes, then of kings, and finally one of the royal residences.
Wawel Cathedral houses the Ara Patriae, or the Altar of the Fatherland, the tomb of St. Stanislaw. It’s one of the main patron saints of Poland. After the partition of the country, when it lost its statehood and its disappearance from the map, Wawel remained a symbolic place reminding Poles of the former greatness of their state.
Towering over Krakow, Wawel Hill became a center of political power at the end of the 10th century. It was when the first historical ruler of Poland, Mieszko I, chose it as one of its seats. In the second half of the 11th century, Krakow became the capital of Poland.
A solid stone palace emerged in the Romanesque style the remains of which are in the castle’s northern wing. Over the ages, the place, rebuilt by successive rulers, expanded. It turned into a monumental architectural complex featuring Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque objects.
Rebuilding in Renaissance style
In 1506, when Sigismund I the Old ascended the throne, he decided to rebuild the castle in the Renaissance style. His decision ushered in the golden age of the Wawel Hill which coincided with the period of Poland’s greatest all-around expansion. The king commissioned Italian architects, sculptors, and painters to build a four-winged palace surrounding a courtyard with arcades.
A magnificent Sigismund Chapel enriched the castle cathedral, the most outstanding work of the Tuscany Renaissance. It includes the 11-tonne bell called “Sigismund”, the biggest in Poland, in honor of the king. The Wawel became one of the most magnificent royal residences in Europe of its time.
Sigismund II August
Sigismund II August continued his father’s work. Tapestries, which he ordered from the best Brussels workshops, are among the most prized Wawel collections. At the end of the 16th century, the royal court moved to Warsaw and monarchs would visit Wawel for coronations, weddings, and funerals.
At the end of the 18th century, when Poland lost its independence, the Austrians converted the hill into barracks and destroyed some of its buildings. During the 1939-1945 German occupation, General Governor Hans Frank took Wawel over. The most precious items, such as the tapestries and Szczerbiec, the coronation sword of Polish kings, moved to Canada, from where they returned as late as 1959-1961.
Wawel Castle Museum
Destroyed and in need of partial reconstruction, the castle has kept its original shape. The walls and most of its decorative elements are original. Today the castle houses a historical and residential museum with 5 permanent exhibitions: State Rooms, Royal Private Apartments, Crown Treasury and Armory, Oriental Art Exhibition, and the Lost Wawel Exhibition.
The Wawel Collections
The Wawel collections consist of Polish and European paintings, ceramics, furniture, military items, fabrics, and goldsmith’s items dating back to the 13th until the 20th centuries. The most valuable is no doubt the Szczerbiec. This coronation sword of Polish kings from the second half of the 12th century or the first half of the 13th century is a symbol of state sovereignty.
Since 1320 it was in use for crowning every Polish monarch. Together with other royal insignia, it’s kept in the Crown Treasury. In 1795, Prussian partitioners looted the treasury and the Polish regalia. Crowns, scepters, and orbs went to Berlin to melt them down. Only the Szczerbiec remained and now it is the most important Polish historical memorabilia. It’s exhibited in the Jadwiga and Jagiełło Hall.
Royal tapestries
The second unique collection is a set of tapestries commissioned by King Sigismund August in Brussels in the second half of the 16th century for decorating Wawel interiors. The collection numbered around 160 tapestries woven from wool, silk, gold, and silver threads. Preserved until today are 138 of them.
This is the biggest collection of tapestries ever commissioned by one ruler and one of the most precious collections of this type in the world. It includes a series of monumental-sized tapestries depicting biblical scenes, vegetation with animals against a landscape, grotesque scenes with the monogram of Sigismund August, and the coat of arms of Poland and Lithuania.
The tapestries represent monuments of special value for Polish culture since they are the only original element of Wawel interior decorations from the time of the Renaissance. They are on display in several rooms, especially the Senate Chamber, the biggest Wawel room, decorated with tapestries from the ceiling to the floor.
Oriental Art
One of the most unusual Wawel exhibitions is the Oriental Art Exhibition displayed on the first floor of the western wing. Islamic art and crafts were very fashionable in erstwhile Poland as a result of lively trade contacts with the Near East and many wars waged with countries in the region. Carpets, silk, weapons, as well as decorated horse harnesses and saddles, which were quite popular with the Polish nobility and the royal court, came to Poland from Turkey, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Persia.
The most important part of the exhibition consists of the spoils of the 1683 Battle of Vienna. This was a historical victory for Polish troops led by Jan III Sobieski over the Turkish army of Kara Mustafa.
Among them are 13 Turkish tents, magnificent “field palaces” sewn from thick and water-resistant linen. They have decorations inside with applications made of silk and gold-plated leather, which form the biggest collection in Europe and one of the biggest in the world. You can also see 4 Turkish banners captured near Vienna, the sword of Kara Mustafa, 16th-century Turkish horse armor, and Turkish and Persian sabers dating from the 17th – 18th centuries.
The western part of the Wawel Hill has a 270-meter long drip-stone cave with an 81-meter long section open to the public. A staircase in the brick turret near the Thieves’ Tower descends to the den.
The cave links to a legend whose oldest version is in the Polish Chronicle. Wincenty Kadłubek wrote it at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. It tells the story of a terrifying dragon that lived “in the recesses of a certain cave”. He forced the local population to bring him offerings of cattle, otherwise he would devour humans.
King Gracchus ordered his two sons to kill the oppressor. After many unsuccessful attempts, the princes came up with a trick. Instead of animals, they fed him calfskin stuffed with smoldering sulfur. He devoured it whole and then suffocated with the smoke from the fire raging in his intestines.
The king’s younger son used this occasion to get rid of his competitor to the throne. He killed his brother and blamed the dragon. The crime came out and its perpetrator got expelled. Krakow, a city named after the king, emerged on that rock. A sculpture of the Wawel Dragon stands in front of the entrance to the cave on the boulevard on the Vistula River.
Krakow’s old town is surrounded by a beautiful park called Planty. It’s 4 km long and was created in 1830. It marks where the city’s old defensive walls once stood – the Barbican is still standing, just outside the iconic Floriańska Gate. I love the fact that Krakow has this big stretch of green at its heart, full of trees and birds.
Oskar Schindler’s Enamel Factory – the new branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow – is in the post-industrial Zabłocie district of Krakow, at the administrative building of the former factory of enameled vessels known as Oskar Schindler’s Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik (DEF).
Before it became DEF’s property, the First Factory of Enamelled Vessels and Tin Items in the Małopolska Region used the facility.
They called it “Rekord”. Three Jewish entrepreneurs established this company: Michał Gutman from Będzin, Izrael Kohn from Kraków’s Kazimierz district, and Wolf Luzer Glajtman from Olkusz. The notarial documents of the “Rekord” factory mention an administrative building which was at 9 Romanowicza Street.
Factory in Lipowa Street
The three business partners rented the production floors topped with the characteristic gable roofs and purchased the building plot at 4 Lipowa Street from the Factory of Wire, Netting, and Iron Products to find their business there.
They then built some factory facilities in that location to accommodate the stamping room (for the processing, preparation, and pressing of metal sheets), the pickling room, and the enameling room. The next stage of the production process was to fire the vessels in the special enamel kilns. The vessels were then cooled down and moved to warehouses.
The proprietors of the “Rekord” factory changed several times, and the company’s financial situation declined. In June 1939, the Regional Court in Krakow declared its bankruptcy due to debt.
World War II
The outbreak of World War Two and the arrival German troops into Krakow on 6 September 1939 changed the city’s and its residents situation. Around that time Oskar Schindler, an NSDAP member and agent of the German military intelligence arrived in the city.
He became a trustee of a Jewish kitchenware shop on Krakowska Street, and by November 1939 he took over the bankrupt “Rekord” company in the industrial Zabłocie district from the Trust Bureau of the General Government and became its receiver.
On 15 January 1940 Schindler signed a contract with the company’s administrative receiver, leasing the factory buildings at 4 Lipowa St and 9 Romanowicza Street. He also bought the company’s ready-made and semi-finished products.
His next step was to buy the property on Lipowa Street. He used the capital contribution of “Rekord’s” former shareholder Abraham Bankier and the proprietor of the shop on Krakowska Street, Samuel Wiener. At that point, Schindler changed the factory’s name to Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik – DEF, but it was not until 1942 that he became the legal owner of the company.
Control over the factory
Having gained control over the factory, Schindler immediately commenced the plant’s expansion using the plans developed by “Rekord’s” former shareholders. This rapid investment was only possible thanks to the capital of Jewish entrepreneurs who received ready-made products in return or became the new employees of the Enamel factory. Construction works began already in 1940. The first stage was to build the payroll office, the doctor’s and dentist’s surgeries a small clinic, the kitchen, the cafeteria, the stables for the company’s horses, and the garages for the company’s vehicles.
Over the next few years, Schindler also built the shop floor which accommodated lathes, presses, and the tool room. In 1942 the stamping room extended into a three-storied building which contained the pattern shop, warehouses, social and administrative rooms, as well as the office and apartment of the factory’s owner.
The entrance to the factory’s courtyard had two imposing pillars and was closed with an openwork metal gate. Further investments in the factory premises were the two steam boilers, the new stamping shop floor designed by the Siemens company and constructed in 1944, and the large fire protection water tank.
The company continued to produce enameled vessels using the same technologies as those used by the pre-war manufacturers. A major novelty introduced by Schindler was the munitions department that manufactured mess tins for the Wehrmacht, cartridge cases, and fuses for artillery shells and aerial bombs.
Owing to its partial transformation into a munitions plant, the Enamel factory was able to survive. Working conditions were difficult. The most dangerous jobs included the handling of enamel kilns and vats containing sulfuric acid.
How the workers lived
At the beginning most of Schindler’s employees were Poles, but they were soon outnumbered by Jewish employees recruited via the Labour Office operating in the Ghetto from March 1941 to March 1943. Most of the few Poles who remained in the company held administrative positions.
The number of Jewish employees grew from over a hundred in 1940 to about 1,100 in 1944.
During the Ghetto’s existence in the Podgórze district members of the industrial protective service escorted Jewish workers to the factory. Following the “liquidation” of the Ghetto in 1943, Krakow Jews who weren’t killed during the operation moved to the labor camp in Płaszów. Schindler managed to get permission to establish a sub-camp of the Płaszów camp on the lot next to DEF which he had purchased especially for that purpose.
The barracks built in the Zabłocie district accommodated the Jewish employees of the Enamel factory, as well as three other companies operating in that neighborhood. Barbed wire fenced off the sub-camp and watch towers surrounded it. There was an assembly yard in the central section, between the barracks. It had its medical service, and the Jewish Social Self-Help organization provided medicines.
The food was much better in Zabłocie than it was in the Płaszów camp, especially due to the close cooperation with the Poles who enabled contact with the city. The factory’s production and the operation of the sub-camp were subject to frequent inspections, and the commandant of the Płaszów camp Amon Goeth was a particularly frequent visitor here.
Improved conditions
But thanks to Schindler’s efforts the inspections were not as oppressive as they could have been. It was only after the Płaszów labor camp changed into a concentration camp in January 1944 that the inmates of the Zabłocie sub-camp were under permanent SS supervision. At the beginning Schindler’s staff worked a two-shift system and the workday lasted 12 hours. Later, this changed to a three-shift system, with 8 hours of work per day.
As the Eastern Front drew closer and closer, Germans started to liquidate their camps and prisons in the eastern part of the General Government. In the face of the impending danger, Schindler decided to evacuate his munitions factory and his entire staff to Brünnlitz in Bohemia.
The Brünnlitz camp was a branch of the Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp. About 1,200 Jewish prisoners continued to work there until 8 May 1945, when the Red Army liberated the camp.
Since Schindler had moved his company to Brünnlitz, the production at the factory at Lipowa Street in Krakow stopped. Two years after the end of World War II the factory premises were nationalized. From 1948 to 2002 the “Telpod” company used the facilities. They manufactured telecommunications sub-assemblies and adapted to the needs of the production processes carried out by that company.
The original architectural features included the entrance gate, the facade of the administrative building at 4 Lipowa Street, and the gable roofs of the factory’s shop floors.
In 2005 the premises became the property of the City of Krakow. After many debates over the future of the factory, the decision was made in 2007 to divide the historic facilities between two cultural institutions.
The former administrative building became the seat of a new branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow. It created a permanent exhibition on the history of Krakow and its residents under Nazi German occupation.