Also known as the ‘Pearl of the Renaissance,’ Poland’s unique town of Zamosc (Zamość) is nearly picture-perfect. It’s a preserved example of Renaissance town planning. It’s on the trade route linking western and northern Europe with the Black Sea and finds itself on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Besides the colorful architecture, during the spring and summer, the town hosts some cultural, sports, and trade events. This makes the city even more attractive to visitors.
Zamosc is a great base for a vacation in the adjacent Roztocze region. Within a dozen kilometers of the town, you can enjoy the beauty of the Roztocze National Park as well as 5 other scenic parks. These unspoiled open spaces offer many possibilities to relax, hike, and take short bicycle rides.
Zamosc Old Town
Chancellor Jan Zamoysky founded Zamosc in the 16th century on the trade route linking western and northern Europe with the Black Sea. Architect Bernando Morando from Padua modeled and built Zamosc on Italian theories of the ‘ideal city’. The city is a perfect example of a late 16th-century Renaissance town. It has retained its original layout and fortifications.
Many buildings that combine Italian and central European architectural traditions also survived. The city is a unique example of a Renaissance town in Central Europe.
It’s consistently designed and built according to the Italian theories of the “ideal town,” based on a plan that was the result of perfect collaboration between the open-minded founder, Jan Zamoyski, and the outstanding architect, Bernardo Morando.
Optimal Town Planning
Zamosc is an outstanding example of an innovative approach to town planning. It combines the functions of an urban ensemble, a residence, and a fortress according with a consistently implemented Renaissance concept. The result of this is a stylistically homogeneous urban composition with a high level of architectural and landscape values. A real asset of this great construction was its creative enhancement with local artistic architectural achievements.
Located on the trade route linking western and northern Europe with the Black Sea, the town was from the beginning conceived as an economic centre based on trade.
The town’s community, which from the outset planned to be multinational from the start, had a high level of religious tolerance. Zamosc is a real reflection of the social and cultural ideas of the Renaissance, which were strongly accepted in Poland. Establishment of a university (Zamosc Academy) by the founder and owner of the town is an example of this.
Great Market Square Zamosc
The town’s heart is the Great Market Square, one of Europe’s most splendid 16th-century plazas. The two main axes intersect here.
The fashionable Grodzka Street connects Zamoyski Palace with Bastion no. 7, and the commercial Ratuszowa and Moranda Streets which link all three Old Town market squares.
Arcaded houses surround the Great Market Square on four sides. The former inhabitants were merchants, Academy professors, and courtiers.
The houses all had attics. Small decorative walls, balustrades, or pinnacles that protected the roofs, are now gone. They only remained in the Town Hall and the adjoining Armenian buildings.
Zamosc Town Hall
The Town Hall, the city’s hallmark, looms large over the Market Square. Its 52-meter-high tower and monumental stairway were rebuilt in the 2nd half of the 18th century.
In the summer, a bugle plays at noon from the clock tower in three directions only. Legend has it that Jan Zamoyski disliked Krakow and forbade his trumpeters to play in that city’s direction.
Address: Rynek Wielki 13
Armenian Houses Zamosc
The attic-crowned Armenian houses are among the most splendid and best-preserved burger houses in the city. The Wilczek House, named after its former owner Jan Wilczek, a town councilor, is near the town hall.
The bas-reliefs decorating its corner show the owner’s patron saints: John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, and St. Thomas the Apostle holding three spears (Zamosc’s coat-of-arms), the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as a cartouche initialed with the letters JWRZ which stand for Jan Wilczek Councillor Zamosc.
More Armenian Houses
The second building, the Rudomicz House, belonged to Bazyli Rudomicz. He was a lawyer, physician, writer, professor, and rector of the Zamojski Academy. He kept a diary documenting the colorful life of 17th-century Zamosc. A bas-relief of Archangel Gabriel decorates the House Under the Angel.
Among the grapevines above, is an image of a dragon, the symbol of evil, and two lions, whose role it is to protect the house against it. The House Under the Marriage features a bas-relief of a woman and a man on the façade.
Legend has it that the house’s owner wanted to get rid of his quarrelsome wife and accused her of witchcraft, which she burned at the stake. The facade of the last of the five Armenian houses, Under the Madonna, has an image of the Virgin and Child Trampling on a Dragon.
Your attention draws to richly sculptured lintels on the first-floor windows and to the marks and initials “SS” belonging to Sołtan Sachwelowicz. He was an Armenian merchant and founder of the house.