Kraków Cloth Hall

The Cloth Hall - (Polish Cloth Hall ) are located in the middle of the main market (Polish: Rynek Główny ) in Krakow and are one of the greatest examples of Renaissance architecture in Central Europe.

It was erected in the Middle Ages by Casimir. In 1555, the Gothic building fell victim to flames. In rebuilding the Cloth Hall received a barrel vault and a circumferential Attica with shallow arcades and Maskaronenköpfen designed by the Italian Santi Gucci. It also loggias were built to a design by Giovanni Maria Padovano.

In 1601, a passage in the middle of the building was broken.

In the years 1875-1878 the Cloth Hall were thoroughly rebuilt according to the design of architect Tomasz Pryliński. On the long sides with neo-Gothic arches, designed by Jan Matejko columns chapters have been added. Upstairs created exhibition spaces, which formed the first seat of the Krakow National Museum. Even today one can see the gallery of Polish painting of the 19th century.

In addition to the Cloth Hall, a new underground museum was opened on 24 September 2010. The archaeological excavations on the marketplace in the years 2004-2006 showed walls of lost buildings from the Middle Ages. Instead they shed again, they were covered with a reinforced concrete slab and made accessible. They are a branch of the Historical Museum.