Formerly little more than a passing blip on the tourist radar, Plac Szczepański is the latest of Kraków’s public squares to have been returned to splendour. Despite its prime location lined with beautiful town houses, it wasn’t long ago that this historical square was an eye-offending car park flanked with taxis and flowerless concrete flowerbeds. Pepper in a few talentless pan-handlers and garish plastic bins, not to mention peppering whoever you’re speaking to with spit when trying to pronounce its name, and Plac Szczepański just wasn’t really making itself the city’s best ambassador. However, following the success of the nearby Mały Rynek’s cultural reclamation, the local authorities levelled their eyes at modernising the place, with work beginning in January 2009. After two years work and 13zł million spent, Plac Szczepański now presents quite a different face to visitors. Completely repaved and car-free, the Secessionist style of the surrounding buildings informed the renovated square’s redesign, particularly its main element, a large multi-media fountain with many jet streams, some of which spring straight out of the ground in front of the main pool. Despite critical grumblings from the city’s conservative architectural and historical community, residents seem to be loving the new fountain, with kids and dogs happily splashing through its waters in the summer. The fountain, which is illuminated by coloured lights in the evening, has quickly become the most popular place to cool off in the city centre during the warmer part of the year, though you'll find it inoperative in winter.

Taking a spade to Plac Szczepański was no easy task, and to no-one’s surprise numerous archaeological discoveries repeatedly delayed the work. Centuries before any pavement was ever laid down, this was the site of a Jesuit church and cemetery. When the order was disbanded in the early 19th century, the church was levelled and the inconveniently placed gravestones were likewise ripped out. Only the eternally reposing bodies remained, leaving today’s visitors to unwittingly tread upon the graves of hundreds, including that of Samuel Łaszcz (1588-1649), a candidate for Poland’s naughtiest nobleman. A notorious soldier, outlaw and troublemaker, Łaszcz was sentenced to exile 236 times during his life, and the recipient of 37 sentences of infamy. According to common legend, the bad boy of Polish aristocracy was above civil jurisdiction by virtue of his status as a military man and proudly carried these ineffectual sentences pinned to his coat right up until his death. The arrival of Napoleon’s army in the early 19th century breathed a brief flicker of life in Plac Szczepański when it became a parade ground. Plans for a monument glorifying the diminutive general’s achievements went out the window when the Frenchman’s campaign hit the skids on the plains of Russia and Plac Szczepański soon reverted to functioning as a vegetable market before becoming a car park from the 1960s until the work began. A spin around the square today showcases some of the city’s finest Art Nouveau architecture. Don’t miss the reliefs on the façades of the historic 1843 Teatr Stary at Nº1, the 1909 Secession building of the Agricultural Society at Nº8 or the 1901 Palace of the Arts at Nº4. Draped in art not only on the exterior, the Szołayski House at Nº11 houses the Wyspiański Museum, dedicated to Kraków’s golden boy of the Arts.

Plac Szczepański comments Add Yours

• Colin Farrel - Dublin 16 May 2012
  Probably my favourite square in the Old Town. Plenty of space beautiful art nouveau facades and there are some pretty great bars and cafes along ul. Szczepanska.