Filharmonia Krakowska imienia Karola Szymanowskiego, Kraków

Kraków Philharmonic, named for Karol Szymanowski, occupies this concert hall at the corner of Zwierzyniecka and Straszewskiego Streets. The building was completed in 1931 as a Catholic House, initiated by Cardinal Prince Adam Sapieha, before the Philharmonic made it its home in 1945. Notice the cartouche crowning the façade: it bears the Kraków Archdiocesan Curia’s Three Crowns emblem.

Inside is one of Kraków’s largest concert auditoriums: 693 seats spread among the stalls, balcony, and boxes, with a stage large enough for more than 200 musicians. Its interior keeps a nineteen-thirties character, including gilded columns and coffered ceiling panels. The great organ, built in 1996 by the Bonn firm Johannes Klais Orgelbau, is the hall’s most imposing instrument.

Kraków’s first professional symphony orchestra formed in 1909 under Feliks Nowowiejski. After the war, this Philharmonic gave its inaugural concert on the third of February 1945, becoming Poland’s first postwar philharmonic to resume concert activity. Beyond the main hall are the Golden and Blue Halls for chamber music; the Blue Hall also marked Karol Wojtyła’s poetry debut on the fifteenth of October 1938.