Kamienica Kencowska, Kraków

At Main Market Square thirty-eight, Kamienica Kencowska is a protected historic townhouse in Kraków’s Old Town. The building began around the middle of the fourteenth century and was rebuilt as that century gave way to the next. Its early modern character emerged through refurbishment around the turn of the seventeenth century.

Wealthy merchant families of German origin held it then, and the Kenc family owned it for much of the seventeenth century. Another makeover late in the eighteenth century brought a classical facade and fittings. Between eighteen twenty-five and eighteen thirty-one, the frontage gained an added storey and a replacement roof.

Notice the marble plaque on the facade: General Józef Chłopicki lived here and died in eighteen fifty-four. A confectionery founded here by Lorenzo Paganino Cortesi became known for liqueurs and spirits.