Kamienica Pod Blachą, Kraków

Kamienica Pod Blachą is a fifteenth-century townhouse on Kraków’s Main Market Square, distinguished by the copper roof that gave it its alternative name. Its later interiors include Fontana stucco and rediscovered Pompeian-style paintings, while the building also contains the Vis-à-vis bar, galleries and a torture-instruments exhibition.

Kamienica Pod Blachą is the historic townhouse at number twenty-nine on Kraków’s Main Market Square. Built in the fifteenth century, it is also called Kamienica Pod Miedzią. That second name comes from the copper sheets laid over its roof in the sixteenth century by the Fischauser family, who managed mines and smelters in Olkusz.

Copper roofing was costly at the time, so this house stood apart from its neighbours. The building later fell into serious disrepair, then underwent repair at the beginning of the eighteenth century. A subsequent refurbishment added stucco work by Baltazar Fontana and a balcony whose cast-iron railings were later replaced with stone ones.

Notice the decorative balcony above the entrance. Nineteenth-century work altered the stairwell and entrance hall. Restoration in twenty nineteen uncovered Pompeian-style painted decoration there.

The cellar contains an exhibition of old torture instruments. This address also holds the Vis-à-vis bar, the International Print Triennial Association and its gallery, as well as police and municipal-guard offices. In front of the bar entrance, the monument honours Piotr Skrzynecki, its best-known regular. The townhouse entered the heritage register on the twenty-third of May, nineteen thirty-two.