Kamienica Pod Jaszczurką, Kraków

Kamienica Pod Jaszczurką is the historic townhouse at Rynek Główny 8 in Kraków’s Old Town. Its Renaissance portal is the clearest feature to notice on the street façade, giving the building a finely framed entrance. The house reaches back to 1400, and during the medieval period it probably formed part of a larger structure together with the neighbouring Bonerowska townhouse.

It now contains the student club Pod Jaszczurami, linking this old address with Kraków’s student life. The building entered the heritage register on 23 May 1932 and remains a protected immovable monument in Poland. Look at the portal’s carved surround: it is the small architectural detail that carries the strongest trace of the townhouse’s Renaissance character.