Kamienica Pod Orłem, Kraków

Kamienica Pod Orłem is a historic townhouse at Main Market Square forty-five in Kraków’s Old Town. Notice the phoenix tucked beneath the eaves: the creature gives this façade an unexpectedly imaginative flourish. During a remodelling late in the nineteenth century, Władysław Ekielski created the façade seen today; Stanisław Wyspiański designed the phoenix, and Julian Szopiński carved it.

The house probably began in the fourteenth century and was reshaped during later centuries. In seventeen seventy-five, Tadeusz Kościuszko made his home here. A memorial plaque was unveiled for him, destroyed during the German occupation, and replaced after the war with a new medallion. Inside, fragments of Renaissance coffered ceilings remain on the ground floor and the floor above, preserving a quieter trace of the house’s long life.