Kawiarnia Jama Michalika, Kraków

Jama Michalika is a historic café and restaurant at 45 Floriańska Street, known for its richly decorated interior and its connection with Kraków’s artistic cabaret tradition. Its surviving rooms come from 1910, when architect Franciszek Mączyński reshaped the premises and stage designer Karol Frycz created the interior. Arched doorways, leather seating, coloured lithographs and stained glass were brought together in a design Frycz understood as a meeting of Secession, church interiors and a Russian manor house.

Before that rebuilding, café regulars created a puppet theatre inspired by Kraków’s nativity crib during 1905 and 1906. The café began in 1895 as Cukiernia Lwowska, founded by Jan Apolinary Michalik, and became a gathering place for painters, writers and journalists. On 7 June 1904, the literary cabaret Green Balloon opened in a small room behind the pastry shop, with room for around 120 guests.

The venue later endured bankruptcy, reopening after restoration on 6 December 1958. From 1960 to 1991, another literary and artistic cabaret presented thirteen programmes here. Today, Jama Michalika remains both a café and restaurant, with exhibitions and poetry evenings continuing inside.