Pałac Popielów, Kraków

Pałac Popielów is the palace-like historic townhouse on the corner of Świętego Jana and Świętego Marka Streets. Its grander appearance began with two separate medieval houses, both already standing here in the fourteenth century. By the eighteenth century they had fallen into disrepair, and the Cistercian abbey of Jędrzejów, which had owned them since 1732, united and rebuilt them around 1744.

That work created the coherent two-storey residence whose principal façade remains. Take in the main entrance portal: it is late Baroque, richly moulded, with slanting pilasters and sculpted atlases. The Sulima coat of arms set beneath its cornice was added after 1817.

Hugo Kołłątaj acquired the house in 1784, but its present name comes from the Popiel family, who bought it in 1817. Paweł Popiel turned it into a leading Kraków meeting place for society and culture; his popular Thursday gatherings were held here, alongside a substantial library, art collection, and family archive. The building entered the heritage register in 1965.