Pałac Tarnowskich-Sanguszków, Kraków

Pałac Tarnowskich-Sanguszków is a historic Old Town residence at the corner of Sławkowska and Świętego Marka. Formed from three townhouses in the seventeenth century, it preserves Baroque portals, heraldic carving, torch-extinguishing hollows, and the surviving staple of a former defensive street chain.

Pałac Tarnowskich-Sanguszków is the historic residence occupying the corner of Sławkowska and Świętego Marka in Kraków’s Old Town. What appears as one grand frontage began as three separate townhouses: the Rezlerowska, Szmidowska, and Morsztynowska houses. Between 1639 and 1644, they were remade into a single urban palace, with showpiece first-floor rooms and a façade designed to announce status.

Notice the entrance portals. Their carved coats of arms include Starykoń and Sulima, while another portal bears Szreniawa and Pogoń. The vaulted entrance passage and these portals belong to the palace’s Baroque character—an art of theatrical decoration and formal grandeur.

The most intimate traces are beside the gateway: real worn sockets in the stone where people extinguished their torches. This corner once also carried an iron chain used to seal off the street during a siege. At night such street chains were locked with enormous padlocks; only the iron staple at the palace corner remains. The rooms once held fine furnishings and an important collection, including paintings by Italian and Flemish masters.