Park Jalu Kurka, Kraków

Park Jalu Kurka is a historic former palace garden in Kleparz, named for poet and prose writer Jalu Kurek. Its history runs from the Montelupi and Tarnowski estates through post-war state control and closure, to Kraków’s 2022 purchase and its reopening to residents in 2023.

Park Jalu Kurka is a historic park at 71 Szlak Street in Kleparz, within Kraków’s Old Town district. Its name honours Jalu Kurek, the Polish poet and prose writer linked with the Kraków Avant-Garde. This patch of green began as the garden of the Montelupi Palace, built here in the fifteenth century.

After Stanisław Tarnowski rebuilt the palace, he made the garden available to the city’s residents. The Salvatorians bought the palace and park in 1948, but communist-era authorities later took over the whole site. Radio Kraków occupied the palace, while the park was opened fully to the public.

After 1989, the park returned to the Salvatorians and was closed, despite protests from neighbours, students of the nearby Kraków University of Technology, and district councillors. The order gave lack of money for repairing lights and park infrastructure as its reason. A plan to build a Salvatorian formation centre on part of the land was rejected by the regional heritage conservator.

Kraków bought the park for eleven million złoty in 2022, and it reopened for residents on the first of January 2023. You are walking through a former palace garden whose public life has been won, lost, and won again.