Plac Wszystkich Świętych, Kraków

Plac Wszystkich Świętych is an Old Town square shaped by the demolition of the medieval Church of All Saints. It includes the Wielopolski Palace, Kraków’s municipal-government seat since 1864, monuments to presidents Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz and Józef Dietl, and the Wyspiański Pavilion with stained-glass designs for Wawel Cathedral.

Plac Wszystkich Świętych is an Old Town square set between the Franciscan church, Grodzka Street, and Dominican Square. Its openness comes from a disappearance: the Church of All Saints stood here from 1227 until its demolition in 1838. For four more years, its tower remained alone on the new square, before demolition removed that final remnant in 1842.

The small green square marks the former church site. Here stands Walery Gadomski’s monument to Kraków president Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz, installed in 1887, removed in 1953, preserved, and returned in its original form in 1985. The Wielopolski Palace is the square’s most imposing building and has housed Kraków’s municipal government since 1864.

Beside it, before the Franciscan church, is Xawery Dunikowski’s monument to another city president, Józef Dietl, in place since 1938. A tram first crossed this square on the seventeenth of January 1913. The square was renamed Wiosny Ludów in 1955, before recovering its historic name in 1990. The Wyspiański Pavilion, opened here in 2007, displays stained-glass designs for Wawel Cathedral: Casimir the Great, Saint Stanislaus the Bishop, and Duke Henry the Pious.