Stary Kleparz, Kraków

Stary Kleparz is the surviving western market section of Rynek Kleparski, once the main square of the independent town of Kleparz. Laid out in thirteen sixty-six, the historic square once nearly matched Kraków’s Main Market Square in size. Its western portion has retained its trading character since receiving its official name in eighteen eighty.

Stary Kleparz is the working market on the western portion of Rynek Kleparski, the former main square of the separate town of Kleparz. Between the market stalls, you are in a place first laid out when Kleparz received its town charter in thirteen sixty-six. The original square was vastly larger, nearly approaching Kraków’s Main Market Square in scale; it extended across today’s Matejko Square and the land built over between here and the Planty.

This was once a deliberately divided trading ground: horses were sold in its eastern section, while grain changed hands in the west. A masonry town hall stood on the site now occupied by a school, until its removal in eighteen oh three. The Royal Road also began here, running from St Florian’s Church through the Barbican and St Florian’s Gate towards Wawel.

After Kleparz became part of Kraków, this ceased to be its principal civic square. Housing and public buildings filled much of the old market area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Yet this western piece kept its market role, received the official name Rynek Kleparski in eighteen eighty, and remains Stary Kleparz today.