Teatr Bagatela, Kraków

Teatr Bagatela is a Kraków theatre at the corner of Karmelicka and Krupnicza streets, recognisable for its abstract ceramic façade decoration. Founded in 1918, it survived a conversion into a cinema and a devastating fire before returning to theatre. Its programme includes comedies, musicals, and family entertainment.

Teatr Bagatela fills the corner where Karmelicka Street meets Krupnicza Street, and its façade is marked by abstract ceramic work. Those ceramics were made in 1967 at the Kamionka artistic and folk-industry cooperative in Łysa Góra, from designs by Witold Skulicz. The theatre began in 1918 through the initiative of newspaper publisher Marian Dąbrowski.

Janusz Zarzecki designed the building in 1918 and 1919, while Henryk Uziembło, a painter and decorator, created its interiors; the stage received its ceremonial opening in October 1919. Its life has been unusually changeable. Financial pressure and cinema’s growing appeal turned it into a movie house in 1926.

A fire during the night between the sixth and seventh of April 1928 destroyed the interior completely. Modernised in 1938, it became the Scala, Kraków’s most elegant cinema. The building returned to the Bagatela name in 1970 and took the name of writer and doctor Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński in 1973.

Today its repertoire includes musicals, comedies, and family-friendly light entertainment. Bagatela also runs a smaller, intimate stage at Józefa Sarego Street number seven.