Tassemberk (na przedmieściu Krakowa) w nowożytnych dokumentach klasztoru Karmelitów

Abstract

TASSEMBERK (ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF KRAKÓW) IN THE EARLY MODERN DOCUMENTS OF THE CARMELITE MONASTERY

The Carmelite Monastery ‘on Sand’ (Pol. na Piasku) near Kraków bordered on an area which, since the Middle Ages, had been called Tassemberk. The area stretched on both banks of the mill leat running along what is today Garbarska Street. To the Carmelite monks, this border area became, from the 17th century onward, if not even earlier, an object of intense interest. Monastic archive records illustrate the dynamics of purchasing and trading of specific plots in the Tassemberk area. Those which were located closest to the monastery were used to construct the novitiate building in the 1670s. Other properties were also attractive for the monks, providing regular income, first of all from rent from the redemption of estates, and then from the ownership and lease of gardens and houses built at their own expense. This was common practice not only in Tassemberk as such, but also in the plots of land located in the immediate vicinity of the church, i.e. on the opposite side of Szeroka Street (currently called Karmelicka Street). In this way the Carmelite jurydyka became surrounded by properties that belonged to the monastery. The archive material preserved at the Carmelite monastery gives us an insight into the history of the most interesting of the aforementioned plots, such as the property on which the Carmelite novitiate was built, or the estate of Grand Chancellor of the Crown Jan Szembek (adjacent to the Carmelite monastery garden); it also enables us to track the relocation of the town hall of the Garbary suburb, which happened twice in the 18^th century.