Podziemia Rynku Głównego w Krakowie – od eksploracji do trasy turystycznej

Abstract

UNDERGROUND VAULTS IN MAIN MARKET SQUARE IN KRAKOW – FROM EXPLORATION TO TOURIST TRAIL

24 September 2010 saw the launch of the tourist trail in the vaults under Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) in Kraków. The user and administrator of the exposition is the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków. The process of developing the underground exhibition spanned nearly a decade, starting with the reconstruction of the damaged surface of the Square in the years 2002–2006. In July 2008 the construction of the underground museum in Kraków’s Main Market Square (i.e. the project called “Following the Traces of European Identity of Kraków: Underground Tourist Trail in Main Market Square”) was included in the list of priority undertakings in the European Union that were recommended for subsidizing under Measure 6.4 “Investments in tourist products of a supra-regional range” in the Operational Programme “Innovative Economy” for the years 2007–2013. The value of the project quoted in the feasibility study drawn up for the purposes of its completion amounted to nearly 38 million PLN. In December 2009 the Municipal Commune of Kraków concluded a contract with the Polish Tourist Organization to partially fund the project. The Minister of Regional Development approved of a grant in the amount of over 16 million PLN from the EU funds for building a tourist trail under Main Market Square. The beneficiary of the project was the Municipal Commune of Kraków, while its implementing authority was the city’s Public Utility and Transportation Infrastructure Administrator (Zarząd Infrastruktury Komunalnej i Transportu). In the years 2005–2010 excavation works were carried out, and archaeological supervision maintained, in the eastern section of the Square. Their final outcome has been the development of a new underground museum in Kraków, based on an archaeological and architectural preservation site thereat. The exhibits include fragments of historical structures built in the Square, unearthed and unaltered soil profiles, historical routes, and other archaeological objects. The preservation site presents in situ the relics of the following medieval commercial facilities:
1. The earliest commercial structures in Main Market Square in Kraków, the Boleslaus’ Stalls (Kramy Bolesławowe), built in the second half of the 13th century and named after their most probable founder, Prince Boleslaus the Chaste.
2. The Rich Stalls (Kramy Bogate), erected in the late 14th century as a complex consisting of four structures (with 16 stalls in each of them) which took over the function of the oldest stalls from the 13th century.
3. The Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), built in the second half of the 14th century and expanded afterwards. The preservation site has been communicated with the vaults in the north-eastern section of the Cloth Hall, which had served as the medieval basement facilities of that structure. Fictionalized films about the history of Kraków are now screened in the vaults. One of the sections of the preservation site introduces relics of the pre-charter settlement (dating back to the period spanning between the 12th and the first half of the 13th centuries), i.e. oaken ground beams of several framework structures from that time; the settlement was destroyed by the Mongols who raided it in 1241. Archaeologists have unearthed fragments of cobbled streets (from the late 13th and the early 14th centuries) built of calcareous stones bordered by wooden kerbs. Soil profi les showing the historical layers have been preserved as well. Stratifi cation of the cultural levels retained within the site spans from the 11th to the early 19th centuries. The exhibits on display at the preservation site include several hundred movable artefacts found during the excavations in Main Market Square. The history of Kraków and its central plaza is introduced to the visitors through multimedia displays, three-dimensional animations, interactive presentations on diverse subjects, mock-ups (such as that of Kraków back in the 15th century), or reconstructions of medieval craftsmen’s workshops. A new museum has been set up underneath Main Market Square in Kraków, presenting the past of Kraków and its historical centre in a modern way with the use of advanced multimedia technologies. Covering the floor area of ca 3,000 square metres [0.74 acre], the new exhibition is the largest underground preservation site in Poland featuring medieval relics of brick and stone commercial facilities, and it ranks among the largest objects in its category in Europe.