Wstępne badania konserwatorskie południowej ściany loggii pałacu Pod Krzysztofory w Krakowie

Abstract

PRELIMINARY CONSERVATION RESEARCH ON THE SOUTH WALL OF THE LOGGIA OF KRZYSZTOFORY PALACE IN KRAKÓW

Preceded by a polychrome detection analysis, the architectural  research on the south wall and ceiling of the arcaded  loggia at Krzysztofory Palace located at 35 Rynek Główny,  Kraków was completed in 2000. The aim of the research  was to evaluate the possibilities of carrying out the works  included in the architectural development plan for the palace’s  courtyard. Research results have revealed that the east  wing of Krzysztofory Palace – in the section that later became  the arcaded loggia – was built in the late Gothic stage.  In its functional and spatial form, this wing was in the 16th  century described as a separate “house in a side street”. The  arcaded loggia was added to it in the last quarter of the 17th  century as part of a larger construction project undertaken  to alter the functional and spatial character of this plot in  order to integrate and transform the buildings into a baroque  city mansion. During the construction of the loggia,  stone corbels supporting the curves of the lunettes of  the cross-barrel vault spanning above the loggia, masonry  of the portals and of the basement windows, as well as the  frame of the chimney cleanout door were installed on the  back elevation wall of the “house in a side street”. The later  construction works carried out in this wing of Krzysztofory  Palace did not bring any substantial changes, the only  notable exception, perhaps, being the facing of the loggia’s  columns in the mid-19th century due to their appalling  static condition. The columns were transformed into massive  pillars, however, the facing was to be removed in the  course of another large-scale renovation and conservation  project accomplished in the first quarter of the 20th century  by Wacław Krzyżanowski. The wide baroque chimney  cleanout door was permanently closed also at that time. The  layer of colourful painted decoration surviving on the ceiling  (grey and ochre, in a shade that matches the stonework  of the loggia) also dates from that period. In the second half  of the 20th century, the 18th-century exit of the northernmost  room on the ground floor leading into the loggia was  bricked in, the plasterwork was removed, and sections of  the front parts of historical elements were hacked off.