Szeroka Street

The street is actually an elongated old market square. Standing along its sides are ancient synagogues, a mansion, and dignitaries' houses from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. In the Middle Ages, it was the centre of the village of Bawół, incorporated in Kazimierz soon after the town's charter in 1340. According to the chronicler Jan Długosz, the first buildings of the university founded by King Casimir the Great (Kazimierz Wielki) were to be erected here, a rumour that is unfortunately unconfirmed by any evidence. After the decree of King John Albert (Jan Olbracht) of 1495 that de facto made Jews leave Kraków, Jews from the neighbouring royal capital began to settle here. Soon the Jewish town formed in Kazimierz, and in accordance with the binding custom of the time, became separated from the remaining part of the borough with its own, internal wall. Szeroka was the centre of the Jewish town from at least the beginning of the 17th century: the synagogue known as The Old was built here at the turn of the 15th/16th centuries, and less than half a century later a second one (Remuh) was added by the cemetery which had been established somewhat earlier.

In later times, more modest houses of prayer were also built here as well as other synagogues, including that of Wolf Popper (known as Bocian - the Stork), founded by a rich merchant and banker in 1620 and preserved to this day. He built it in the backyard of a townhouse at ul. Szeroka 16, just by the defence wall. The entrance received a wall with a decorative triple gate. Built of brick and supported with stone buttresses, this single-aisle construction was covered with a barrel vault with lunettes that was unfortunately destroyed by the Nazis. A beautiful example of the carpenters' craft, the 18th century oak doors with their open-work detail, was saved by a miracle. The images of a lion, an eagle, a leopard, and a deer might have symbolised power and human talents. It is hard to explain the fact that this door survived in any way other than that the German soldiers simply liked the look of them. Currently, the door is part of a private museum collection in Jerusalem. Following renovation, the synagogue has housed the Staromiejskie Youth Culture Centre (since 1965).

What failed to survive, however, was the small synagogue known as "Na Górce", which was rather the house of prayer of Natan Spira (1583-1633). A rabbi and mystic lecturing on the Kaballah - the current in Jewish philosophy that worked on Messianism and numerical magic - Spira was known as Megale amukoth: the One Who Revealed Miracles, after the title of a book he wrote, and he was generally considered to be a miracle worker. Built in the 17th century, the synagogue stood at number 2 where Szeroka and Na Przejściu streets meet. Ruined in the second world war, it was later demolished. The grave of Rabbi Natan Spira is situated in the Remuh Cemetery.

On the other, northern side of ul. Szeroka, the ritual bath building stands at number 6, the mikveh, whose basin received water from a little spring. The bath must have stood here at least since 1567, as is proved by a record of a tragic accident that occurred here: ten women bathing here were killed when the floor of the bath gave in. Of interest, apart from the healing baths themselves, is the fact that Jewish women were not allowed to take baths outside the mikveh, and the bath attendant was obliged to heat water every Friday. Later frequently rebuilt, the building owes its form today to early 19th-century changes. Inside, attention is turned to the hall with reconstructed pillars carrying early 17th-century capitals, and some 16th-century detail.

The northern wall of the square is closed by the imposing townhouse of the Landau family with a brick and stone façade built towards the end of the 18th century as an adaptation of three smaller 16th-century houses that were adjacent to the defence wall. Inside a number of rooms are preserved with barrel vaults and fluted columns with Tuscan capitals standing between the windows. Plenty of other elements that bear witness to the rich past of the houses that used to stand here also survive. The building is as often as incorrectly identified as a mansion, or even a palace, of the Jordan family, which actually stood close by today's Nowy Square until the 18th century.

Closing the description of ul. Szeroka, we must not forget the small green space with a cluster of trees at the street's northern end, opposite the Remuh Synagogue. Until the second world war, the place was occupied by a small, walled cemetery. A legend made it the site of a Jewish wedding, which started on a Friday afternoon and went on - despite the rabbi's reminders about the approaching Sabbath - till late in the evening. At which time, the rabbi cast a curse that sunk the house under the ground, and killed all the wedding guests. As a warning, the plot was surrounded by a wall without a door... Another, more rational, theory maintains that buried in this little cemetery might have been the victims of an epidemic, who - until the end of the 19th century - were always buried separately. It is also quite probable that it used to be the oldest part of the neighbouring cemetery, which - after the regulation of the street system - was separated and walled.

Listen more about Szeroka Street.



The file is a part of the Kraków, the Magical City audioguide, available to download at www.guidebuy.pl or to rent in the InfoKraków tourist information offices.

You will find more audio files attached to the descriptions of: Floriańska, Kanoniczna Streets, Main Square, the Wawel castle and cathedral, Schindler's Factory, as well as to the districts: Kazimierz, Podgórze and Zwierzyniec.