Matejki Square

As late as the 1870s, today’s Matejki Square was still connected to the Rynek Kleparski, forming together a single huge open-air market. It was divided into two by the impressive building of the Academy of Fine Arts built in 1877-1879, and the City’s General School completed nearly at the same time, standing at today’s No. 11. The image of this part of the city began to change slowly into a more representational one. The very name of the Square, which was given to it in 1882, was connected to when honorary citizenship of Kraków was bestowed upon Jan Matejko by the City Council. It was a special act of recognition for the great artist, as it is extremely rare for anyone to become a patron of a square, while they are still alive...

A continuation of the representational spirit of the neo-Renaissance seat of the Academy of Fine Arts designed by Maciej Moraczewski was the equally magnificent headquarters of the railway company built in 1888–1889 by Józef Niedźwiedzki with a conglomerate of neo-Renaissance and neo-baroque elements characteristic of mature historicism. The ornamental building of the Polish Bank complemented the monuments in the square and the adjacent Basztowa Street; its facade – designed by Kazimierz Wyczyński and completed in 1925 – is maintained in the style of academic classicism.

The 15th July 1910 marked the unveiling of the Grunwald Monument in the central place of the square. It commemorated the 500th anniversary of the victory of the combined Polish and Lithuanian forces over the Teutonic Knights. During the second world war it was destroyed by the Nazis, and returned to the square as a faithful copy only in 1976.