Hotel de ville de Kazimierz

The view of the market square in Kazimierz Dolny comes from an album presenting views of Puławy and its surroundings, created based on illustrations made from nature by Barbara Czernof of Groten. It is her only known and attributed work. The lithographs were made by Armande Cassagne, a French painter, watercolourist, lithographer and writer in the printing house of Auguste Bry in Paris.

The lithograph presents a view of the market square with the renaissance tenement houses of Mikołaj and Krzysztof Przybył from the 1st half of the 17th century, which have survived until now in an unchanged form, and the 18th-century Gdańsk tenement house, repeatedly portrayed by artists. The painting is characterized by precision of execution rendering the actual appearance of the building along with decoration, correct perspective, backdrop composition and extensive staffage filling the square, taking the form of small genre scenes inscribed in the architectural tissue of the city.

The Przybył Tenement House is a magnificent remnant of the Renaissance buildings on the market square in Kazimierz, destroyed during the Swedish War in 1656 and other invasions. They were probably modelled on the houses of Zamość, transferring the type of arcaded tenement houses, and drawing rich and fine decoration from Lviv. The façade decoration is a rich iconographic programme combining mythological and Christian themes. The belonging of the tenements to the friars is indicated by the large reliefs of saints Christopher and Nicholas. The image of Christopher supporting himself on a whole tree, instead of a simple walking stick, shows the author's fantasy. The saint, shown standing apart, is looking at Christ held on his shoulder, with two crayfish and a fish swimming in the water. The reliefs also include female figures representing Salome and Judith. The attic frieze contains martyrological scenes relating to the life of Jesus. The twin building under St. Nicholas is also signed with a splendid relief of the saint, the namesake of the owner. The images of the apostles James and Thomas appear next to animals a lion fighting with a griffin and a fox with a goat. There are also satyrs, pelicans and mermaids.

After the war damages, the baroque Gdańsk tenement house from 1794, located also at the market square, was rebuilt. It is a reminder of the inclusion of Kazimierz Dolny in the trade route between Lviv and Gdańsk, but also of the functioning second name of the town on the Vistula - Mały Gdańsk.

Klara Sadkowska