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The west side of the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) with market stalls and annexes built against it. In the foreground, cobbles and a row of horse-drawn cabs.

Audio exhibition · 9 stops

The Kriegers' Kraków

The city on glass negatives, 1866–1912

Listen to the first stop

Where: On site or from home, in the app

Stops in this exhibition

The whole exhibition is in the Vernissio app, free.

  1. 1 The west side of the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) with market stalls and annexes built against it. In the foreground, cobbles and a row of horse-drawn cabs.

    The Cloth Hall from the west

    In this photograph from 1870 the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) is still surrounded by stalls and annexes. They disappeared during the rebuilding of 1875–1879, carried out to a design by Tomasz Pryliński. Cabs wait in the foreground.

  2. 2 A wide view of the Main Market Square. In the background, the Cloth Hall with its attic parapet and a tower with a clock; on the square, carts, cabs and people by the stalls.

    The Main Market Square before the rebuilding

    The Main Market Square and the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) in Ignacy Krieger's photograph from 1872. Carts, cabs and stalls stand on the square. The rebuilding of the Cloth Hall began three years later, in 1875.

    In the app
  3. 3 A tall stone tower with Gothic windows and a clock, topped by a bulbous cupola. At its foot, a low building; on the right, the dark wall of the building next door.

    The Town Hall Tower

    The tower is all that is left of Kraków's town hall, demolished in 1820. At its foot stands the guardhouse. On the right you can see part of the Great Weigh House, a building demolished around 1870.

    In the app
  4. 4 A meadow and a winding dirt track, with a stretch of standing water on the left. In the background, low houses, and above them a tall brick church with a tower.

    Kazimierz from the east

    Kazimierz, granted its town charter by Casimir the Great in 1335, was a separate town until 1800. In this photograph from 1870 Corpus Christi Church rises above the rooftops. According to the description in the Museum of Kraków collection, the Old Synagogue is also in the frame.

    In the app
  5. 5 The Old Synagogue, with its attic parapet and annexes, seen from a cobbled square. A few figures stand by the building; in the right foreground, a girl looks into the lens.

    The Old Synagogue

    The Old Synagogue in Kazimierz is one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Poland. It was built at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, and after a fire in 1557 it was rebuilt by Mateo Gucci. Today it houses the Judaica collection of the Museum of Kraków.

    In the app
  6. 6 A castle on a hill: walls, a tall building with rows of windows and, on the left, a round tower with battlements. Below, an empty square and a small wooden hut.

    Wawel as a barracks

    From 1846 Wawel Castle was once again occupied by the Austrian army, which kept a barracks there. In 1868 Wincenty Pol proposed in the daily “Czas” that the castle be restored to its former splendour and turned into a museum. The army left the castle in 1905.

    In the app
  7. 7 Wawel seen from across the Vistula. In the foreground, a row of wooden boats on calm water; on the hill, the castle and the cathedral.

    The Vistula below Wawel

    A photograph from 1900 by Natan Krieger, Ignacy's son. Natan ran the studio together with his father and carried on his work after his father's death in 1889. The Austrian barracks still stand on the hill.

    In the app
  8. 8 A full-length portrait. An elderly man with a grey beard, in a fur hat and a long patched coat, leans on a stick with both hands.

    A Kraków beggar

    The Krieger studio made more than views of the city. A separate part of its work is its photographs of “folk types”: peasants, highlanders, Hutsuls. This portrait of a beggar, known in Kraków as a dziad, was taken in 1866.

    In the app
  9. 9 A corner townhouse with signs and advertisements. By the entrance, glazed display cases with photographs, and a street lamp beside them.

    The Kriegers' studio

    The Kriegers' photographic firm and studio on św. Jana Street, in a photograph by Amalia Krieger from 1912. After her brother Natan died in 1903, Amalia ran the studio. In 1926 she handed the glass plates and the whole workshop over to the city. Since 1967 the collection of about 9,000 glass negatives has been kept by the Museum of Kraków (formerly the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków).

    In the app

The whole exhibition is in the Vernissio app, free.

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