Cloth Hall

©Filip Stanczyk/Lonely Planet

Cloth Hall

Kraków


Dominating the centre of the Main Market Square, this building was once the heart of Kraków’s medieval clothing trade. Created in the early 14th century when a roof was put over two rows of stalls, it was extended into a 108m-long Gothic structure, then rebuilt in Renaissance style after a 1555 fire; the arcades were a late-19th-century addition. The ground floor is now a busy trading centre for crafts and souvenirs; the upper floor houses the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Painting.