Haberdashers Tower
Kraków Monuments
One of the three fully preserved towers of Kraków's city walls, alongside the Carpenters' and Joiners' towers. It is a semicircular Gothic brick tower on a square stone base, with three storeys; it stands at the corner of Pijarska and Szpitalna streets and is still linked to St Florian's Gate by the guards' gallery. On the ground floor is the ticket office for the defensive walls, on the first floor are temporary exhibitions, and on the second floor is a cinema room showing films about Kraków and its walls. At the beginning of the 19th century Professor Feliks Radwański defended the tower and in 1817 won a Senate decision to leave a fragment of the medieval wall standing.
History
The Haberdashers' Tower (Baszta Pasamoników), also called the Lace-makers' Tower (Baszta Szmuklerzy), is one of three towers of Kraków's city walls to survive intact; the others are the Carpenters' and Joiners' Towers. It stands on the corner of Pijarska and Szpitalna Streets. The Gothic tower, semicircular in outline, rises from a square stone base; it is built of brick and has three storeys. Its upper part is decorated with a frieze, and above it rises an irregular, roughly conical roof covered with red tiles.
The tower was probably built in the 14th or 15th century. Its job was to guard St Florian's Gate from the east, and it is still linked to the gate by a guards' gallery. It was the responsibility of the haberdashers' guild (the "szmuklerze"); in the tower's early days it was looked after by the shoemakers.
At the start of the 19th century the entire city walls, and the tower with them, were earmarked for demolition. Professor Feliks Radwański objected, arguing that the walls sheltered Kraków from winds blowing from Kleparz towards St Mary's Basilica. As a result, on 13 January 1817 the Senate of the Free City of Kraków agreed to preserve a stretch of the medieval wall, together with the Haberdashers' Tower, for future generations.
In 2003 the tower was thoroughly restored: the walls were cleaned, a new roof was laid and the interior was renovated. Since 2007 it has been part of the City Defence Walls tourist route. The ground floor houses the ticket office for the walls, the first floor hosts temporary exhibitions, and the second floor is a cinema room showing films about Kraków and its fortifications. The top storey is not open to visitors.
Did you know?
The Haberdashers' Tower can be seen in the "Martyrs" stained-glass window that Józef Mehoffer designed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries for St Nicholas Cathedral in Fribourg. There the tower is an attribute of the martyrdom of St Barbara.