Jama Michalika café
Kraków Artists: Theatre, Cabaret and Film
A café and restaurant at Floriańska Street 45 in the Bełziński House, originally the Lwów Confectionery, founded in 1895 by the confectioner Jan Apolinary Michalik. At the beginning of the 20th century the literary cabaret Green Balloon was born in the premises, and in 1960-1991 the literary-artistic cabaret Jama Michalika operated here. The cabaret played in a small room for 120 people behind the confectionery, the decor was designed by the painter Henryk Szczygliński, and performances were recorded in spontaneous caricatures drawn straight on the walls; Stanisław Wyspiański also drew such caricatures here. In 1906 (or 1905) the artists organised a puppet theatre, the Kraków Nativity Scene.
History
The café was opened in 1895 by the confectioner Jan Apolinary Michalik, who had come to Kraków from Lviv, which is why it was originally called the Lviv Confectionery. It was on the ground floor of the town house at 45 Floriańska Street and was considered a very modern establishment: women came here too, and the confectionery had a ladies' room and a reading room with a wide choice of periodicals. Artists, writers, journalists and the whole of Kraków's bohemia soon began to meet here. Because the place had no windows, people started calling it Jama Michalika - Michalik's Den.
On 7 June 1904 the literary cabaret Zielony Balonik (the Little Green Balloon) began performing in a small room behind the confectionery that held 120 people. The décor was designed by the painter Henryk Szczygliński, and the performances were captured in caricatures drawn spontaneously on the walls or on stray sheets of paper. The first master of ceremonies was Jan August Kisielewski, and Witold Noskowski played the piano. Around 1906 (according to other sources a year earlier) the artists put together a puppet theatre - a Kraków nativity scene (szopka); Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński helped write the texts.
In 1910 Michalik enlarged the premises. The rebuilding was designed by the architect Franciszek Mączyński, and the interior concept was developed by Karol Frycz: heavy leather sofas, stained-glass windows, colourful lithographs and paintings appeared. The outbreak of the First World War and the crisis that followed weakened the business; in 1918 Michalik handed it over to his former associates and left for Poznań, and in 1935 the business went bankrupt.
The renovated café reopened to the public on 6 December 1958. From 1960 the literary and artistic cabaret Jama Michalika, which continued the tradition of Zielony Balonik, performed in the room with the raised "górka" stage. It was founded by the novelist Tadeusz Kwiatkowski, the satirist Bruno Miecugow and the radio broadcaster Jacek Stwora. Its greatest success was the 1967 show "Trędowaty" ("The Leper"), performed 575 times. In April 1990 the cabaret said goodbye with the show "Odnowa od nowa" ("Renewal Anew").
Did you know?
Stanisław Wyspiański offered to paint the whole café for Michalik for a token fee that would only cover the cost of the paints. The confectioner refused, fearing that the interior would become a laughing stock instead of attracting guests.