Agrafka Cinema
Kraków Artists: Theatre, Cabaret and Film
An arthouse cinema in the YMCA building at Krowoderska Street 8. Its beginnings go back to 1959, when the Zuch cinema was opened, showing mainly school screenings; it later operated as the School Arthouse Cinema, and from 1996 as Paradox. In September 2009 the Foundation for the Support of Film Culture Cyrk Edison opened a new cinema here, Agrafka. The main hall has 109 seats, and in 2011 the cinema was honoured with the Polish Film Institute award for the best cinema in Poland for promoting Polish film culture in 2010.
History
The cinema is housed in the YMCA building at Krowoderska Street 8, built as the headquarters of the Young Men's Christian Association, which had been active in Kraków since 1922. Construction began in 1925 to a design by Wacław Krzyżanowski, and the building was funded by the American industrialist Sereno Fenn, who gave 150,000 dollars for the purpose. The building opened on 10 April 1927. Among other things, it housed Poland's first indoor swimming pool, with a gallery seating 239 spectators.
After the war, in 1951, a Youth Cultural Centre was set up in the building, and in 1957 it was named after Henryk Jordan. In 1959 the Zuch cinema opened here, mainly showing films for schools; at the end of the 1970s it was renamed the School Art-House Cinema, and from 1996 it operated as Paradox. When the Youth Centre had to leave the building in June 2009, the cinema was closed. In September of the same year a new cinema, named Agrafka, was opened by the Cyrk Edison Foundation for the Support of Film Culture.
After renovation the main auditorium has 109 seats. In 2011 the Polish Film Institute named Agrafka the best cinema in the country for promoting Polish film culture in 2010. The building itself was entered in the register of historic monuments in 2019.
Did you know?
The cinema's name comes from the French word "agrafe", meaning a clasp or a hook. In the summers of 2010-2025 an open-air cinema operated on the cinema's terrace.