Pod Baranami Cinema
Kraków Artists: Theatre, Cabaret and Film
An arthouse cinema in the "Pod Baranami" palace, founded in 1969, promoting mainly European films but also showing works from other countries. It has three screening rooms: the Red (128 seats), the Blue (102 seats) and the White (30 seats). Every December the Silent Film Festival takes place here. In 1993-2003 the cinema was part of the Graffiti Film Centre, and in 2010 it received the Polish Film Institute Award for the best cinema of 2009.
History
Kino Pod Baranami is housed in the Potocki Palace at 27 Main Market Square, which has long been known as Pod Baranami ("Under the Rams"). According to tradition, the name comes from an inn where rams were kept for sale; the emblem of the old Gothic house showed two rams joined by a single head. In the 15th and 16th centuries this was Kraków's best-known inn, visited by poets and writers including Jan Kochanowski, Mikołaj Rej and Łukasz Górnicki.
The Renaissance palace was created in the 16th century when Justus Ludwik Decjusz, secretary to King Sigismund I the Old, joined two Gothic houses together. In 1577 it was bought by King Stefan Batory, and later it belonged to the princely families of Radziwiłł, Sanguszko and Wielopolski. From 1822 until the outbreak of the Second World War it was owned by the Potocki family. In 1853-1854 three distinctive rams' heads by Franciszek Maria Lanci appeared above the gateway on the Market Square side.
After the war, in 1947, the building was handed over to the Kraków House of Culture. In 1956 the Piwnica pod Baranami cabaret was founded in its cellars, and since 1969 the palace has housed a cinema. From 1993 to 2003 the cinema belonged to the Graffiti Film Centre. In 2010 it received the Polish Film Institute Award for the best cinema of 2009. It has three screens: Red with 128 seats, Blue with 102 and White with 30. Every December it hosts the Silent Film Festival.
Did you know?
In August 1990 the palace was returned to its pre-war owners, and the very next day a huge fire destroyed part of it. The repairs then took several years.