Salt Warehouse
Kraków Monuments
An 18th-century salt warehouse at Na Zjeździe Street 8, in Podgórze on Zabłocie, next to the former Salt Port. The building was erected in 1787, at first as the Kazimierz warehouse of the loading port for salt from Wieliczka; after the warehouse was closed in the second half of the 19th century it served as a military barracks. It stands on the old 13th-century salt road leading south from Wieliczka. Since the 1990s it has housed artists' studios, music studios, art centres and craft workshops, and exhibitions and workshops take place here every year.
History
The Salt Store stands in Zabłocie in Podgórze, at Na Zjeździe Street 8, next to the former Salt Port. The location is no accident: it lies on the oldest salt route from Wieliczka, which led south and on through Nowy Targ and Czarny Dunajec. At the end of the 16th century about a third of the salt sold in the country travelled along the Vistula, so the port near Kraków was of strategic importance.
According to the city's description, the surviving building dates from the expansion of the store in 1817-1819 and is the only remaining witness to the history of the salt port in Zabłocie. At first it housed the Kazimierz store of the loading port for Wieliczka salt, and later a salt store. The same description adds that in practice it was a building for the horses that towed barges loaded with salt upstream, as far as Dwory near Oświęcim. After 1846 it was taken over by the Austrian army, and after the store closed in the second half of the 19th century the building served as barracks.
Since the 1990s the building has been home to artists and craftspeople: it houses studios, music studios, art centres and workshops. Every year it hosts exhibitions, workshops and events of Krakers, Kraków's art week.
Did you know?
In 2019 the Wiewiórka Centre for Contemporary Art showed the exhibition "Sól Zabłocia" (The Salt of Zabłocie), a story of the artists' studios in Zabłocie, with 29 artists taking part. It won first prize during the Krakers Kraków Art Week.