Radom Promenade (Żeromskiego Street)

In most historic towns life revolves around the market square, but in Radom the heart of the city is a street — the pedestrian promenade on ul. Stefana Żeromskiego, the old road to Lublin. At number 51 there was once Stanisław Wierzbicki's restaurant, whose guests included Captain Charles de Gaulle, President Ignacy Mościcki and the painter Józef Kossak. Today the promenade, running from plac Kazimierza Wielkiego to ul. Niedziałkowskiego, is a gallery of 19th- and early 20th-century townhouses, fountains and details that are easy to miss.

History: from highway to showpiece street

Since the Middle Ages a road ran here towards Lublin and on into Ruthenia. The street owes its present form to the town planning scheme of 1822 — only 150 years ago there were small gardens and plots in many places where ornate townhouses now stand. It was called Lubelska Street, became Żeromskiego Street in 1925 (Reichsstraße during the occupation), and in 1901 was one of the first in Radom to get electric lighting. The oldest building on the old road is the Bernardine monastery with St Catherine's Church, founded in 1468 by King Casimir IV Jagiellon.

What to see — number by number

• No. 4 — two gnome figures sit by the gateway, beneath the "Kasia" neon sign from a former grocery.
• No. 5 — a Neoclassical townhouse from around 1800; from about 1795 it housed the White Eagle pharmacy, and a ceiling painting of a white eagle survives inside.
• No. 15 — the former Hotel Rzymski, whose restaurant served lunch to President Stanisław Wojciechowski in 1923.
• No. 21 and ul. Witolda 2 — window pediments, carved frames and a striking oriel.
• No. 35 — the former Land Credit Society building of 1852, resembling a country manor; next door, on no. 37, look for a dozen cherubs and portraits of ancient philosophers.
• No. 36 — the Kierzkowski Palace with four half-columns and panoplies: reliefs of cannons, banners and sabres.

Fountains and the Karsch Palace

Most town events take place by the fountains in the central part of the promenade. At ul. Focha the promenade opens onto plac Konstytucji 3 Maja, where Teodor Karsch, the richest man in 19th-century Radom, built his house. It is the only big-city palace in Radom built by local entrepreneurs, modelled on industrialists' residences in Łódź and Warsaw, with a balcony over the gateway held up by two atlantes.

Tripto tip

The promenade is free public space, open at all hours. Allow an hour for a walk from plac Kazimierza Wielkiego to the fountains and back, and stop at the numbers on the list — the best details are on the façades and in the gateways, not in the shop windows. To the west, the street view is closed by the tower of the Gothic parish church, which makes a good shot from near the fountains. If you have time, continue to the monumental former Sandomierz Voivodeship Commission building (no. 53), built in 1825–1827 to a design by Antonio Corazzi.