Old towns & squares

Kościuszko Market Square in Białystok

Kościuszko Market Square is the representative promenade and heart of Białystok, shaped under Hetman Jan Klemens Branicki, who gave it a new look after the town fire of 1753. On the square rises the town hall with its clock tower, completed in 1761, today the main seat of the Podlasie Museum.

A town hall rebuilt from scratch

Originally the hall served commercial functions — it housed merchant stalls — and in 1939 it was demolished by the Russians. The reconstruction in its original form was carried out in 1954–1958. By the eastern frontage stand two temples: the 20th-century neo-Gothic archcathedral and the 17th-century parish church founded by Piotr Wiesiołowski the Younger, the oldest preserved brick monument in the city.

Townhouses with sgraffito

The greatest ornament of the square is the western frontage: the colourful facades of townhouses rebuilt after the war are covered with the sgraffito technique — plant motifs, animals, muses and portraits of people merited for the Podlasie region. They hide the Marszand gallery and artists' café, and in summer painters sell their works in front of them. Around the square you will also find the Baroque-Classical cekhauz — it never served as an armoury, only as a fire equipment warehouse, and today it houses the state archives — and an austeria with a mansard roof, where the Astoria restaurant operates.

In practice

The square is a walking precinct open all year. A few minutes' walk away is the Branicki Palace with its garden, and along Lipowa Street, with the sculpture „Podróż" — a bronze wheel more than 4 metres long referring to Białystok's puppetry traditions — you will reach the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic.