Old towns & squares

Market Square in Cieszyn

The market square in Cieszyn is a rectangular place with a Baroque well and the town hall in the southern frontage, shaped at the end of the 15th century, when Duke Casimir II of Cieszyn sold the town two houses intended for a new seat of the authorities. Arcaded townhouses stand around the square, and their interiors preserve barrel vaults with lunettes and stone portals.

Townhouses with arcades and medieval cellars

After the great fire of the mid-16th century the buildings of the square were rebuilt as Renaissance, arcaded — partly timber-and-masonry. After another fire in 1789 the townhouses were rebuilt in the Baroque-Classical style. Under the Renaissance facades, medieval front cellars survived.

The town hall with its bugle call and the St. Florian well

The town hall, remodelled many times, took its present Classical shape in the building handed over for use in 1800, and the masonry tower was added in 1801 — at noon a bugle call composed for the 1150th anniversary of the legendary founding of Cieszyn sounds from it. In the middle of the square stands a Baroque well with a figure of St. Florian, made in 1777 by Wacław Donay from Skoczów.

In practice

In the northern frontage stand the Post Office building and the Dom Narodowy from the early 20th century — today the seat of the Cieszyn Cultural Centre, organizer of the „Na granicy" Theatre Festival. From the old town you can walk to Castle Hill (Góra Zamkowa) with the Romanesque rotunda of St. Nicholas, one of the oldest buildings in Poland, and further to the Czech Český Těšín.