Market Square, Ciężkowice

Ciężkowice is one of the few small towns in Lesser Poland where wooden houses with arcades have survived around the market square – which is why it features on the Lesser Poland Wooden Architecture Route. In the middle stands a Neoclassical town hall with a clock turret, and nearby a statue of St Florian and a bench with a figure of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. Every Wednesday a market is still held on the square, as it has been for centuries.

History

Legend says the settlement was founded by Cieszko, uncle of Mieszko I, Poland's first historical ruler. The first reliable record dates from 1125, when the village belonged to the Benedictines of Tyniec. Permission to found a town was granted by King Casimir the Great on 29 February 1348, and the founders were two burghers from Stary Sącz – the brothers Minard and Mikołaj. The town lay on trade routes from Bohemia and Hungary to Kraków and had the right to hold weekly markets. Traders dealt in textiles, crafts, salt and Ciężkowice's well-known dairy products, while wine and horses were brought in from Hungary.

Ciężkowice lost its town status in 1934 and regained it only in 1998. Because the town grew little for a long time, its medieval street plan and wooden buildings around the square survived.

What to see

• The town hall of 1836 on the north side of the square – single-storey, with a cellar, a hipped roof and a clock turret topped by a spire with a ball and arrow. It houses the Culture Centre.
• Wooden houses with arcades resting on timber posts – the best-preserved stand on the sides of the square near the town hall, including number 15.
• The statue of St Florian, the town's patron, and the Paderewski bench. The composer funded a building, a piano and books for the Citizens' Intelligentsia Club at Rynek 15.
• The town also preserves the former mikveh (Jewish ritual bath), and near the square stands the neo-Gothic Church of St Andrew from 1903, designed by Jan Sas-Zubrzycki.

Tripto tip

Visit on a Wednesday morning, when the market is on, or in the evening when it is empty and quiet. A stroll takes 20–40 minutes. You can park in the marked spaces by the square. It makes a good starting point: a trail leads from here via the Nature Museum to the Petrified City, and Paderewski's manor in Kąśna Dolna lies on the west bank of the Biała.