Market Square in Krościenko nad Dunajcem

The market square in Krościenko nad Dunajcem measures about 120 by 70 metres – larger than the Old Town Market Square in Warsaw. It was laid out when the town was founded in 1348 and still keeps its medieval plan: a town hall in the middle, streets leaving from the corners and a Gothic church on the eastern side. Most visitors treat it as the gateway to the Pieniny Mountains, but it deserves a longer stop, if only for the single-storey houses with stone cellars and the ice cream sold in the town hall.

History: a town on the royal road

King Casimir the Great granted Krościenko its town charter under Magdeburg law on 8 July 1348. The town lay on the royal road from Kraków to Buda, and kings including Władysław Jagiełło, Władysław of Varna and John Casimir passed through the square. From the Middle Ages until the mid-20th century a market was held here every Monday, and until the 19th century there were also fairs at Pentecost, on St Anne's Day (26 July), on St Michael's Day (29 September) and at the All Saints' parish feast.

In the 19th century Krościenko tried to become a spa. In 1862 it was entered in the Galician register of spa towns, but it always stood in the shadow of neighbouring Szczawnica. On 1 January 1932 it lost its town status because it had too few inhabitants, and the same year it became the seat of Poland's first national park, Pieniny National Park. A tragic date is 22 July 1942, when the Germans gathered all the Jews of Krościenko and marched them under SS escort to Nowy Targ, where they were murdered.

What to see on the square

• Town hall – a brick building put up in the 1840s next to an older one. In 1849 its cells held six priests who had spread the proclamations of the Hungarian revolutionary Lajos Kossuth, and in 1854 Archduke Karl Ludwig was received here after rafting down the Dunajec. From 1855 to 1867 it housed the district office and court, and later the "Sokolica" cinema. Today it is home to the municipal office and the "U Marysi" ice cream parlour, known across the Małopolska region.
• The southern side – single-storey houses with large stone cellars once used to store potatoes and cabbage. Four of them (Rynek 24–27) were listed as monuments in 1984, as was the house at Rynek 13 on the western side.
• Zdrój Ziemroźka – a tap of lightly mineralised water on the square, a reminder of the town's spa ambitions.
• All Saints' Church – a Gothic church built before the mid-14th century. The oldest wall paintings date from around 1370–1380; others were painted in 1589 by Jakub Korab of Nowy Targ. The chalice-shaped stone font bears the date 1493. An ash, a sycamore and a Norway maple beside the church were declared natural monuments in 1963.

Tripto tip

The square is public space, open at all times. The tourist information point is at Rynek 32, in the historic former vicarage that also houses the local heritage room. Allow half an hour to an hour for the square, town hall and church – note that All Saints' Church is often closed outside services. A trail leaves the square via Bajków Groń to the Szopka Pass, from where the blue trail climbs Trzy Korony (Three Crowns). About 15% of the rafts on the Dunajec Gorge trip finish in Krościenko, and by car you arrive on regional road 969, which runs along ul. Jagiellońska just north of the square.