Lanckorona Market Square

The market square in Lanckorona slopes so steeply that it is considered the steepest on the Amber Route, with a gradient of about 9.5%. It is lined with wooden, shingle-roofed houses with deep arcades and small windows, rebuilt after a great fire in the 1860s. Lanckorona was a town for 568 years – it received its charter in 1366 and lost it in 1934 – and that urban layout on a village scale is its greatest charm today.

History: a royal town below a castle

The town was founded by King Casimir the Great, who liked to hunt in the local forests and could easily reach Wawel in Kraków (about 30 km away). The final charter under Magdeburg law was granted on 31 March 1366, establishing a weekly Thursday market. A royal castle stood above the town; its ruins still hide on the summit of Lanckorona Hill. In 1537 King Sigismund the Old granted the right to hold two annual fairs, and during the Bar Confederation – an 18th-century uprising of Polish nobles against Russian influence – the castle was a confederate stronghold; on 21 May 1771 Suvorov's Russian troops defeated them at Lanckorona.

The turning point for the square was a great fire, dated by sources to 1868 or 1869. According to accounts, it began when the parish barn was set alight in revenge for the appointment of a priest from outside the town, and it destroyed 79 houses around the square. The rebuilding gave the square its present wooden character. In the early 20th century Lanckorona was a fashionable summer resort that drew visitors from all over Poland.

What to see

• Wooden houses on the square – eight of them are listed monuments (today's numbers 17, 23, 27, 35, 41, 45, 57 and 61). They date from the 19th century, except no. 17, which is from the first half of the 20th century.
• Arcades – merchants once displayed their goods beneath them, and the projecting eaves still give shelter from rain and sun.
• Antoni Krajewski Regional Museum – in a shingle-roofed house that survived the fire and is whitewashed every year. It displays everyday objects, crafts, finds from the castle ruins, a model of the square before the fire and an exhibition on the Bar Confederation. The museum was founded in 1967 on the initiative of the Society of Friends of Lanckorona.
• The castle ruins on Lanckorona Hill, behind the church of St John the Baptist.

Did you know?

Lanckorona is known as the Town of Angels, and artists who have settled here help shape its character. The coat of arms – a laurel wreath topped with a crown and the inscription Sigillum regiae civitatis Landskoronensis – was granted by Emperor Francis II in 1797, when the town was under Austrian rule. On the border of the Lanckorona and Budzów municipalities lies a burial mound where about 300 confederates killed in 1771 are believed to be buried.

Tripto tip

There is no charge to visit the square; allow 2–3 hours for a walk, the museum and the climb to the castle ruins. In winter the museum mostly opens to groups by prior phone arrangement, so check its hours before an off-season visit. Start at the museum: its model of the square before the fire lets you compare the old and present layout once you are back outside.