Skoczów Market Square

Skoczów Market Square is an almost square plaza with streets running out from its corners – the surviving medieval layout of a town that the chronicler Jan Długosz called the first town on the upper Vistula. It is dominated by a late-Baroque town hall of 1797, with a stone Jonah, known as the Triton, standing in front of it. Next to the town hall St John Sarkander, the town's patron, was born.

History: a town that had to rebuild

Until the 18th century Skoczów was built of wood – only the castle, town hall and church were masonry. The 18th century proved the worst: in 1713 a fire left the town in ashes, and in 1756 another destroyed more than 100 houses. Only then did people start building in brick. Most townhouses date from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, but their Art Nouveau look comes from rebuilding after the fire of 1910 – the finest examples are on the east side. The square has had several names: Ringplatz, Karl Sohlich Square after a mayor, and from 1936 Marshal Piłsudski Square.

The town hall and Jonah

The town hall on the west side (Rynek 1) was built in 1797, and the tower added in 1801; a second floor was added in the 1930s. By the balcony you can see medallions with the arms of Skoczów and of the Duke of Teschen, Albert Casimir, along with the date 1797, and at the base of the tower an image of St John Sarkander. The Baroque statue of Jonah by Wacław Donay once adorned the town well, fed with water from Kaplicówka hill through wooden pipes. After the waterworks were built in 1895, the figure was moved to a garden, then to the slope of Kaplicówka and later to a park. It returned to the square on 19 November 1976.

The house of St John Sarkander

Tradition holds that St John Sarkander was born in the house at Rynek 2, next to the town hall. A priest, he died in Olomouc in 1620 as a result of torture and was canonised by John Paul II in 1995. Since 1994 the house has held a parish museum in his name. The surviving stone cellar has been a chapel since 1890, where Mass is celebrated every Wednesday at 7:00.

Tripto tips

The square is open around the clock. You view the town hall and Jonah from outside, and a walk around the square with a stop at the east-side townhouses takes about half an hour. Add another half hour for the Sarkander museum. The Silesian section of the Vistula Cycle Route also passes through Skoczów, making the square a good stop on a cycling trip along the Vistula.