U Pęcherza
“U Pęcherza” (Pecherz’s) is a café, art gallery and exhibition hall located in the 13/14th century cellars of Collegium Maius in Kraków.
Collegium Maius of the Krakow Academy, situated at the corner of Św. Anny and Jagiellońska Streets, is the oldest university edifice in Poland. Its history goes back to the year 1400, when King Ladislaus Jogaila purchased the Pęcherz family’s corner house and donated it to the University. The actual walls of the Pęcherz house have been preserved in the cellars and on the side overlooking Jagiellońska Street. This is easily traceable by observing the wild-stone compositon, so typical of the 14th century. The house was not large and hardly could hold the University activities. During the 15th century Collegium Maius was extended. The University was able to purchase the houses contiguous to the College and to combine them into a harmonious whole, complete with a courtyard enclosed with a ring of arcades, interrupted with the professor’s staircase, leading up to the first-floor balconies.
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