UX Guesthouse

Walking from Wawel down Kanonicza or Grodzka Street towards the Main Market Square, you will come across St. Mary Magdalene. From it you can admire the imposing facade of the baroque church of St. st. Peter and Paul. The name of the square comes from the invocation of a medieval church that once stood here. The temple, demolished at the beginning of the 19th century, resembles the outline of the foundations marked on the surface of the square.

The history of this part of the Old Town, however, goes back to much earlier times, preceding the incorporation of Krakow in 1257. Already in the early Middle Ages, there was a wooden settlement in this area called Okół. It stretched from the Wawel hill to today's Dominikański Square and was a borough of Wawel inhabited by merchants and craftsmen. Located in the center at the foot of the Church of St. Andrzeja, the square was then a trading center. In 1241 Okół was burnt down by the Tatars. Some of the inhabitants managed to survive the Tatar invasion of the fortified church, which still impresses with its raw Romanesque stone block.

Over time, the rebuilt Okół became part of the rapidly developing Krakow. In the fourteenth century, the former castle boroughs were included in the city walls. On the map of the historic center of Krakow, you can still notice the contrast between the irregularity of the former Okół and the order of streets marked out in 1257 around the Main Square.