Town Hall Tower is the second most prominent feature of the Main Market Square (right after the two slender towers of St. Mary’s Basilica). The history of this Gothic, 70m high structure starts in the Middle Ages, when the city council used to gather in the Town Hall situated on the Main Square. Unfortunately the main building doesn’t exist anymore – it was demolished in the 19th century, when the idea of modernizing the city was understood in somewhat questionable way. To find out how the original Town Hall looked like one has to take a look at the model of the whole structure right next to the tower’s entrance.
The Town Hall Tower is sometimes referred to as the Leaning Tower of Kraków since its axis is skewed by 55cm. Currently the tower is available for tourists – Historical Museum of the city of Kraków manages the building. The chambers inside the tower contain an exhibition dedicated to the city’s ruling body in the ages past. One of the halls displays an extraordinary set of house marks carved on the wall – these were signs used to distinguish craftsmen from one another. A steep staircase supplemented with a safety chain leads to the very top of the tower from where a breath-taking panorama of the city can be admired,
The underground level of the tower used to house a torture chamber along with so called Piwnica Świdnicka (Świdnica Cellar) where – as story goes – a particularly tasty brand of beer was served. This makes sense since it was the city council members who had the privilege of importing first class beverage from Świdnica (the local breweries were considered inferior). Nowadays the dungeon contains a café and a stage of Ludowy Theatre from Nowa Huta.