Main Market Square in Jaworzno

The Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) is the central square of Jaworzno, in the Śródmieście district. Its unusual triangular shape has been visible on city plans for centuries, and today it is defined on one side by the Collegiate Church of St Adalbert and St Catherine and on the other by the modern building of the city library. Before the town received its charter in 1901 it was the village green, the open space at the centre of the village.

Why there is a triangular square by the church

The central square was laid out at the very beginning of the settlement, at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, and the present shape of the market square probably dates from 1825. The first, wooden church stood here in 1330-1340, and in the first half of the 16th century it was replaced by a brick one.

During the partitions, Feliks Radwański, a senator of the Free City of Kraków, initiated a plan to develop the space between the church and the manor house. The work dragged on for years and met with difficulties. The greatest was the great fire of 1874, which destroyed most of the town's buildings.

Townhouses after the fire of 1874

After the fire, residents sold their land because of poverty, and the main buyers were Jews. After 1875 it was decided to replace timber construction with brick, and the present layout of the buildings around the square took shape then.

Commercial and service buildings were built around the square. Many townhouses have a rich history, especially those formerly owned by the Jewish community, such as the former pharmacy and printing house of Abraham Silberberg in the upper part of the square. The most impressive building stood near the present Jaworzno City Museum: the property of Chaim Neufeld with a richly decorated façade, later a hospital and, after the war, the militia headquarters. You can still see the small cellars where fruit, vegetables and fish were sold.

From a marketplace to a space for concerts and walks

The square traditionally hosted fairs, markets, rallies and May Day parades. In the second half of the 20th century a PKS bus stop stood on it, and before the modernisation national road 79 ran across the square. Heavy traffic and declining appeal meant that by the end of the century the square had lost its significance.

The surface changed too: in the 19th century local limestone was used, in the interwar period pavements, in the Polish People's Republic granite, and later stone setts.

Rebuilding the square in 2012-2013

In 2007 the mayor appointed a team for the redevelopment of the square and its surroundings. The urban design concept was entrusted to the Gliwice firm Pracownia Architektoniczna NOVA S.A. The project was named “Rynek Od.Nowa”; it also covered the surrounding streets and the modernisation of the Centre and Śródmieście.

Work on the square began in December 2012. The square was closed to general traffic, the surface was changed, fountains and a green were built, and lighting, a sound system and a multimedia board were installed. In April 2013 first-year pupils and scouts planted a sycamore on the square, the symbol of the town, and four months later a monument to a lumberjack by Andrzej Zwolak, a professor at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, was placed beside the tree. The square was handed over to residents on 9 November. In 2014 the renovated square won an online vote in the competition for the Best Public Space of the Silesian Voivodeship, in which 45 projects were entered.

Practical information

• Location: Śródmieście, Jaworzno, the square by the collegiate church; the square has no exact street number.
• Today the square is a pedestrian space: a place for walks, meetings, concerts and city events.
• Next to it stand the Municipal Public Library and the collegiate church, and a few hundred metres away the city museum.
• Check the dates of events on the square in the Jaworzno events calendar.