From the Rynek Underground Museum in Krakow

Walking between the Cloth Hall and Saint Mary’s Church in Krakow, visitors may not realize that hidden under the ground is a treasure trove of knowledge about Kraków’s past. To discover it, you just step down into the Medieval Rynek (town square) below Cloth Hall.

The establishment of this interactive exhibition began with the archaeological study conducted from 2005 to 2010. There, researchers discovered traces of the many centuries of history. An archaeological reserve unique in Europe, covering nearly 43,000 sq. ft, was fashioned under the surface of the Rynek to provide a display for the treasures.

The Rynek Underground exhibition presents the connections between the city and medieval Europe’s chief centers of trade and culture and portrays the significance of the capital of Poland in the operation of the Hanseatic League. The historical objects on display are proof of the European cultural and trade exchange that continued here for hundreds of years. The tourist route under the Main Market Square leads between the stone and brick walls of the cellars and stalls of former trading sites, the Great Scales, and the Cloth Hall.

The exhibition shows medieval tools, historical coins, clay figures, decorations, dice, and toiletry articles used over 600 years ago, together with the Tartar arrowheads, beads, and medallions from the Orient.

Visiting the tourist route in the Rynek Underground, one can also become familiar with the history of Kraków from before the city’s foundation. A picture of the pre-charter settlement destroyed during the Tartar raid of 1241 emerges from the original foundations of cottages from the late 12th and early 13th century, as well as reconstructions of goldsmiths’ and blacksmiths’ workshops. The oldest history of the site is shown in reconstructions of 11th-century burials. The visitor will also learn about the vampire burials found during the excavations. Yes, vampires!

Visitors are immersed in Kraków’s Medieval market’s hubbub of bargaining. The exhibition is enriched with interesting models and multimedia – touchscreens, holograms, projections, and documentary films presented in the spaces of the cellars under the Cloth Hall arranged especially for that purpose.

The Book of Crafts

In 2023, I twice visited Kraków’s Rynek’s Underground Museum. Especially impressive was an electronic book displaying “The Book of Crafts,” pictures from the 1400s of men engaged in their skilled jobs. I carefully photographed all of them. On my return visit, I inquired about the origins of the pictures representing craftsmen from the Middle Ages. No tour guide had any information, nor was there any explanation.

Searching online for “The Book of Crafts” revealed nothing about this book. I then discovered what the museum called “The Book of Crafts,” a manuscript created in 1426 by Marquard Mendel (1425-1438). He was the caretaker for “The Twelve Brothers House Foundation,” founded by his ancestor, Konrad Mendel, in 1388.

In 1388, the wealthy merchant Konrad Mendel built a retirement home to accommodate twelve old Nuremberg craftsmen needing job training. He equipped the enterprise with enough capital for permanent management to train these men and future “brothers” with employable skills. 

Since around 1425/26, every “Mendel brother” has been depicted in 765 pictures that have been restored and carefully preserved. The pictures show the brothers practicing their craft, with authentic descriptions of the manufacturing processes, tools, workshop equipment, materials, and products. Initially, only the brothers’ names and biographical data were included, but expanded in later centuries to include short biographies.

These pictures from the Middle Ages portray workers from central European towns and cities such as Prague, Krakow, Nuremberg, etc., who traded and learned from their interactions and travels. The ones in this article are from the 1400s.

Hans is cutting meat and selling other products, such as sausages. The job of butchering animals created a lot of smell and waste. Towns regulated where they could process the meat.

 Ulrich, the baker, stands in front of his brick oven and takes out baked loaves of bread with a baking shovel. Below is a pail with water, and two loaves of bread lie on a somewhat unfortunately rendered storage table.  

Resh,  the chicken carrier, carries on his back the reef that protrudes above his head, a back carrier secured with a padlock with a wooden frame and support stick where the chickens sticking out from below are transported.  

 

Ulrich, the baker, stands in the brick sales niche and presents his goods: loaves of bread and rolls on the display board and the pretzels on two rods inserted into the side of the niche. 

 Konrad, the stonemason, works on a stone block with a pick axe. His other tools are a level, square, and wooden template for preparing the cuboids. Year 1425

Hans, the weaver, works at his loom and guides the shuttle with his right hand. He moves the mechanism with his bare feet, controlled by a roller mechanism attached to the ceiling.

Cuntz weighs a large bale using the large beam balance and three weights. He was known as a weighing or calibration master.

Kunz, the cloth merchant, stands behind his sales table, on which there are several layers of cloth dyed green, blue, and red, and measures a blue cloth with his yardstick. A pair of scissors lies on the table, neatly folded layers of cloth in the open compartments of the table. Behind the cloth merchant, additional layers of cloth are placed over the wall bracket. 

Lienhard, the tailor, uses large scissors to prepare a piece of fabric lying on his lap. 

Lorenz, the tailor, sits on a stool and uses a long needle to sew a blue coat on his lap. A cubit and scissors lie in front of him on the table, while two finished items of clothing, a red fur-lined coat, and a fur-trimmed doublet, hang on the wall rail. 

The redsmith Kunz sits at his work table and works on a two-armed candleholder. On the side of the table are two finished, two-armed candlesticks, a monstrance, a cup, and a small box. There are five round plates of different sizes on the wall shelf. 

This unknown thimble maker uses a racing spindle (known as a pump drill) to drill the depressions into the thimble placed on a cotter pin.

Peter is the tower keeper who stands in the open tower chamber and bows the signal by trumpet each hour. We can imagine a tower keeper such as Peter in Krakow’s Church of St. Mary, blowing his trump during the Tartar invasion.

Peter, the berber (cloth maker and cloth rougher), roughens the long, hanging blue cloth with the card using both hands.   

Albert, a furrier, sews together “fehfelle” or squirrel skins. An already-finished fur coat hangs on two hooks on the wall.   

Kuncz, the wool comber, sits on a chair with a woven seat and wooden backrest. He pulls a blue-colored strand of wool through the comb firmly mounted on an anvil. On the floor is a warming box with an iron comb and handle. On the right, there is blue-dyed wool in a large basket.

Gorg is a harness polisher or armorer. He polishes the workpiece clamped on the stool, probably a shoulder spaulder, with the leather-covered polishing wood. On the floor before him is a bag with the polishing agent, likely “iron red.”

Albrecht is sitting by his iron anvil with a hammer and a padlock. In the Middle Ages, locks often protected doors and chests.

Peter is stepping into a tub to process an animal’s skin. Turning an animal hide into leather involves having the skin dehaired, degreased, desalted, and soaked in water. Because of the smell and waste it created, tanning was regulated by the towns.

Tax collectors have never been popular, and they weren’t in the Middle Ages, as shown by the look on the merchant’s face.

Herman uses a hacksaw and anvil to punch holes in the belts. A belter was another type of specialized clothing maker.

 Berthold, a spice merchant, stands behind his display, which is spread out on a large barrel, and holds up a scale in his right hand, weighing spices that lie in small bags on the board. Two stately townhouses appear in the background. 

Peter, a nurse, kneels in front of a small altar with a triptych as an attachment. It shows a crucifixion above a predella with figures of saints in the middle. On the wings is Peter, on the left with the key, and on the right is John, holding a cup. An eternal light hangs from the ceiling, from which hang two shields with Mendel’s coat of arms, which indicates that the candlestick is a foundation of the Mendel family. The nurse holds a rosary in his hands while his wife kneels behind him with her hands raised in prayer. 

Marckhard, a nurse, prays with a rosary in his folded hands in front of a small altar with a triptych at the top. This shows St. George in the middle.  The kneeling nurse wears a red doublet with wide sleeves and tight trousers, while the two women kneeling behind him, each holding a rosary in their hands, wear a long coat and bonnet. 

Heinz, a chain mail maker working to manufacture chain mail, sits in front of his work table and pinches the metal rings of the chain mail with pliers. A finished piece of chainmail hangs on the wall bracket at the top. 

Erhard is a miller or flour sifter. He stands with his back to the viewer and reaches with both hands into the opening of a large wooden flour box covered mainly by a stretched cloth. This means that the actual process of sifting flour remains hidden. On the right are two closed sacks and an open flour sack leaning against the flour box. 

Herman, the cobbler or shoemaker, sits on a stool and uses an awl to work on a shoe he holds on his lap. There are large ironing scissors at his feet and a pair of shoes under the stool, while three already finished shoes are lying on the table. 

A carpenter stands on the jacked-up wooden board and saws it in half lengthwise with a slot saw, which is a frame saw. Below the jacked-up board, the sheet is left white, intended to indicate a pit underneath the board. There may have been a second sawyer standing there and pulling the saw down using the second handle.  

Hans, the bricklayer, stands in front of the wall he has built and uses a simple crane to place a block that is still hanging on the pliers. The wall belongs to a house currently under construction, behind whose crenelated wall the crane with its boom protrudes. 

Georg, the surgeon, stands behind his work table in front of a house entrance. There is a cantilever on the wall with the Nuremberg City coat of arms, the split eagle, and an apothecary box as a sign of the surgeon. The surgeon uses a spatula to apply medicine to a plaster. In front of him, on the table, there is an open box with four inserts and two apothecary boxes, one of which is decorated with two eyes. 

An unknown shoemaker uses the awl to make a shoe. In front of him on the storage table lie the partially cut leather and the half-moon-shaped shoemaker’s knife.

Rynolt is a farmer plowing his field. His plow has a wheel frame, double stern (two handles), a cox (the iron knife attached to the plow tree for cutting off the strip of earth vertically), a plowshare (the knife attached to the plow head for cutting off the strip of earth horizontally) and a moldboard, which lifts the strip of earth cut off by the coulter, turns it over and lays it on its side. In the background, three trees appear in a hilly landscape.  

Peter, the merchant, stands in front of his house and points with his outstretched right hand to two tied packages on the ground, along with two large bales and two sacks. There is a barrel in the background. Merchandise was transported in sacks, bales, packages, and barrels. Apparently, the merchant, whose left hand is reaching into the money bag attached to his belt, has just received the goods. 

Irst, the wheelwright uses an ax to work on the spokes of a large wheel whose axle rests on the two wooden trestles. 

Nicholas, the cooper, stands in front of a man-high barrel and drives the wooden hoops over the staves with a tap and stick. There is a tub filled with water on the floor and various tires lying next to it. 

Ulrich, the woodchopper, hits four trunks supported by a log with the ax raised high and held in both hands, a trimming axe. They would be split later using the wooden mallet and two wedges lying on the ground. A piece of wood already split and carefully stacked is in the background. 

Rudolf, a carpenter, stands in front of the timber frame of a half-timbered house currently under construction. He holds a hatchet in his raised right hand while other tools lie on the ground: a large hatchet and a pole drill. 

 Barbara stands in her kitchen and uses a wooden spoon to try out food that is cooking in two large pots on the stove. At the same time, meat is fried on a rotisserie. Earthen jugs, plates, and pans made of tin or iron are on the shelf on the chimney. The buffet has radishes and onions and a broom on the left. 

Anna, the cook, stands in her kitchen and stirs a large pot on the stove with a wooden spoon. At the same time, sausages are fried on a rotisserie. There are earthenware jugs on the chimney and plates and pans made of tin or iron on the shelf. On the left are a shovel and a broom.  

Heinz, the baker, stands behind the large baking trough with his sleeves rolled up and mixes the dough with both arms. The trough is elongated and has two carrying handles at each end. It is fixed to the bench with the help of a sawn branch. In the foreground are a tub filled with water and a large jug. Flames blaze from the brick oven in the background.  

Jorg was an innkeeper and is shown serving his guests drink from a jug in a bar with a wooden ceiling, which he has poured into a glass. On the floor in front of him lies a tub filled with water, in which a jug with a red strap is cooling. The distinguished guests, some of whom are wearing spurs and large hats or caps, sit around the table covered with a white blanket, in the middle of which there is a fried chicken and smaller dishes ready to be eaten. There are also two metal plates and round and sliced ​​bread on the table. The guest sitting on the left has a knife in his hand, and the guest sitting in the middle at the table raises his glass.  

William, a cook, stands in front of the fireplace on which logs are blazing and stirs a clay jug between the logs with a wooden spoon. An iron kettle hangs on a chain above the stove, while a kettle and a jug stand on the floor. A pillar frames the kitchen, and the roof is covered in red. 

An unnamed harness maker sits at his anvil and works on an arm piece with the hammer. On the right, huge tin snips are clamped onto a hook on a round work block to operate with one hand while standing. A finished armpiece, a breastplate, and a glove hang on the ceiling in front of the window. 

Hans, a fisherman, walks through the shallow stream and tries to catch fish with a landing net. There is a wooden transport container for the caught fish on the bank. This could be carried on the back with a rope and was secured with a lock. Small houses, huts, and a large tree, probably a pasture, appear in the background.

Leopold, the paternosterer or rosary maker, sits on his bench covered with braided ribbon and uses a fiddle drill to mill paternoster balls from a piece of wood. Finished rosaries lie and hang on the table in front of him. 

Paulus Voyt is described in the inscription as a nobleman and was a servant of the Nuremberg Imperial Mayor Sigmund II von Egloffstein, who exercised jurisdiction. The nobleman is about to go to a small chapel to pray, holding a rosary in his hand. The small chapel lies outside a walled town from which Voyt came.