A stone market square around a Renaissance cloth hall, filmed for The Double Life of Véronique and Katyń.
What Stare Miasto looks like
The Main Square runs almost four hectares of open stone paving, wide enough to hold market stalls, cafe tables and a crowd all at once. Three straight streets leave each side at even right angles, running past blocks of pastel stucco townhouses toward the ring of parkland that circles the old town. Grodzka Street is the one exception, running south toward Wawel Castle rather than at a right angle.
At the centre of the square stands the , a long Renaissance trading hall with a row of stone arches down each side and a line of carved masks under its parapet. Market stalls still fill the ground floor passage, lit by hanging lamps under a vaulted ceiling. The stands alone nearby, a freestanding Gothic tower with nothing attached to it on any side.
rises at the northeast corner of the square, a brick Gothic church with two towers of different heights, the taller one topped by a spire and sounding a trumpet call on the hour. Granite setts cover the square underfoot, worn uneven in places. Medieval cellars sit below the modern street level in several buildings around the square, reached by stairs down from the shops above.
The , a round brick gate tower from 1499, stands where Floriańska Street meets the parkland ring at the northern edge of the old town. Its round walls and pointed turrets rise clear of the trees around it, a few minutes on foot from the square along the same street.
Shot in Stare Miasto
Steven Spielberg filmed a scene of Jews meeting in secret inside St Mary's Basilica for Schindler's List. Krzysztof Kieślowski shot beside the Cloth Hall for The Double Life of Véronique, and Andrzej Wajda filmed a crowd scene on the square itself for Katyń.
The Double Life of Véronique, 1991
The Cloth Hall arcades
The two Weronikas see each other beside the Cloth Hall during a student demonstration crossing the square. The camera follows the crowd past the arcades on the hall's western side, with the Renaissance stonework behind them.
Katyń, 2007
Citizens in the square stop to listen as loudspeakers announce the discovery of the Katyń mass graves. Andrzej Wajda staged the scene across the open paving in front of the Cloth Hall.
What Stare Miasto can double for
Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic
Prague's Old Town Square shares the same scale, a wide paved market ringed by tall arcaded townhouses with twin Gothic church towers rising over one corner. Both squares kept their medieval street plan intact, so the surrounding blocks read the same way in a wide shot. Prague's astronomical clock and its taller, more ornate Týn towers are recognisable landmarks, so keep them out of frame or dress around them. Try searching Gothic old town square now.
Rynek in Wrocław, Poland
Wrocław's own Rynek sits on the same medieval grid, with a freestanding hall down the middle of the market square and arcaded townhouses on every side. The colours run brighter here, closer to pink and green than Kraków's pale stucco. Wrocław's Old Town Hall is taller and more Gothic than the Cloth Hall, so a wide shot that includes it will not pass for this square. Try searching arcaded market townhouses now.
Raekoja plats in Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn's town hall square has the same walled old town scale, with narrow streets running off it toward a surviving ring of fortifications. The buildings run smaller and plainer, without the arcades or the painted parapets that mark this square out. Tighter frames on a single street work better than a wide view of the square, where the difference in colour and height shows. Try searching walled old town square now.
