MIASTO KAZIMIERZOWSKIE

The market square is often the first place visited by tourists in historic towns. Radom has also a medieval market square, which has been successively renovated.

How was it?

The main medieval marketplace of Radom was established in the 14th century by King Kazimierz the Great, who is said to “have found Poland wooden and left it bricked”. The king decided to establish New Radom on the “raw root” at a close distance to the old part of the town.

Town walls

The king ordered to surround the town with almost 1100 metres of walls! The walls were 5-6 m high and later were raised up to 9 m. New Radom was also protected with a wet continuous moat. The largest fragment of the town walls that has survived is located at Wałowa Street at the back of the Jacek Malczewski Museum. At the same street, there is also a reconstructed course of town walls, including the indication where the White Tower was located.

The town could be accessed through three gates – Iłżecka (Krakowska), Lubelska and Piotrkowska. Today there are only the remains of the Iłżycka gate, which are located near the building of the Jacek Malczewski Museum.

Castle

On the initiative of Kazimierz The Great, a castle was constructed in Radom. At present, only the building of a presbytery and the revitalised Starościńska tenement house (“Dom wedle Bramy”), where an archaeological exhibition is displayed, remained. Next to the house, there is a scale model of the castle in its glory days. It was an important place on the map of the Polish Kingdom. There in 1401 the Vilnius and Radom union was formed and in 1505 the Nihil Novi constitution was adopted. In the years 1481-83 the castle was inhabited by the viceroy of the Polish Kingdom, i.e. Prince Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, who then became a saint. He governed the state on behalf of his father, King Kazimierz, and Radom played the role of the capital city of the state for two years.

Gąska House and Esterka House

The oldest bourgeois tenement houses in Radom at the market square. The legend says that in the Esterka House (5 Rynek), Jewish Estera, beloved of King Kazimierz The Great, stayed when the king was in the town. During the Swedish Deluge, King of Sweden Carl Gustav resided in the Gąska House (4 Rynek).

In both buildings, a modern , multimedia permanent exhibition of the Museum of the History of Radom is being prepared.

Town hall

The oldest town hall in Radom has not survived to date. It was demolished in the 19th century because of its bad technical condition. In the same century an elegant neo-Renaissance seat with a decorated tower was constructed for town authorities. It is worth visiting at night because the lighted town hall looks most impressively at that part of the day.

While walking to the market square, you will see a high tower – which is a characteristic element of the St John the Baptist Church. That Gothic church was also founded by Kazimierz The Great. Inside the church, the remains of the past include, among others: a baptismal font of the 15th century, a stone portal and an iron door of the beginning of the 16th century, and a late Renaissance chapel founded by John Kochanowski from Barycz, which draws on the Zygmunt chapel on the royal Wawel hill in Kraków.

Parish Church

While walking to the market square, you will see a high tower – which is a characteristic element of the St John the Baptist Church. That Gothic church was also founded by Kazimierz The Great. Inside the church, the remains of the past include, among others: a baptismal font of the 15th century, a stone portal and an iron door of the beginning of the 16th century, and a late Renaissance chapel founded by John Kochanowski from Barycz, which draws on the Zygmunt chapel on the royal Wawel hill in Kraków.

Deskurs’ Tenement House

The former Deskurs’ Palace of the 19th century is located at the eastern quarter of the market square. This is the place where cultural events of the town and exhibition vernissages take place. At present, the exhibition showing the industrial heritage of Radom in the years 1918-1989 is being established. Apart from flagship and less known products manufactured in the town, it will present everyday life of Radom streets and backyards of the times of the Polish People’s Republic. The exhibition will be partially interactive. It will display the live history of Radom.

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