About This Location
This corner of the Old Town looks calm, but it sits at a busy crossroads of history, culture, and one of Kraków’s most talked-about modern problems - air quality. The Wodzicki Palace stands at ul. św. Jana 11, right on the corner with ul. św. Marka. It grew out of older townhouses and took on its palace form in the late 18th century, later becoming linked with the Wodzicki family. Even from the outside, it has that “city palace” feel - an elegant façade meant to impress in a dense medieval street grid. Next door is the Princes Czartoryski Library - a branch of the National Museum in Kraków - located at ul. św. Marka 17. The Czartoryski library tradition goes back to the late 18th century, created by Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Princess Izabela Czartoryska. Today the collection includes well over 200,000 volumes, with rare early prints, maps, and special items that make it one of Poland’s most important research libraries. This is also a good place for a quick Kraków “smog story,” because Old Town streets like these show why air quality became such a big issue. For years, winter pollution was driven largely by coal and wood burned for home heating across the region. A key turning point came on September 1, 2019, when Kraków introduced a ban on using solid fuels like coal and wood in domestic heating. The change made a measurable difference - for example, one regional summary notes that PM10 exceedance days at a main Kraków station fell from about 200 days in 2011 to 31 days in 2023. The air can still spike on cold, windless days, but the long-term trend has improved compared with the worst years. To continue to the next stop, make a left turn onto St. Mark Street.