Tourists get a rosy view of Kraków

Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Kraków, recently signed a contract with Budostal-2 SA for the construction of an exhibition and tourist information pavilion located on Plac Wszystkich Świętych near Kraków's City Hall building. Works on the zł.10.6-million project have begun and the pavilion is scheduled for completion in December 2006. The total space of the building will amount to 856 sqm.

Wyspiański 2000 will be the tourist information and cultural center for Kraków and the region, and simultaneously a place where original stained-glass windows designed by Stanisław Wyspiański, a Polish 19-century painter, poet and playwright, will be exhibited. The windows were designed but never completed by the artist, and the new ones were specially made for the facility. They will be installed on the facade on Plac Wszystkich Świętych. Works on the stained-glass windows were supervised personally by Andrzej Wajda, a well-known Polish film director and Oscar winner.

The building, which is being constructed on the site of the former Pod Lipkami tenement house, was designed by Krzysztof Ingarden and will also host exhibition and conference halls, as well as a cafe. Parts of the walls will be made of glass, while other parts will be covered with ceramic elements in five different colors ranging from orange to violet. According to the design, stone and brick elements dated from the 18th century will be exhibited in the basements of the pavilion.