The oldest among them were built in the 13th century. Last year, the facades of the buildings were thoroughly renovated.


The Townhouses are located to the right of the City Hall. The narrow buildings are a unique relic of the city’s past commercial life. In the early Middle Ages they housed stands owned by herring traders, with other small shops appearing quickly nearby, offering salt, candles and other products for everyday use.
In later years, the number of merchants soared and their small stands turned into cosy little shops with small flats above them. At the turn of the 16th century, the original wooden houses were replaced by brick ones. Even today, most of them are only wide enough for one room.

The ground floor of each building was a shop, with a space for the merchants to live in above. The entrance was located under an arcade of stone pillars. In the 19th century, the openings between them were sealed with brick walls, but in the 1950s, during the reconstruction of Poznan after World War II, they were rebuilt in their original form. Authentic, Renaissance sandstone columns supporting the arcade, have been preserved until today. On one of the pillars, one can even make out the date of its construction – 1535.

The most recent renovation of the façade determined the current form of the houses. Paradoxically, the work was aided by a… fire! The buildings had been waiting for renovation for quite some time, while the City Hall could never eke out the money. A few years ago, a wooden hut constructed in the Old Market for Christmas caught fire, which later spread and ravaged the facades of several of the townhouses and seriously damaged others. The facades were renovated in line with the Renaissance method of plastering, with original colours and ornaments in imitation of the design first created 500 years ago.