Town Hall Tower

This guide to the Town Hall Tower in Kraków traces a run of disasters that left it standing alone: a 1703 storm that knocked it permanently off true, a 1680 lightning strike that burned its original Gothic roof, and an 1820 demolition order that took down the rest of the old Town Hall around it. You'll hear about royal architect Piotr Beber's Baroque rebuild and the medieval prison and torture chamber once housed in the basement below. Listen for the echo of your own footsteps on the hundred and ten winding steps watchmen once climbed to scan the square for fire.