Merchant houses
Watch galleries
Merchant housesMarketplace stalls were once situated south of the town hall. In the Middle Ages makeshift wooden stalls were erected there for poor merchants to display their merchandise: herring sold during the frequent fasts, salt, ropes, torches and candles. Replaced with brick structures and expanded, in time they formed a row of narrow single-axis and double-axis houses, where merchants had their dwellings.
Though utilitarian in character, the houses were given a form befitting their exposed location in the centre of the square, with an arcade running along the entire length, a bricked arcade frieze on the south façade and a mask corbel supporting the bay window on the north façade. The work must have been finished around 1535, judging from the date carved on the capital of the southernmost column. Next to the date is the Trzaska coat of arms, belonging to Jan Wyleżański, also known as Reszka, who owned the house. House no. 24 has the owner's emblem on the capital of the column and the façade of House no. 17 bears the coat of arms of the merchant guild (a herring and three palm trees).
The houses lost their original character in repeated reconstructions but were restored to their original form after World War II.