The purpose of this article is to introduce the problems associated with ceremonial royal entrances in Poland. These ceremonies formed part of political ritual and were an opportunity to manifest splendour and royal power. Based on surviving source records, mainly chronicle descriptions, the royal entrances to late medieval Kraków (Cracow) were analysed. They were held on various occasions, such as coronation entries, entries of royal brides arriving for marriage or entries after victories in battle. Thanks to surviving descriptions, it was possible to trace the various entry routes and capture the city’s preparations for these major events.

Despite being centres of art, it is mainly outside large cities that the development of art takes place. This paper focuses on the Spiš region during the eighteenth century, the fi nal phase of a period during which various territories of the region were under the administration of the Hungarian or Polish crown. The fi rst part of the text explores the local sculpture and painting scene, with a particular focus on the two generations of artists of the Theresian era. Then the region serves as a model for non-central areas in terms of their typologies and place in art-historical and broader cultural-historical development. The paper analyses the current approaches to the issue of centre and periphery and discusses the impact of smaller towns and administrative settlements on the cultural and artistic profi le of the area.

The phenomenon of tenement housing in medieval Prague is as yet understudied. This study attempts to outline the character of tenement housing on the basis of extant written sources from the fourteenth and fi fteenth centuries using an interdisciplinary perspective and the prism of four select themes: 1. contracts of lease; 2. the town house and its layout from the viewpoint of history and construction history; 3. analysis of Old Town tenement books for 1427 and 1429; 4. the social structure of inhabitants of an average Prague house using the example of three persons: the owner, the tenant-conventor, and the lodger-inquilinus. It appears that the Prague agglomeration being the centre of the Czech lands and the residence of the ruling Luxembourg dynasty, it was an exclusive urban centre in which only the members of the urban upper and upper-middle classes could aff ord to own a house. Small craftsmen and tradesmen had to rent their living space and workspace. The metropolis experienced a construction boom throughout the fourteenth century. Building lots were much more densely covered and dozens of new houses appeared built for the purpose of tenement housing (as opposed to being the residence of the owner). It is clear that this development had a signifi cant impact on the architecture and urban structure of the medieval city.

This study follows the life of the merchant Reinhard of Reims, who moved to Prague in the 1390s and amassed significant property and a fair amount of political power due to his business activities. When the Hussite Revolution began, however, he had to leave Prague, and all his assets remaining in Bohemia were confiscated due to his political and religious beliefs. Like many other Prague merchants, he found a new home in Wroclaw, Silesia, a major hub for international trade. Reinhard continued to conduct his trade from exile in Wroclaw, taking part in the retrieval of valuables from abandoned Czech monasteries and other activities of exiles from Bohemia. After a peace was reached and Emperor Sigismund took the Czech throne, Reinhard achieved the restitution of some of his confiscated property.

Based on fragmentally preserved sources as well as existing literature related to the topic (especially regional historiography, art history and historic preservation), the present study sets Marian plague columns into a broader context. Through the comparison of two minor East-Bohemian towns of a comparable population, it follows the factors playing a signifi cant role in the creation of complex Baroque sculptural compositions. At the same time, it aims to identify the functions that the sculptures were to fulfi l through their position in the public space. In this sense the study is inspired by the classic essay by Peter Burke called Conspicuous consumption in seventeenth-century Italy, which considers “the consumption” to be a specifi c form of communication. The composition of Marian plague columns can be perceived as an undeniable form of communication. From multiple perspectives, the article documents the key determinants, which are sometimes rather surprising, infl uencing the choice of partial components of the sculptural compositions as well as their overall impression – the communicative intention. Both Marian plague columns, to this day the most important monuments decorating the public space of the towns in question, are therefore approached in an interdisciplinary way especially in the context of the history of the towns, their manors and the East-Bohemian region. Therefore, the religious situation of both towns and their surroundings is not overlooked either. With regard to the fact that Jaroměř and Polička have been royal dowry towns, the Marian plague columns also refl ect the relation to the Bohemian queen, which is expressed verbally as inscriptions on them. In particular, the artwork in Polička and the events related to its creation importantly signalize the “conspicuous consumption”.

The former palace in Łobzów, which currently houses the Faculty of Architecture of the Cracow University of Technology, has an exceedingly rich architectural history. Since the Middle Ages, it has gone through a series of changes that have significantly altered its form each time. Thanks to modern digital reconstruction technology, it was possible to recreate all of its architectural phases in the form of 3D models on the basis of archaeological studies and the analysis of historical materials. The models were then used to reconstruct the most probable appearance of the building during the period when the Polish king John III Sobieski lived there. Determining the most probable state of the palace’s preservation during King Sobieski’s rule, which had not been investigated thus far, was possible only because of the combining of traditional research methods with modern technology.

This study aims to uncover the background of a former key industrial zone of Bratislava that was developed not only in proximity to the Danube, but also relatively close to the historical centre. It was flood area at the time, considered peripheral with an unfavourable reputation, separated by railway lines from the city, with winds blowing southeast – away from populated areas – thus making it a seemingly ideal place for industry. However, a current perspective – when just a fraction of historical buildings remain, and are surrounded by new high-rise structures, and with society familiar with industrial contamination – offers an opportunity to look more closely at past planning processes, as they might be more relevant to present-day decision-making than we might have thought.

Due to the vacancy on the Hungarian throne after the death of Albert I, King of Hungary, the pregnant queen set out for Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slovakia; Pressburg in German) to give birth to the future Hungarian king in the vicinity of the Habsburgs. However, Ladislas the Posthumous was born en route, in Komárom (now Komarno, Slovakia). The queen, having seized the Holy Crown of Hungary, went to Székesfehérvár to have her son crowned there in accordance with the Hungarian customs. Thus, her action preceded the crowning of Wladislas Jagiello, who had been invited to Hungary in the meantime by a group of barons to take the Hungarian throne. The city of Pozsony constantly supported Elisabeth and her court in realizing their plans. The reports of the queen’s envoys and the account book of Pozsony help us reconstruct the exact course of events leading up to the queen’s arrival in her beloved city.