1 Retoryka street in Kraków, Historical tenement house in Kraków, Poland.
Kamienica Pod Śpiewającą Żabą at 1 Retoryka Street is a two-storey building from 1889–1890, raised by a third storey in 1909. Its brick facades mix textured and colour-varied bricks with smooth light stone details. The Retoryka elevation has a recessed entrance bay, a balcony added in 1906, and a gable with a mandolin-playing frog sculpture.
Teodor Talowski designed the building for its first owner, Sylwester Richter, and it was erected in 1889–1890. A third storey was added in 1909 to plans by Aleksander Biborski, which moved the frog figure from the facade's top into a shell-shaped niche. It was entered in the Lesser Poland register of immovable monuments on 29 May 1968.
The frog motif on the facade likely refers to the nearby Rudawa river, whose banks resounded with croaking frogs. The building's name, Kamienica Pod Śpiewającą Żabą, comes from this sculpture of a frog playing a mandolin. A musical stave carved above the third floor carries the melody of Jan Gall's song 'Dziewczę z buzią jak malina'.
The building is located in Kraków's city center and is easily accessible on foot. The facade is visible from the street, and since it is a protected monument, you should appreciate it from the outside.
The frog motif on the facade likely refers not to folklore but to the nearby Rudawa river, whose banks resounded with croaking frogs. A stone plaque under a steel anchor reads "FECIT T.TALOWSKI 1890", and the cornice above the third floor carries the musical notation of Jan Gall's song "Dziewczę z buzią jak malina".
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