Conference Dinner

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• The ITiCSE'99 Conference Dinner on Monday, June 28, 1999, will start at 8 p.m. and will last for about 2 hours.
• This standing reception will be held in the 18th-19th-century art gallery located in the SUKIENNICE (the Cloth Hall), right in the middle of Rynek Glowny: the medieval market square, the very heart of Crakow.
• European food and drinks will be served, with an Italian twist, which is very proper to the character of the place, shaped in a late Renaissance period.
• Chamber music will accompany the event.

The Main Market Square (Rynek Glowny) is still the very centre of the city's life. Throughout the centuries, the Market Square was always the scene of major political ceremonies, grand processions of royalty and gentry, and some of the most important historical events: the tribute paid by the Prince Albrecht Hohenzollern of Prussia to the Polish King Zygmunt Stary (Sigismundus the Old) in 1525, and the oath taken by the National hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko, which started the 1794 insurrection. The Rynek is the largest Mediaeval square in Europe, planned in accordance to Magdeburg law, in the 1257 Charter of Cracow. At 200 meters x 200 meters, it is astounding in its dimensions and its perfection of design. The Rynek still witnesses all major ceremonies as well as the rich kaleidoscope of the city's everyday life. Its vast space easily contains dozens of cafes, flocks of pigeons and street performers, a flower market, a regional TV studio installed in an old tram, a stage for open air concerts, and -- every now and then -- a travelling art installation, an antiques fair or a crafts bazaar, or yet, Something Completely Unexpected. And although practically every Cracovian and visitor crosses the Rynek at least once a day, it is never uncomfortably crowded.

CLOTH HALL (SUKIENNICE) Sukiennice, or Cloth Hall, was built at the beginning of the 13th century, with interior booths added by Kazimierz Wielki in the 14th century. The building suffered damage in the fire of the 16th century. The original late Gothic building was thoroughly reshaped in the Renaissance - Mannerist style by Santi Gucci * likely the designer of the parapet and the grotesque gargoyles -- and by Giovanni Maria Padovano, another Italian architect. The building owes its present shape to Tomasz Pryliñski, who, in the late 19th century, added Neo-Gothic arcades and massive central projections. The latter optically end the views of Szewska and Sienna streets, but unfortunately destroy the Mannerist character of the original façades that had been reflected in its long proportions. The Cloth Hall kept its function of a major trade centre throughout the centuries and it is now the biggest souvenir market in Cracow, crowded with boutiques selling anything from tacky Wawel dragons to elegant amber jewellery

Upstairs, the Sukiennice branch of the National Museum holds the rich collection of 19th century painting and sculpture with a thorough lesson of Polish history taught by the greatest national painter of historicism, Jan Matejko. He is responsible for the visions as the Battle of Grunwald, Hold Pruski and Kosciuszko pod Raclawicami present in the mind of every Pole. Of great artistic value are the paintings by Piotr Michalowski, an eminent Romantic painter whose portraits of peasants stand comparison with the work of Delacroix.