The inscription on the bookshop that operates in the Kromerowska Mansion on the Main Market Square boasts it to be “the oldest bookshop in Europe” as a warehouse for books was already operating here in 1610. From that time successive generations of bibliophiles have offered a broad range of publications to locals and tourists alike. Today the place also welcomes you to take a moment’s repast, book in hand over a cup of coffee, in rooms dedicated to, among others, Wisława Szymborska and Czesław Miłosz, where items recalling the Kraków Nobel Prize winners can be found. Many signed books are on offer, and plenty of meetings with authors and discussions about literature are held here. The attention of passers-by is attracted to the exhibition windows advertising the latest publications in a very attractive manner.

“The cathedral of the book” is the name given to this bookshop by Carlos Fuentes. Meetings with authors organised here have attracted Jaume Cabré, Clive Cussler, Norman Davies, Michel Houellebecq and William Wharton, and a range of Polish authors, including Joanna Chmielewska, Ryszard Kapuściński, Sławomir Mrożek, Jerzy Pilch, Andrzej Sapkowski, and Andrzej Stasiuk.