Plac Nowy and the Okrąglak

Look at the round building in the middle of the square. Locals call it the Okrąglak, 'the round one', and it sits at the heart of prewar Jewish Kazimierz. Before the 19th century this was a maze of alleys and houses; urban plans of 1808 and 1844 opened up the square you're standing on, designed for trade.

1A market with a past

The pavilion was built in 1900 as a market hall. In 1927 the Jewish community leased it and turned it into a ritual poultry slaughterhouse. Here the shochtim, the ritual slaughterers, killed chickens, ducks and geese according to the rules of kashrut, so that the meat would be fit under Jewish law. Families from the neighbourhood brought their birds in alive and took them home ready to cook on Friday, before the Sabbath.

That's why the square is popularly known as 'Jewish Square'. Around it lived traders, craftsmen and families of modest means: everyday Kazimierz, the Kazimierz of markets and trades rather than of the great rabbis.

2Afterwards

After the war and the murder of the Jewish population, the Okrąglak became a market again, though for years its units were used mostly as storerooms. Today the square hosts a market and a flea market, and the pavilion's hatches sell zapiekanki, the toasted half-baguettes you eat standing up, until late at night.

At the same windows where fast food is served today, a century ago people collected the birds for their Sabbath dinner.

3What to look for

• The glazed lantern on the roof, which gave the hall light and air.
• The brick arches over the windows, typical of market halls of 1900.
• The surrounding façades, apartment houses from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.