The Kraków Cloth Hall (Polish: Sukiennice, pronounced [sukʲɛˈɲːit͡sɛ]), in Lesser Poland, dates to the Renaissance and is one of the city's most recognizable monuments.

A change in political and economic fortunes for the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria ushered in a revival due to newly established Legislative Assembly or Sejm of the Land.

The successful renovation of the Cloth Hall, based on a design by Tomasz Pryliński and supervised by Mayor Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz, Sejm Marshal, was one of the most notable achievements of this period.

[1] The hall has hosted many distinguished guests over the centuries and is still used to entertain monarchs and dignitaries, such as King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, and Emperor Akihito of Japan, who was welcomed here in 2002.

It features late Baroque, Rococo, and Classicist 18th-century portraits and battle scenes by Polish and foreign pre-Romantics; the art of partitioned Poland with famed Prussian Homage by Jan Matejko; mythological and biblical scenes with the monumental Nero's Torches by Henryk Siemiradzki, the art of representative members of Young Poland from the turn of the 20th century including Jacek Malczewski, Józef Chełmoński; prominent impressionists Józef Pankiewicz and Leon Wyczółkowski; paintings by Wojciech Gerson and Julian Fałat, as well as large, and controversial Ecstasy, or Frenzy of Exultations by Władysław Podkowiński among other masterpieces.