The Cloth Hall, an architectural monument of Sarmatian (eo ipso Republican) Poland, erected in 1555. It is located in Kraków's Central Market, the site where in 1525 Albert I, Duke of Prussia, paid homage to King Sigismund I, accepting the Polish king's suzerainty. Here in 1531 nobleman Jan Tarnowski celebrated Polish victory in the Muscovite wars, while in 1683 Jan III Sobieski proclaimed his victory over the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Vienna. The Central Market was also the site where in 1794 Thaddeus Kosciuszko proclaimed a general rising against the powers that partitioned Poland. Photo by Edwin Dyga (January 2012).