Crests on the Tenement Buildings in Kraków

In 1999, followed by a renovation of the building at Rynek Główny 25, a sculpture by Józef Polewka, depicting three ravens sitting on a black stone pedestal, was placed in the hall. This sculpture soon became a symbol of the house, which began to be referred to as the Ravens House (Pod Kruki).

This distinct feature is a reference to the building's history, dating back to medieval times. In 1812, when the Great Army of Napoleon marched towards Moscow, a merchant, Antoni Kruczkowski, bought this house in Kraków. It was likely the time when the name of the Ravens House appeared for the first time.

Sometime later, the building became a property of Anna Potocka Wąsowiczówna, née Tyszkiewicz. After the November Uprising, the owner of the Royal Wilanów palace had to leave both Warsaw and the Russian partition zone. She settled in Kraków, transforming the house at Main Square 25 into a leading culture spot of the city.

Its current appearance is the result of a reconstruction carried out after a great fire destroyed many Kraków buildings in 1850. The neo-Renaissance facade of 1873 was made by Tomasz Pryliński, the same person who designed the reconstruction of the Kraków Cloth Hall.

This new facade was installed as the building was redesigned for the office of the Galician Bank for Trade and Industry, controlled by the House of Potocki. Soon after Poland regained independence, the building was acquired by the Warsaw Discount Bank (Bank Dyskontowy Warszawski). At that time, a third floor was added, and its backhouse was rebuilt.

During World War II, this building was an NSDAP office. In the post-war period it served as the headquarters of the Polish Workers' Party. Since the 1950s, it has been home to Kraków-based cultural institutions. During 1998–2009, the ICC carried out a complete renovation of the Ravens House building. In the process, its yard was covered with a glass roof, and its backhouse was also reconstructed. This overhaul was designed by a Kraków-based architect, Romuald Loegler.  

As an old legend says, there was an inn with rams kept in the yard. This is the origin of the building's name and crest.

 In the 16th century, Just Decius, a secretary of King Sigismund I the Old, bought the building, combined it with the one next to it, and reconstructed it in line with Renaissance aesthetics. In the 16th century, it was attended by Jan Kochanowski,  Mikołaj Rej, and Bálint Balassi, a famous Hungarian Renaissance poet.

In this period, the building was used as a residence for aristocrats. Towards the end of the century King Stephen Báthory became its owner.  Later, it belonged to the House of Ostrogski and the House of Radziwiłł who arranged for another expansion of the building.

After a great city fire, the House of Potocki called for a reconstruction of the palace, with the third and last floor added in the process. Earlier, Francesco Maria Lanci conducted a renovation of the outer walls. Consequently, the entrance was remade, and decorated with remarkable ram heads. 

As early as the 15th century, the Krzysztofory Palace (Pod Krzysztofory), located at the corner of the Szczepańska street and the Main Square, was known as the Great Palace.

This spacious building belongs to the oldest settlements in this part of the city, with its first structure, a square-based, stone-made residence tower, likely to have been erected in the 13th century. 

In the Renaissance, the building was reestablished as an aristocratic residence, with the House of Morsztyn being its first owners at the time. In 1644, it belonged to the Great Royal Marshall of Poland, Adam Kazanowski. In the period following the Deluge, a Swedish invasion of Poland, the building was handed over to House of Wodzicki who called for one more expansion.

The building changed ownership many times. In the 17th century, it was a residence of kings, namely John II Casimir Vasa, and Michael I Korybut Wiśniowiecki. In the 19th century, the Krzysztofory Palace housed a printing office and a popular grocer's shop of Antoni Hawełka, offering colonial goods. 

In the 1930s, this place was home to the Kraków Group ("Grupa Krakowska"), an avant-garde artistic group reestablished after World War II. The Krzysztofory Palace was the very place where Tadeusz Kantor, a leading character of this community, conducted his experimental theater, Cricot 2, from 1961.