Piwnica Pod Baranami

Piwnica Pod Baranami, or the Lambs Cellar, is the most bizarre and the most wonderful cabaret in the Poland, say its frequenters and friends.

The cabaret has been active incessantly since 1956, with some fifty, perhaps sixty premieres during this time. It was founded by a group of artists. It remained as the synonymous of artistic Krakow. For young artists it had been a pass to glorious careers. For most of its time Piwnica had had a charismatic leader – Piotr Skrzynecki. He made it famous and put it on the map of polish culture. 1997 was a year of mourning for the Lambs Cellar. Piotr Skrzynecki passed away. Along with this loss Piwnica and it’s potential started to deteriorate.

Now it’s a place which lives in a shadow of it’s former glory. The artists got older and for young people it sassed to be the only choice to have good laugh and express their political attitude. Te programme of the the Saturday’s night cabarets focuses on the personae of Piotr Skrzynecki.

Piwnica is a place of a great value for Poles and for the tradition of independency in thinking during communistic times in Poland. That is why, despite of what guide books might say, it would not be an interesting place for foreign visitors for the facts that it is necessary to know the context of polish culture and the language to understand the performance.

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