Originally resembling two rows of stone trading stalls with a thoroughfare running between them, a roof was erected over them around 1300 before King Kazimierz the Great approved the construction of a purpose-built trading hall in the mid-14th century.Kraków’s Cloth Hall saw an array of commodities bought and sold in its merchant stalls including wax, spices, leather and silk, as well as lead and salt from the nearby Wieliczka mines.A fire destroyed the building in the mid-16th century and the building underwent a facelift featuring brilliantly deformed gargoyles by the Italian-Polish sculptor Santi Gucci on the façade. At this time the Cloth Hall was probably the most magnificent building in all of Kraków. In 1879 the Kraków City Council voted to give half of the upper floor of the Cloth Hall over to the creation of the first Polish National Museum. Beginning in August 2006 and lasting over 4 years, the building was given a complete re-modelling with lifts, air-conditioning and new natural and artificial lighting installed.In the arcade within the Cloth Hall, where one can find all sorts of handicrafts, amber and other local products