For more than a hundred years the gymnastic society’s building has been the town’s cultural salon. The first films in Stary Sącz were shown here.
In 1893 the lawyer Edward Szayer and the pharmacist Julian Fijałkowski called together 30 people and founded a branch of the “Sokół” Gymnastic Society. Szayer was the father of the future singer Ada Sari. The building was designed free of charge by the architect Zenon Remi, and the foundation stone was laid on 15 May 1907.
At the “Sokół” people practised gymnastics, put on plays and held meetings. After the First World War the town’s first cinema opened here. For many years the building housed the Ada Sari Centre of Culture and Arts. Its patron, the coloratura soprano Jadwiga Szayer, spent her childhood and youth in Stary Sącz. In 2022 the Centre moved to new premises, and the historic building now houses the Sokół Cinema. The auditorium has 212 seats and was renovated in 2007–2010.
The building is worth seeing even from the outside, but best of all go in for a film or a concert. That is the easiest way to sense what the “Sokół” meant to the townspeople of old.
photo Swohmeck · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
