n the north-western
part of Wroclaw's Market Square two tenements are situated connected
together with an arch, distinguishing themselves very much on the
background of a delicious townspeople’s construction . These are the
famous Jaś (Jean) and Małgosia (Margot), at one day making up a part of
a more numerous group of houses of acolytes (Dark Age ministers
responsible for the protection over the altar) near the Farny (city)
church, which is the saint Elisabeth. Between the tenements, under the
arcade, there was an entry to a cemetery destroyed in the XVIII century,
therefore on the arch joining the tenements words of the abbot of a
Cistercian monastery in Rein were forged: "Mors Ianua Vitae" — "Death is
the gate of life". Formerly, there was a kind of a gate sealed during
the night in this door. The present name — "Jaś and Małgosia" was given
by the settlers moving to Wroclaw after the world war II, when they saw
the picture of two children holding their hands, as in a Grimm brother's
tale. And now a riddle: which from the tenements is Jean, and which is
Margot?
One is mistaken, who thinks that Jean is the higher building on the right. Anyway, he is also smaller than Margot in the Grimm brother's tale. Małgosia has gained the third storey in the reality, but also a prettier elevation and a two-sided roof just during a thorough reconstruction in 1564. Today it is higher and smarter than her companion, which note bene carries "sticked to the rump" one-windowed, three storeyed fragment of the next, already destroyed tenement, which stood on Nicolaus street under the number 2. One can recognize the place where they have touched, after a fissure in the roof.
