Along with Wawel and St. Mary's Church, the Cloth Hall is a monument of Krakow and one of the city's most recognizable monument. The Cloth Hall was built because Krakow had been a very important trade centre in Central Europe since the Middle Ages, and a representative place was needed where merchants could sell and buy goods, primarily cloth (hence the name). The building was founded by virtue of the location privilege of Krakow, granted in 1257 by Boleslaw the Chaste (Bolesław Wstydliwy). The buildings were then wooden, until 1358 when Casimir the Great ordered the construction of a new Gothic brick building. In this form, the Cloth Hall survived until the 16th century when it was rebuilt in Renaissance style after a fire in 1555, which consumed most of the building. The next major reconstruction was in the 19th century, when the Cloth Hall gained a distinctive façade with so-called mascarons and caricatures, and the decorations were designed by the famous painter Jan Matejko. Cloth Hall was the city's sole and exclusive commercial centre. Until a hundred years ago, there were almost no stores on Krakow's streets, and all kinds of goods from daily necessities to luxury fabrics and jewellery were bought by the city's residents in stores and booths in the Cloth Hall. Thus, it is certainly the oldest "supermarket" in the city. Nowadays, mainly souvenirs and handicrafts related to Krakow are sold there.