Only in Krakow by Duncan J.D. Smith

197 Architect Teodor Talowski designed his own house on ul. Karmelicka West Suburbs namely the use of inscrip- tions. Here he uses two in Latin: Festina lente (Hurry slowly) and Ars longa vita brevis (Life is short but art endures). Note also the in- corporation of stones in the brickwork giving the fanci- ful impression that some older building once stood here. This house was later sold by Talowski’s family to buy a Bugatti racing car for his grandson Jan Ripper (1903–1987), Poland’s first internationally successful race driver. Another inscription adorns number 9 (1891): Faber est suae quisque for- tunae (Everyone is the ar- chitect of their own fate). The carved mule’s head accounts for it being called the House under the Ass (Pod Osłem). The tour con- cludes around the corner at ul. Smole ń sk 18–20 (1887), which Talowski adorned with a bronze dragon – hence the name House under the Dragon (Pod Smokiem) – and a sgraffitoed gable end. Talowski’s own house stands at ul. Karmelicka 35 (Piasek). Built in 1899, the flamboyant building again features signature brickwork, which in this case gives the impression of it having been repaired af- ter a siege (note the cannonballs embedded here and there) A roof- top porthole contains a bronze spider’s web hence the building being known as the House under the Spider (Pod paj ą kiem). Talowski returned to Lwów in 1901, where he worked at the city’s Polytechnic. He died there, too, but was interred in his family mauso- leum back in Krakow’s Rakowicki Cemetery (Cmentarz Rakowicki), which he designed in the form of a sphinx (see no. 76). Other locations nearby: 92, 94, 95, 96