House no. 52, The Ridt House
The house was purchased by Zachariasz Ridt in 1566. Ridt traded in silk, samite and damask but was also a senior member of the local Lutheran community. In the year following the purchase, Ridt established a school for his fellow believers, which was soon closed down, due to the intervention of the bishop.
It was presumably religious disagreement which gave rise to a story written in "The Chronicle of Poznań Benedictine Nuns". Krzysztof, the son of Zachariasz, could not stand the chanting of the nuns who lived in the former Górka Palace across Wodna Street. He is believed to have exclaimed in anger that he would rather "drop dead than listen to those wolf-like voices". And so it happened: he died in a forest near Poznań while returning from a fair. On the first anniversary of his death he appeared before his servants in the form of a wolf as which he will be doing penance until Judgement Day.
Among the architects rebuilding the house were Giovanni Battista Quadro and Jan Koński, the builder of the Grey Friars Church. It was restored in the Renaissance style after World War II.