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[[File:Warwick Goble, Sprzedawca simitów.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|A man peddling ''simitlersimit'' in Istanbul, ca. 1906]]
Production of luxury goods has always been a lucrative business, so it's no wonder that the guild of bakers sought to monopolize the sale of ''obwarzanki'' within the city walls of Cracow. They achieved this goal in 1496, when King John Albert issued a decree restricting the production of white bread (including ''obwarzanki'') to guild members. What's more, ''obwarzanki'' could only be baked during Lent. This law was somewhat relaxed in 1720 (baking allowed on all lean days throughout the year, not just in Lent) and eventually abolished only in the mid-19th century. Naturally, not all bakers would follow these rules. Until 1561, there were bakeries in the northern suburbs of Cracow whose owners didn't belong to the guild. The English language doesn't really seem to have a word for this kind of outside-the-guild craftsman; he would have been called ''"partacz"'' in Polish and ''"Pfuscher"'' in German, both of which may be roughly translated as "botcher" or "bungler". As you can imagine, relations between guild members and the "bunglers" were about as cordial as those between taxi and Uber drivers, and they got most heated when the guild bakers eventually burned the "bunglers' " bakeries down.<ref>{{ Cyt
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From the 16th century comes the oldest known mention of the Turkish bread products called ''simitlersimit'', which bear an uncanny resemblance to the Cracovian ''obwarzanki''. Both kinds of bread are made of two strands of dough that are braided into a wreath, sprinkled with sesame seeds, baked and finally sold in the streets from special carts. There are some differences too: the ''simitlersimit'' aren't parboiled, but just steeped in a mixture of water and molasses; the sesame seed sprinkle is much more generous in the Turkish version; and the carts are different colours (blue in Cracow, red in Istanbul). However, as recently as the early 20th century, the Turkish ''simit'' had the form of a thin single-strand ring; the ''obwarzanek'' in Cracow, on the other hand, was shaped into the wreath form no later than the 1920s. I can't tell who copied from whom absolute certainty, but my local patriotism requires me to assume that this distinctive shape was born at the foot of the Wawel Hill.
[[File:Obwarzanki nad Wisłą 1929.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A boy peddling ''obwarzanki'' to Cracovian beachgoers on the bank of the Vistula, ca. 1929]]
