Abstract
A fundamental challenge for historic urban centres in larger cities is the need for centuries-old architectural structures to perform radically different functions than when they were built. Residential and farming functions have declined, even disappeared, to be replaced by shops and services. Yet structural change in the urban landscape can be significant even within a scant few decades. In the central European city of Košice, the city’s society has changed over the last thirty years from a late industrial model to a post-industrial consumer one. One of the visible and tangible concomitants of this change is the radical transformation of the commercial structure of the historic old town, where the model of a shopping street offering daily goods and consumer durables has been replaced by leisure and dining services, primarily restaurants, pubs and cafes.