Kraków is a city with county rights, located in southern Poland on the Vistula river, as the second largest city in Poland both with reard to the population and surface area. It is a former capital of Poland, Royal Capital City and necropolis of Polish kings, as well as the capital of Małopolska Region..
The history of Kraków as an organised urban centre begins around the 7th and 8th centuries Anno Domini. To this day, we can admire the remains left behind the initial settlers in the form of two mounds: Krakus and Wanda. Another crucial date in the history of the city was its reception of city rights modelled on the Magdeburg Law on the 5th June 1257, allowing the formation of the current shape of the Old Town. As a result, the Wawel Castle became the seat of the contemporary ruler of Poland. The city’s location at an intersection of trade routes: from Rus’ to Germany and the Kingdom of Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic), and from Pomerania to Hungary, Turkey and the Balkans, allowed its fast economic growth.
The capital city of Poland was at the peak of its development in the Polish Golden Age (16th century). In those times, Kraków was – as it is now – the city of science and culture. It attracted the greatest artists, whose works can still be seen today: The altarpiece by Veit Stoss or the cloister at the Wawel Castle, designed by Bartolommeo Berrecci. The history of Kraków is inextricably linked to the history of the Polish nation.
Today, Kraków is a modern and developing city and a melting pot where tradition of indigenous residents is mixed with student’s avant-garde. However, thanks to a great number of monuments, excellently preserved in the city’s layout, it has never lost its majestic character. Krakow is simply magical.
Kraków in numbers:
– surface: 326.8 sq. km,
– 4 administrative units: Śródmieście, Krowodrza, Podgórze, Nowa Huta – jointly divided into 18 districts,
– highest point: Piłsudski Mound on Sowiniec – 383.6 m above sea level,
– lowest point: Potok Kościelnicki estuary – 187 m above sea level,
– Jagiellonian University is the second oldest university in this part of Europe, established: 12th May 1364.
Kraków’s Old Town
Kraków’s Old Town (Stare Miaso) is amongst the most impressive medieval locations in Europe and was an obvious choice for UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Packed with beautiful buildings and history, it also have many fantastic restaurants and bars. These are the highlights you won’t want to miss.
Kraków’s Royal Route
One of the most enjoyable way to take in Kraków’s Old Town is to trace the historic path of royal coronations from Floriańska Gate to the castle and cathedral on Wawel Hall, where most of Poland’s regal ancestors are buried there in the royal crypts.
Kazimierz and Beyond
Kazimierz lies just below Kraków’s Old Town, with Podgórze on the other side of the Vistula river. Historically considered the Jewish quarter of the city, Kazimierz has an atmosphere all of its own and is a great place to eat and drink. Podgórze is up and coming, with some of the most exciting new museums and galleries.
Museums and Galleries
Kraków is blessed with dozens of museums and galleries covering different styles and periods of art and many different areas of expertise. In addition to the attractions already listed, I’d recommend the following as must-see for visitors to the city.
Keeping watch over Europe’s second largest market square for the last seven centuries, the imposing Gothic spires of St. Mary’s Basilica have become a veritable symbol of Kraków itself and a focal point in the stories that make up the city’s mythic and historical past.
Kraków’s Market Square
Kraków’s Rynek Główny (Central Square) is the nerve centre of the city’s medieval Old Town. Forever a hive of activity, this 40,000 square foot medley of café’s, museums, clubs, pubs, music bars, souvenir shops, historical landmarks, hotels and hostels, is punctuated with some of the most magnificent middle age architecture the city has to offer.
At its centre the elongated medieval Sukiennice Cloth Hall is a reminder of Kraków’s historical place as a hub of trade and commerce in Eastern Europe. Today, the hall houses the stalls of local tradesmen selling handicrafts and cloth products that echo the oriental imports that were once toted under its roof. The Sukiennice runs neatly through the entire length of the square from north to south, having the effect of dividing the Rynek into two equally sized sections, one on the east, and the other on the west.
On the square’s eastern side, the restaurants and cafés tend to be more popular among tourists, and have a front row view of the Cloth Hall’s broadside and Town Hall Tower, the only remaining section of Kraków’s 13th century town hall, and the city’s answer to Pisa’s leaning tower. Leaning nearly half a metre to the east, the tower is open to visitors as a viewing platform that offers a magnificent panoramic over the Main Square, and also as a permanent photography exhibition that details the modern history of the Rynek Główny itself.
The eastern side of the square is cluttered with points of interest, from the myriad of street entertainers that crowd at the foot of the Basilica’s red towers, to the small, quaint Church of St. Adalbert near the exit on Grodzka Street, to the south. The latter is among the oldest stone structures in the entire of Poland, and one of the few well preserved remaining examples of early Christian, Romanesque construction in the country. More centrally, in line with the middle gothic arches of the Cloth Hall on its east side, the huge bronze statue of Adam Mickiewicz pays homage to one of Poland’s much-loved bard poets, and is a well-established meeting place in the Main Square, and the starting point of city tours and pub crawls.
Today, many of the building façades that line the edges of the Main Square retain their Polish baroque architectural style, despite their medieval beginnings. A prime example is the Krzysztofory Palace on the north east corner, which is now home to the central division of the Historical Museum of Kraków, a great place to acquaint oneself with the history of the town as a whole.
Kraków’s medieval market square exudes an irresistible charm and character all year round. There’s a real joy in simply sitting within its confines and watching the world go by. What’s more, there are few places in the city that can chronicle Kraków’s history as tersely; from its medieval origins, through its dark 20th century conflicts, to its place as one of the most vibrant and edgy modern cities in Europe.
Planty Park
Encircling the famous Old Town of Kraków, this pleasant and quiet park is a veritable sea of green in the summer months, awash with flowering beds and towering pines that sway in the breeze.
Planty’s north side the stretch, that runs the length of the Old Town from Galeria Krakowska (the main shopping centre and central station), to Bastowa Street on the west, is home to the formidable Barbican fortification, and a series of hilly pathways that transverse the bridges and ponds that make up the gardens here. Every so often there’s a neat Kawiarnia tucked under the tall trees, and, while this side of the park tends to be the busiest section, it’s also one of the best places to sit and watch the world go by. Don’t forget to check out the statues of Jadwiga and Jagiello, a small but impressive marble statue that commemorates the historical relationship between Poland and Lithuania.
The focal point of the park on the south side is the Wawel hill, where the east and west paths intersect, and one central route heads off towards the Central Square. Stay in the park and head north again, on the third stretch on the southeast side of the park. Here, the city-side border of the park is less accessible, being dominated with high walls that give the series of tree-filled lawns a more private and quiet feel.
The Barbican and Old City Walls
On the north side of Kraków’s Old Town, far away from the Wawel castle hill, and at the end of busy Florianska Street that runs from the Rynek Główny main square, to the outer edges of the city’s medieval centre, stands the remnants of old Krakow’s outer fortifications.
By the time it was finished, the fortifications were adorned with nearly 50 defensive tower outposts (of which three still remain standing today), and 8 heavily guarded gates, only some of which were used frequently. On this north side of the Old Town, outside the busiest gate on Kraków’s defensive circuit, and now nestled neatly in the Planty Park that runs right the way around the city’s historical centre, visitors can find the impressive and forbidding structure of the Barbican.
With a little imagination it’s easy to see how daunting the structure would have been for a hopeful attacker. There are over 120 embrasures, 7 turrets and a protruding frontal gate loaded with hot oil traps and impenetrable, gothic portcullis. What’s more, while it may be possible today to sit with a coffee in the Planty, admiring the architectural continuity of the Barbican and the Old Town walls that jut out eastwards from St. Florian’s Gate, in the 15th century the park was non-existent, and in its place a deep moat divided the city’s inner defensive wall, from the outer fortifications, of which the Barbican formed a part.
Florianska Street
This is where the action happens, so to speak. All year round, the cobbled, pedestrian surface of Floriańska Street is the théâtre de l’action of the city, and the venae cavae to Kraków’s massive central square. It’s something of a modern stage for the unending drama of the city’s Old Town, where the players are tourists and locals alike, and the set pieces are the magnificent medieval façades of some of the most prestigious buildings in the city.
Florianska Street is named after one of Poland’s most venerated saints, St. Florian, and is part of the well-established, so called Royal Road, that runs from St. Florian’s church on Matejko Square, to the north of the old town, all the way to the foot of the Wawel Hill, on the Old City’s south side. Commanding a substantial part of the route, that is supposed to incorporate all the architectural gems of medieval Kraków and was once the procession trail for kings, queens, princes and noblemen, Florianska is a still a bustling street, that’s riddled on both sides with interesting buildings.
St. Peter and Paul’s Church Kraków
In a city so riddled with churches as Kraków, any tour of the old town can often be an overwhelming series of medieval Christian buildings that seem to meld into each other. Not so with Grodzka 54, where the fancy baroque structure of St. Peter and Paul’s Church sits back from the street, behind a terrific set of railings and late baroque statue pieces that ooze a mystery and arcane charm like no other frontispiece in the city.
From outside, the visitor is immediately drawn to the striking metalwork and sculpted statues of the twelve apostles, but these are actually 18th century additions by the Polish artist Kacper Bażanka – who designed the plinths and railings – and the German Dawid Heel – who completed the marble figures in 1722.
Inside, the Italian artistic theme largely dominates, with stucco decorations made by Giovanni Battista Falconi, depicting scenes in the lives of the church’s eponymous apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. There’s also a magnificent baroque altar piece and, one of the church’s main attractions for fans of Polish history, the crypt of Father Piotr Skarga; who was a monumental figure in Polish academic and religious history, and priest to the King Sigismund III.
Today, owing to its fantastic acoustics, the church is used as a concert hall for classical and baroque ensembles, while visitors can enter during the day to see the interior and subterranean crypts. This fine example of baroque Polish Church architecture, amidst a sea of the gothic and medieval, is a great way to add a different flavour to any sightseeing journey through Kraków’s old town.
The Wawel Cathedral
It’s Poland’s Westminster Cathedral, the absolute focal point of the country’s religious history, crowning place of kings and queens and architectural overseer of the famous Cracovian gothic skyline.
Wawel Cathedral sits in the heart of the royal palace and castle complex that dominates the hill of the same name, on the south side of Kraków’s old town. It’s a magnificent, perhaps the most magnificent, example of medieval Polish cathedral architecture, imbued inside with the rich artistic flair of Renaissance Europe. A palimpsest of Catholic iconography through Polish history and something of a nationalistic sepulchre of the modern age, if there was any building that could be said to sum up the story of Polish Christianity-cum-identity, this is it
The structure seen today is a product of almost 800 years of various construction projects that have extended and adorned the original building – a triple aisled basilica in the style of gothic medievalism. The various domed chapels, capped with a variety of bronze coloured roofs, are the result of building projects patronised by various bishops from the 15th onwards that changed the outer façade of the building for good.
Looking inside, there are probably few overtly medieval buildings that can lay claim to such a fluctuating appearance across the centuries. Many art historians hail the Royal Basilica (the Wawel Cathedral’s official name) as the finest manifestation of the Italian Renaissance outside of Southern Europe, and it’s from this period that the elaborate marble altar coverings and much of the ceiling adornments date.
Moreover, the building has become a mausoleum for many of the central figures in the Polish historical narrative. Buried in the vaults below the church are a whole host of Polish kings and queens, along with a number of other national treasures that have undergone something of an apotheosis in the national psyche of the Poles. Adam Mickiewicz, for example, is the poet that is said to have nurtured Polish identity just as it was being cast aside by the partitions of foreign invaders; he’s now the most venerated bard of the national literary cannon, and a veritable icon of national restoration.
The Royal Archcathedral Basilica of Saints Stanislaus and Wenceslaus on the Wawel Hill, is a building that perhaps deserves its somewhat elongated and flashy name. Elaborate and inspiring, this melange of artistic endeavour, that seems to paint the narrative of Polish history to the wandering visitor, is one of Kraków’s absolute must-sees.
Kazimierz
To the south of Kraków’s medieval Old Town, nestled between the popular student district of Podgórze across the Vistula, and the Wawel Castle hill on its northern fringes, the city’s historical Jewish quarter is an area with a rich history, at once both infamous and enthralling, now oozing with the bohemian, beatnik charm of quirky cafes and local beer basements.
In the past decades the area has become a favourite haunt for locals, where the tourist crowds are somewhat smaller and the music joints are considerably more alternative. To take a walk through Kazimierz is to journey through the very interfaces of the old and the new in Kraków, where the post-war scars of the city’s darker history, now melds into an enchanting picture of a delightfully vibrant centre of coffee and cuisine and jazz.
To the south of Kraków’s medieval Old Town, nestled between the popular student district of Podgórze across the Vistula, and the Wawel Castle hill on its northern fringes, the city’s historical Jewish quarter is an area with a rich history, at once both infamous and enthralling, now oozing with the bohemian, beatnik charm of quirky cafes and local beer basements.
Tenement, 15 Kupa Street, Kazimierz, Kraków
In the past decades the area has become a favourite haunt for locals, where the tourist crowds are somewhat smaller and the music joints are considerably more alternative. To take a walk through Kazimierz is to journey through the very interfaces of the old and the new in Kraków, where the post-war scars of the city’s darker history, now melds into an enchanting picture of a delightfully vibrant centre of coffee and cuisine and jazz.
The area was first incorporated into Kraków’s city limits in the 14th century, by the eponymous King Kazimierz Wielki (that’s King Casimir the Great to you and me), who had also granted unprecedented rights to Jewish settlers in the area, making the district popular among followers of the religion who had suffered persecution elsewhere in Eastern Europe. For several centuries after Casimir declared Jewish freedom of worship here, the Jews of Kazimierz thrived, giving the area a unique style and character that endures to this day.
On the northwest side of the district, restaurants cook up traditional Jewish dishes on either side of the wide, cobbled Szeroka Street. At its end, the white gables and red, square cut ridges of Poland’s oldest synagogue, the aptly named Old Synagogue, stand as a defiant and enduring symbol of Jewish culture in Kraków, after being decimated during the Nazi occupation in World War II. The Old Synagogue dates right back from the 15th century, making it a particularly apt site for what is now the museum of Kraków’s Jewish cultural history.
At the centre of Kazimierz can be found the beating heart of the district, the unassuming, petit market square of Plac Nowy. This roughly tarmacked square is proudly dishevelled, and host to ramshackle of quirky bazaars in the summer, where tourists can buy anything from antique telephones to communist memorabilia.
Coming off the central square, halfway down Beera Meiselsa Street and next to one of the many garden bars that are so characteristic of the area, visitors can stand in one of the spots once used by Steven Spielberg in his World War Two epic, Schindler’s List. Today, a framed picture of the film crew hangs from the ivy-covered wall that can be spied in the scene itself.
Kazimierz is also home to the magnificent Corpus Christi Church, with its spire-clad, gothic façade and elaborate baroque interior decorations. What’s more, with a foot path and none of the crowds that colonise the banks under the Wawel in the summer, the thin path that separates Kazimierz from the Vistula River on its south side can be a great place to sit and digest the, often overwhelming, historical merits of this beautiful district.