Krakow Highlights
1 .Main Market Square
The Main Market Square is of Krakow’s showcase, gathering what is most characteristic and most recognizable.
The main city square was laid out during Krakow’s founding in the Magdeburg Law in 1257. It was created at the intersection of ancient trade routes, on a square the side of which is slightly more than 200 m Since its founding, it has served as the centre of social and political life, and has also been the backdrop for great historical events. The Main Market Square is of Krakow’s showcase, gathering what is most characteristic and most recognizable: The Cloth Hall, St. Mary’s Church, the Town Hall Tower, the monument to the Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz, pigeons, florists and the bugle call played consistently for centuries every hour from the tower of St. Mary’s…
2. St. Mary’s Church
The brick form of St. Mary’s Church, with its two towers of unequal height, hides treasures collected over the centuries.
One of the largest and most important, after Wawel Cathedral, churches in Krakow is located at the north-east corner of the Market Square, in St. Mary’s Square. It is among the most famous of Polish heritage buildings – the characteristic bricked form of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with its two towers of unequal height, hides treasures collected over the centuries, demonstrating the wealth of Krakow’s townspeople. The first Romanesque church, built on this site even before the founding of Krakow, was destroyed in the 13th century by the Tatar invasions. The church took its present shape in the late 14th century. Its high altar by Veit Stoss,is the greatest and best preserved work of late Gothic sculpture in this part of Europe. Both with the church, and Krakow itself, is inextricably linked the bugle call played every hour from the higher (81 m) tower of St Mary’s Church.
3. Sukiennice Gallery of 19th-Century
Polish Art in the Cloth Hall
The city’s trademark, Krakow’s oldest “shopping centre”, pearl of Renaissance architecture and the headquarters of the first Polish National Museum.
The city’s trademark, Krakow’s oldest “shopping centre”, pearl of Renaissance architecture and the headquarters of the first Polish National Museum – the Cloth Hall is one of the city’s most important buildings. The first stone market hall stood here just after the city’s foundation charter in 1257. The next Gothic building burned down in the mid-16th century, and its remains can still be seen in the underground tourist route below the Market Square. The reconstruction gave the Cloth Hall a renaissance form, making it one of the grander examples of this style in Krakow. The distinctive arcaded parapet and the Mannerist gargoyle sculptures are recognisable “Cracow” motives. The Cloth Hall received its current form in a reconstruction in the years 1875-1879. It was then that the arcades with shops and cafes arose, including the famous Art Nouveau café of Jan Noworolski. In 1879 in the renovated rooms on the first floor of the Cloth Hall, the National Museum was created “for the benefit of the whole nation” (now a branch of the Polish Gallery of 19th-century Art).
4. Museum of Japanese Art (Manggha)
The Manggha Museum is the only state institution popularizing Japanese culture in Poland, combining museum work with projects characteristic of a modern cultural institution. In addition to high artistic rank, attractive forms of public display are the primary criteria in our programming. Due to evident cultural differences, the manner of communicating specialized knowledge becomes an issue of key importance. The methods developed over the years at the Manggha Museum enable us to devise insightful and attractive presentations of phenomena relating to historical and modern-day Japan alike.
5. Wawel Royal Castle
The Wawel Royal Castle, for centuries the seat of Polish kings, is a national cultural institution, a museum of an historic residence, which conceals treasures of Polish history and culture.
In the royal chambers, the most valuable furnishings, preserved from the original decor, are the 16th-century tapestries. The Crown Treasury and Armory host the oldest coronation sword of Polish kings, their associated gems and jewels, and a collection of ancient weapons. The Oriental Art exhibition presents trophies and memorabilia associated with the relief of Vienna in 1683. The Lost Wawel route includes Wawel’s oldest building: The Rotunda of the Virgin Mary, probably founded in the 10th century. Today, Wawel’s chambers hosted the most valuable painting in Polish collections – The Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci from the collection of the Princes Czartoryski Foundation.
6. Barbican
The Barbican – affectionately known by Cracovians as the “pan” – is a jewel of Gothic defensive art.
Mediaeval Krakow was surrounded by a system of fortifications – walls and a moat, and the city could only be entered by one of the strongly guarded gates. In the early 19th century, the severely damaged walls were demolished, leaving only a fragment memorial at the mouth of Floriańska Street. The Barbican – affectionately known by Cracovians as the “pan” – is a jewel of Gothic defensive art. Preserved next to St. Florian’s Gate, it is the beginning of the Royal Route, which once the most important guests followed to Wawel Castle. The Barbican, the gate and the three towers with the preserved fragment of the ramparts remain under the care of the Historical Museum of Krakow, which in summer makes them available to the public.
7. Kazimierz and Podgórze
In 2010, a pedestrian and cycle bridge joined the two banks of the Vistula, thus streamlining communication between Kazimierz and Podgórze.
Kazimierz, founded in the 14th century as a separate town, was, by the end of the 18th century, connected to Krakow. At the end of the 15th century, the Jewish quarter was created here, which existed until the Second World War II, when the Nazis crowded the entire Jewish population of Krakow into the ghetto located on the other side of the Vistula River in Podgórze.
The pacification campaign carried out in the tragic fate of Krakow’s Jewish community. Today, the former inhabitants of the area surrounding Szeroka Street are recalled by the preserved synagogues and the restored Remuh cemetery. Kazimierz – a favourite place of artists, full of studios and art galleries – is today one of Krakow’s biggest tourist attractions. The magic of the old Jewish town can still be felt here, and the unique conglomeration of the district consists of many contrasts: There are churches and synagogues here, Hasidim and clubbers, solemn celebrations and the weekend bazaar in Nowy Square. In 2010, a pedestrian and cycle bridge joined the two banks of the Vistula, thus streamlining communication between Kazimierz and Podgórze. Also in 2010, opened in Podgórze the branch of the Historical Museum of Krakow besieged by visitors – the former Oskar Schindler Enamel Factory and nearby, also including the use of post-industrial buildings, the modern building of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAK) was created. Nearby, on the Vistula River, to which Krakow is once again happy to return, there is the original architectural concept for the new site for the Tadeusz Kantor Museum.
8. Auschwitz-Birkenau
All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. It was established by Germans in 1940, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. Its name was changed to Auschwitz, which also became the name of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz.
The direct reason for the establishment of the camp was the fact that mass arrests of Poles were increasing beyond the capacity of existing “local” prisons. The first transport of Poles reached KL Auschwitz from Tarnów prison on June 14, 1940. Initially, Auschwitz was to be one more concentration camp of the type that the Nazis had been setting up since the early 1930s. It functioned in this role throughout its existence, even when, beginning in 1942, it also became the largest of the extermination centers where the “Endlösung der Judenfrage” (the final solution to the Jewish question – the Nazi plan to murder European Jews) was carried out.
Cuisine:
Lesser Poland cuisine is a combination of Galician cuisine, developing under the influence of the culinary traditions of Austria, Ukraine and Hungary.
The most popular dishes from this region are well-known throughout Poland: Obwarzanki, Zapiekanki, Maczanka Krakowska, Pischinger and The Pope’s creamer.
