– the city of kings, saints and students, the old capital of the greatest sixteenth century European country. The city of the oldest university in Poland and a hundred and sixty churches. Figures like Nicolas Copernicus, John Paul II, Czeslaw Milosz and Stanislaw Lem lived here. Apart from monuments and historical places there are around 1000 various pubs where you can eat and drink well. We also recommend our online shop.
These are some fragments of the history of worth-seeing monuments:
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The Collegium Maius (Collegium Maius) - It is the oldest university edifice in Poland, where the lectures started on 24 July 1400. The most beautiful room is the Stuba Communis (refectory for Professors). There was the Library of University Jagiellonian until 1939. The Collegium Maius Museum of the Jagiellonian University, which was established by Prof. Karol Estreicher, displays several astronomical equipment from XV century and lunar stone. Among the students of the Cracow Academy one can mention Jan Długosz, Nicolaus Copernicus, Faust, Twardowski.
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Wawel Cathedral – nowadays the cathedral is one of the three on the Wawel Hill – also called “polish Acropolis”. The heart of the cathedral is tomb with relic of St Stanislaw, that is altar of fatherland where rulers put their trophies. Cathedral which bears name of St Waclaw and St Stanislaw has been the place of kings’ and rulers’ coronation from 1320. “Pearl of the Renaissance North of the Alps” – that is called the Zygmuntowska Chapel, built in XV c., has also its place in the cathedral. In the Swietokrzyska Chapel can be seen tombstone of Kazimirz Jagiellonczyk made by Wit Stwosz.
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Courtyard of the castle on Wawel - The Wawel Castle is the most popular museum in Poland visitede by milion turists each year. The Wawel courtyard is 2800 m2 in area where tournaments took place and the galleries of the arcaded courtyard are work of Fr. Florentczyk. A collection of the tapestries that once were collected by King Sigismund I Old and King Sigismund II Augustus is the centrepiece of the Wawel rooms. The finest castle room is the Audience Hall (Sala Poselska), often called the Hall Under Heads (Sala Pod Głowami), where nowadays just 30 of the original sculptured heads can be still seen.
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Skalka (Skałka) - It is one of seven famous Cracow hills. First there was a pagan temple replaced by the roman church under the patronage of Michael Archangel in X c. In the temple king Boleslav II the Bold put to death Krakow bishop in 1079, who was canonise to become chief patron saint of Poland. To the memory of this event the Poland’s kings-elects had to in the eve of a coronation day made a pilgrimage to Skalka Sanctuary to atone for the sins of the predecessors. In the basemnets of Baroque church was founded Crypt of the Meritorious (National Pantheon) where lie mortal remainers of Jan Dlugosz, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Stanislaw Wyspianski. In the Middle Ages the pond next to the church was famous of the magical force to recover the eyesight.
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Basilica of the Virgin Mary`s (Kościół Mariacki) - The basilica of the Virgin Mary`s (or Kosciol Mariacki) was build in the first middle of XIII c. on bishop Iwan Odrowąż. The taller (80 m) of its two towers curiously belongs to the municipality while the lower tower (69 m) is the basilica’s bell tower. Many legends about Cracow are related with this Gothic archpresbytery basilica: 1) about two brothers who build it, about Krakow signal (Hejnal Mariacki). In the presbytery of the basilica of the Virgin Mary`s is home to a giant Gothic altarpiece carved by great Veit Stoss between, portraiting „the final sleep of the Virgin Mary”. In the basemnets of basilica there are 50 crypts of the city’s burghers. The wall-paintings was made in XIX c. by famous Jan Matejko and his students Josef Mehoffer and Stanislaw Wyspianski.
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Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) - Durinng the establishment of the city in 1257 Prince Bolesław Wsytydliwy founded the first made of wood Cloth Hall. In XIV century it was reconstructed in a Gothic styl . In 1555 the Cloth Hall was rebuilt as a splendid Renaissance edifice with an ornate roof adorned with grotesque masks. In 1879 the National Museum in Krakow - Gallery of Polish Art in Sukiennice was opened. The first work for this museum - and the core of the gallery in the Cracow Cloth Halls - Torches of Nero (Candlesticks of Christianity) was donated by H.Siemieradzki. In the passage of Cloth Hall hangs the legendary knife with which one of the builders brother killed the other.
