Kraków Region, Poland

Kraków - Holidays with the history of a city

The river Vistula or Wisla, how it is called in the national language, curls slowly through the city. Along the riverside both locals and tourists spend their leisure time. Holidaymakers, particularly those who visit Krakow for the first time, are amazed about the townscape of Poland’s former residence.

They quickly forget the prevailing image of an industrial city with numerous smoking chimneys. But just as quickly, the attentive visitor will be taken back to a time which dates back to the Middle Ages. Until 1596, Krakow was Poland’s capital and the architecture of some quarters makes it easy to make a detour into the past.

Parts of the old royal palace, the Wawel, are about 1.000 years old and today belong to the most impressive buildings of this kind in Europe. The royal tombs are situated in the crypt of the palace cathedral. No one less than Wit Stwosz – better known as Veit Stoss –, the famous wood carver and sculptor, has left his tracks there.

Once tourists have smelled the scents of the past, they will not be satisfied with Poland’s royal history. There is still much to discover and both hotel room and holiday flat can wait. After all, a number of well-known persons lived and worked in Krakow. The astronomer Nikolaus Copernicus, for example, began with his studies there in 1470.

This was at a time when the view of the world was virtually reinvented with the aid of scientific findings. About 100 years before Copernicus came to the city, a university was founded – one of the first ones in the world.

 

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