CRACOW OLD CITY

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CRACOW OLD CITY
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History of Cracow

• In 1257 Cracow was rebuilt and received city
  rights under Magdebur Law. The city was growing
  and in 1364 Kazimierz III founded the Univeristy
  of Cracow, which was the second in central
  Europe. Until 1596 Cracow was the Polish capital,
  when it was moved to the more central Warsaw. In
  the late 18th century Cracow became a part of the
  Austrian province of Galicia.

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Tadeusz Kosciuszko initiated a revolt, the
Kosciuszko insurrection, in Cracow's Market
Square in 1794. The Prussian army put down the
revolt, and looted Polish royal treasure kept in
the city. The Congress of Vienna (1815) gave
Cracow independance as the Free City of Cracow.
The city again became the focus of a struggle for
national sovereignty in 1846, during the Cracow
Uprising. The uprising failed to spread outside
the city to other Polish-inhabited lands, and was
put down, resulting in Cracow's annexation by
Austria. Under Austrian protection Cracow became
a Polish national symbol and a center of culture
and art.
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• During the Second World War, over 150 professors
  and other academics of the Jagiellonian
  University were summoned to a meeting, arrested
  and dispatched to the concentration camp at
  Sachsenhausen. Many relics and monuments of
  national culture were destroyed or looted. Cracow
  escaped complete destruction during the German
  withdrawal and much of the historic buildings and
  works of art were saved. In 1978, UNESCO placed
  Cracow on the list of World Heritage Sites.

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ROYAL WAWEL CASTLE

• The old city of Cracow has a rich architecture.
  First of all, there is the Royal Wawel Castle, a
  site of royal coronations and royal sepulchres.
  Wawel was the seat of national government. This
  status was only lost when the capital was moved
  to Warsaw in the 17th century. Sigismund's Chapel
  is also situated on the Wawel Hill. It was
  founded by king Sigmund I. Built as a tomb chapel
  of the last Jagiellons, it was hailed by many
  historians of art as the most beautiful example
  of renaissance.

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St. Marys Church

• On the Market Square there are St. Mary's
  Church, The Cloth Hall, the Town Hall, St.
  Wojciechs Church and more monuments. St. Marys
  Church is a Brick Gothic church built in the 14th
  century. It is particularly famous for its wooden
  altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss. On every hour, a
  trumpet signal called the hejnal is played from
  the top of the taller of St. Mary's two towers.

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The Cloth Hall
The Cloth Hall - the world's oldest shopping mall
has been in business in the middle of Krakow's
central Grand Square for 700 years. After the
1555 fire the Cloth Hall was rebuilt as a
Renaissance building with an ornate roof adorned
with grotesque masks.

• Nowadays stalls on the ground floor and shops
  in the arcades mostly sell assorted souvenirs.
  Upstairs Cracow National Museum exhibits
  collection of the 19th century Polish art,
  including Jan Matejko's famous movie-like giant
  paintings.

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Defence wall

• At the end of Florianska Street there are the
  Florianska Gate and the Barbakan. The Barbakan
  used to protect the main entrance of the city
  the Florianska Gate. This gate as a rectangular
  Gothic tower of wild stone has been the part of
  defence wall. At the Florianska Gate Krakow's
  Royal Road begins. Here entered kings and
  princes, foreign envoys and guests of
  distinction, coronation processions and other
  parades, to move up the Florianska Street to the
  central Market Square, and further down the
  Grodzka Street to the Wawel Royal Castle.