krakow
The beauty of poland
If you ask the people of Poland which city is the most beautifull, most answer Krakow. If they are right is hard to say, still it's the most touristical city of the country. Cheap flights fly to the city frome the rest of Europe, so its a bit full some times and polish is rarely heard. Escaping frome it you could go to the zoo with almost no tourists. The dark past is as well close by - Oświęcim, better known under the german name Auschwitz. If you love art the city has one of verry few Leonardo da Vinci paintings
city wall
Medieval Krakow had round it two-mile-long walls with 39 towers and 8 gates. Their construction began in the late 13th century. The city walls proper were as high as ten meters and 2.5-meter thick. Alongside them additional lower walls ran. And an eight-meter-deep and 22-meter-wide moat protected both.
In the first decades of the 19th century Krakow's imposing if outdated fortifications were largely pulled down. Fortunately, the main city gate called Brama Florianska survived together with three adjacent towers, the walls between them, the 16th-century city arsenal, and a giant barbican in front of them |
cloth hall
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It was once a major centre of international trade. Traveling merchants met there to discuss business and to barter. During its golden age in the 15th century, the hall was the source of a variety of exotic imports from the east – spices, silk, leather and wax – while Kraków itself exported textiles, lead, and salt from the Wieliczka Salt Mine.
Kraków was Poland's capital city and was among the largest cities in Europe already from before the time of the Renaissance. However, its decline started with the move of the capital to Warsaw in the very end of the 16th century. The city's decline was hastened by wars and politics leading to the Partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century. By the time of the architectural restoration proposed for the cloth hall in 1870 under Austrian rule, much of the historic city center was decrepit. A change in political and economic fortunes for the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria ushered in a revival due to newly established Legislative Assembly or Sejm of the Land. The successful renovation of the Cloth Hall, based on design by Tomasz Pryliński and supervised by Mayor Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz, Sejm Marshal, was one of the most notable achievements of this period. On the upper floor of the hall is the Sukiennice Museum division of the National Museum, Kraków. It holds the largest permanent exhibit of the 19th-century Polish painting and sculpture, in four grand exhibition halls arranged by historical period and the theme extending into an entire artistic epoch. |
Church of St. Anne
The church was first mentioned in 1381 in the deed of donation of Sulisław I Nawoja of Grodziec. In 1407 the church was completely destroyed during a fire, but it was rebuilt the same year in the Gothic style by King Władysław II Jagiełło. The king also attached the Church formally to the Jagiellonian University by giving it the right to nominate the parish priest. In 1428 the choir was reconstructed and enlarged. By a charter dated October 27, 1535 St. Anne's was raised to the rank of a collegiate church.
In 1689 the Gothic edifice was demolished as it proved too small for the growing cult of Saint John Cantius, the patron saint of the Jagiellonian University who's laid to rest there. In 1689-1705 the new Baroque church was erected, modelled on Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome. The architect was a Polonized Dutchman Tylman van Gameren, a chief architect at the court of John III Sobieski. The interior stucco decoration is the work of Baldassarre Fontana, and the polychromy assisted by painters and brothers Carlo and Innocente Monti and Karl Dankwart of Nysa. The painting of St. Anne in the high altar is the work of Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter, court painter of King John III Sobieski. The 18th-century paintings in the stalls showing the life of Saint Anne are by Szymon Czechowicz. In the transept there is an altar of the adoration of the cross to the left, and the tomb of John Cantius to the right. |
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Czartoryski Museum
The Czartoryski Museum and Library (Polish: Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich w Krakowie) is a museum located in Kraków, Poland, founded in Puławy in 1796 by Princess Izabela Czartoryska.[1] The Puławy collections were partly destroyed after the November uprising of 1830–1831 and the subsequent confiscation of the Czartoryskis' property by the Russians. Most of the museum holdings, however, were saved and moved to Paris, where they reposed at the Hôtel Lambert. In 1870 Prince Władysław Czartoryski decided to move the collections to Kraków, where they arrived in 1876. The city was granted a degree of autonomy after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867.
The best-known work on display at the museum is The Lady with an ermine by Leonardo da Vinci, the only painting of the artist which still remains in a private collection, as well as the only work of the Italian genius conserved in a Polish museum. As such, it is one of the best known works of Da Vinci. Other the highlights of the collection are two works by Rembrandt, several antiquities, including sculptures, Renaissance tapestries as well as decorative arts, and paintings by Luca Giordano, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Dieric Bouts, and the Master of the Female Half-Lengths. |
Floriańska Street |
The street forms part of the regular grid plan of Stare Miasto (the Old Town), the merchants' town that extends the medieval heart of the city, which was drawn up in 1257 after the destruction of the city during the Tatar invasions of 1241. It marks the beginning of the Royal Road in Kraków and stretches from the north-western end of the main square, Rynek Główny, to the landmark St. Florian's Gate, a distance of 335 metres (1,099 ft). There are currently 51 numbered buildings on the street. It is named after Saint Florian.
Today, the street is a major tourist attraction, and most buildings feature shops, restaurants, cafes and similar establishments. In 2007, the Polish magazine Wprost ranked Floriańska Street as the third most prestigious street in Poland, and the most prestigious in Kraków, following Warsaw's Nowy Świat Street and Krakowskie Przedmieście Street. In 2011 and 2013, rents at Floriańska Street was the second highest in Poland, second only to that for Nowy Świat Street. |
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glowny
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Kraków Główny Osobowy (commonly called Dworzec Główny, Polish for Main station) is the largest and the most centrally located railway station in Kraków. The building, constructed between 1844 and 1847 (architect: P.Rosenbaum), lies parallel to the tracks. The design was chosen to allow for future line expansion. The station was initially a terminus of the Kraków – Upper Silesia Railway (Kolej Krakowsko-Górnośląska). Trains entered the trainshed via a brick archway at the northern end of the station which was almost doubled in size in 1871.
The station opened on 13 October 1847, with the first train leaving for Mysłowice (the point where the Austrian, German and Russian Empires adjoined during military partitions of Poland). The railway line was extended eastwards in 1856, when the first section to Dębica was built by the k.k. priv. galizische Carl Ludwig-Bahn connecting Kraków with Lwów in Galicja. The increasing traffic resulted in the station's modernisation and enlargement in several stages between 1869 and 1894. The next substantial expansion took place in the 1930s in the reborn Polish Republic. At that time the northern brick wall and trainshed were demolished, the latter replaced by individual platform roofs. A new urban shopping centre Galeria Krakowska (Kraków Gallery) opened in September 2006 with adjacent parking for 1,400 cars. A new transport interchange has been developed. This includes a coach station to the east, and an express tram line under the station which opened in December 2008. A new underground ticket hall opened in February 2014, with waiting rooms, travel centres and other amenities. |
Juliusz Słowacki Theatre
Designed by Jan Zawiejski, the theatre was erected on Holy Ghost Square (Plac Św. Ducha) in place of the former 14th century church and monastery of religious order 'Duchacy' or Order of the Holy Ghost. The church had been converted into a residential building due to secularization of the Polish male branch of the cloister in 1783. The city council of Kraków decided to demolish it in 1886 in order to make room for a new theatre.
The new theatre opened on October 21, 1893. It was an exquisite example of the Polish Eclectic architecture, the first building in Kraków designed for and equipped with electric light. Initially it was called Municipal Theatre (Teatr Miejski). Only in 1909 did it receive the name of Juliusz Słowacki, a Polish poet and playwright of Romanticism. During Nazi Germany occupation of Poland, the theatre was run by a German troupe. The last Polish play for the next 6 years was produced in Autumn 1939. The theatre reopened for Polish audience in February 1945. Since March 27, 1976, the theatre is accompanied by the Small Stage housed in the former electric plant (designed in 1890s, to provide the theatre with its own electricity). In 2000 a third stage was added, the summertime Next to the Pump Stage. A fourth one (Stage in the Gate) opened on November 7, 2003. |
St. Florian's Gate
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The tower, first mentioned in 1307, had been built as part of a protective rampart around Kraków after the Tatar attack of 1241 which destroyed most of the city. The permit for the construction of new city defenses featuring stone watchtowers, fortified gates and a moat was issued by Prince Leszek II the Black in 1285. The gate named after St. Florian became the main entryway to the Old Town. It was connected by a long bridge to the circular barbican (Barbakan) erected of brick on the other side of the moat. The Gate was manned by the Kraków Furriers Guild. According to records, by 1473 there were 17 towers defending the city; a century later, there were 33. At the height of its existence, the wall featured 47 watchtowers and eight gates. Also, in 1565–66 a municipal arsenal was built next to St. Florian's Gate.
The Gate tower is 33.5 metres tall. The Baroque metal "helmet" that crowns the gate, constructed in 1660 and renovated in 1694, adds another metre to the height of the gate. Brama Floriańska is the only city gate, of the original eight built in the Middle Ages, that was not dismantled during the 19th-century "modernization" of Kraków. The adjoining city walls and two additional, smaller towers had been preserved and today host street displays of amateur art available for purchase. The south face of St. Florian's Gate is adorned with an 18th-century bas-relief of St. Florian. The tower's north face bears a stone eagle that was carved in 1882 by Zygmunt Langman, based on a design by painter Jan Matejko. Inside the gate is an altar with a late-Baroque copy of a classicist painting of the Piaskowa Madonna. |
St. Mary's Basilica
Church of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven (also known as St. Mary's Church; Polish: Kościół Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny (Kościół Mariacki)) is a Brick Gothic church re-built in the 14th century (originally built in the early 13th century), adjacent to the Main Market Square in Kraków, Poland. Standing 80 m (262 ft) tall, it is particularly famous for its wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss (Wit Stwosz).
On every hour, a trumpet signal—called the Hejnał mariacki—is played from the top of the taller of St. Mary's two towers. The plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate the famous 13th century trumpeter, who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before the Mongol attack on the city. The noon-time hejnał is heard across Poland and abroad broadcast live by the Polish national Radio 1 Station. St. Mary's Basilica also served as an architectural model for many of the churches that were built by the Polish diaspora abroad, particularly those like St. Michael's and St. John Cantius in Chicago, designed in the so-called Polish Cathedral style. The church is familiar to many English-speaking readers from the 1929 book The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly. |
Saints Peter and Paul Church
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The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is the first structure in Kraków designed entirely in the Baroque style, and perhaps the first Baroque building in present-day Poland. It was funded by the King Sigismund III Vasa (Zygmunt III) for the Jesuit order. The plan of the church as a cruciform basilica was drafted by an Italian architect Giovanni de Rossi. His design was carried out by Józef Britius at first (from 1597), and then modified by Giovanni Maria Bernardoni. The final shape of the present day façade, the dome and its Baroque interior belongs to Giovanni Battista Trevano, who completed them in the years 1605–1619. The Church was ceremonially consecrated on 8 July 1635.
The facade of Saints Peter and Paul Basilica was constructed with dolomite. It resembles that of the Church of Santa Susanna in Rome by Carlo Maderno, but also, it contains similarities with the facade of the main Jesuit church of Il Gesù. In its niches are statues of Jesuit saints: Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Aloysius Gonzaga, and Stanisław Kostka made by Dawid Heel. Above the main portal, there's the emblem of the order of Jesuits with saints Sigismund of Burgundy and Ladislaus I of Hungary. The church interior has a broad, single-nave with two aisles consisting of chapels, as well as the transept with a dome at the intersection, and a short rectangular chancel around the altar, with semicircular apse covered with a hemispherical vault. In front of the Church-grounds there are several plinths with raised sculptures of apostles designed by Kacper Bażanka. They were made with Pińczów limestone, and completed in 1722 by Dawid Heel. Today, in place of the original 18th century statues, which were very much damaged by acid rain, there are contemporary copies made of the same material by Kazimierz Jęczmyk. |
saints Stanislaw og Waclaw Cathedral
The Royal Archcathedral Basilica of Saints Stanislaus and Wenceslaus on the Wawel Hill (Polish: królewska bazylika archikatedralna śś. Stanisława i Wacława na Wawelu), also known as the Wawel Cathedral (Polish: katedra wawelska), is a Roman Catholic church located on Wawel Hill. More than 900 years old, it is the Polish national sanctuary and traditionally has served as coronation site of the Polish monarchs as well as the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Kraków. Karol Wojtyla, who in 1978 became Pope John Paul II, was ordained to the priesthood there on All Saints Day (November 1), 1946, offered his first Mass as a priest in the Crypt of the Cathedral on 2 November 1946 and was ordained Kraków's auxiliary bishop on September 28, 1958.
The current, Gothic cathedral, is the third edifice on this site. The construction of the current one began in the 14th century on the orders of bishop Nanker. The Cathedral comprises a nave with aisles, transepts with aisles, a choir with double aisles, and an apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. The main altar, located in the apse, was founded about 1650 by Bishop Piotr Gembicki and created by Giovanni Battista Gisleni. The altar painting of Crucified Christ by Marcin Blechowski is from the 17th century. Over the main altar stands a tall canopy of black marble supported by four pillars, designed by Giovanni Battista Trevano and Matteo Castelli between 1626 and 1629. Underneath the canopy is placed a silver coffin of national patron saint St. Stanislaus (Stanisław) created between 1669-1671 after the previous one (donated in 1512 by King Sigismund I the Old) was stolen by the Swedes in 1655. |
Town Hall Tower
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The Town Hall Tower (Polish: Wieża ratuszowa w Krakowie) is one of the main focal points of the Main Market Square in the Old Town.
The Tower is the only remaining part of the old Kraków Town Hall (Ratusz) demolished in 1820 as part of the city plan to open up the Main Square. Its cellars once housed a city prison with a Medieval torture chamber. Built of stone and brick at the end of the 13th century, the massive Gothic tower of the early Town Hall stands 70 metres tall and leans just 55 centimetres, the result of a storm in 1703. The top floor of the tower with an observation deck is open to visitors. The original Gothic helmet adorning the tower was consumed by fire caused by a lightning in 1680. The ensuing reconstruction of the tower took place between 1683 and 1686. The work was directed by the royal architect Piotr Beber, who designed the new and imposing Baroque helmet, which survived only until 1783. At that time, the helmet began to crumble, and was replaced by a smaller structure sponsored by Archbishop Kajetan Sołtyk. The entrance to the tower is guarded by a pair of stone lions carved at the beginning of the 19th century. They were brought to Kraków from the Classicist palace of the Morstin family in Pławowice during the renovations of 1961–1965, during which the bay windows on the second floor of the tower were incorrectly reconstructed by a local TV personality, architect Wiktor Zin. Over the entrance is the original Gothic portal with the city coat-of-arms and the emblem of Poland. For many years the basement beneath the tower has been used as the performance space called the Stage beneath the Town Hall of the renowned Teatr Ludowy. |
wawel
The Gothic Wawel Castle in Kraków in Poland was built at the behest of Casimir III the Great, who reigned from 1333 to 1370, and consists of a number of structures situated around the central courtyard.
In the 14th century it was rebuilt by Jogaila and Jadwiga of Poland. Their reign saw the addition of the tower called the Hen's Foot (Kurza Stopka) and the Danish Tower. The Jadwiga and Jogaila Chamber, in which the sword Szczerbiec, was used in coronation ceremonies, is exhibited today and is another remnant of this period. Other structures were developed on the hill during that time as well, in order to serve as quarters for the numerous clergy, royal clerks and craftsmen. Defensive walls and towers such as Jordanka, Lubranka, Sandomierska, Tęczyńska, Szlachecka, Złodziejska and Panieńska were erected in the same period. The Wawel Royal Castle and the Wawel Hill constitute the most historically and culturally important site in Poland. For centuries the residence of the kings of Poland and the symbol of Polish statehood, the Castle is now one of the country’s premier art museums. Established in 1930, the museum encompasses ten curatorial departments responsible for collections of paintings, including an important collection of Italian Renaissance paintings, prints, sculpture, textiles, among them the Sigismund II Augustus tapestry collection, goldsmith’s work, arms and armor, ceramics, Meissen porcelain, and period furniture. The museum’s holdings in oriental art include the largest collection of Ottoman tents in Europe. With seven specialized conservation studios, the museum is also an important center for the conservation of works of art. |
wawel dragon
Wawel Dragon is a famous dragon in Polish mythology who lived in a cave at the foot of Wawel Hill on the banks of the Vistula River. In the legend, the dragon terrifies local villagers by destroying their houses and eating up their young daughters. Desperate to solve the problem, King Krakus promises his daughter Wanda's hand to any brave man who can defeat the dragon. A cobbler named Skuba takes up the challenge and stuffs a lamb with sulphur for the dragon to eat. Skuba leaves the lamb near the dragon cave and the unwary beast devours the bait. Soon after, the dragon's thirst grows unbearable and he drinks so much water from the River Vistula that he explodes from the uncontainable volume. King Krakus then weds his daughter Wanda to the victorious Skuba.
The statue was designed by Polish sculptor Bronisław Chromy and completed in 1969; it was installed in its present location in 1972, a date commonly repeated in other sources; Bielowicz notes that the statue was made in 1969 but was not unveiled in its current location till 1972). The statue is made out of bronze and stands on a large limestone boulder. It is 6 metres (20 ft) tall. The statue has been described as a "traditional" element of the modern Kraków landscape, and as a major tourist attraction of the city, particularly for the children. |