1166 words KRAKOW 27.3.99
For decades Paris was unrivalled as my favourite city destination. But now, on a much smaller scale there is Krakow, capital of Poland before Warsaw, and undamaged in the last war. The beautiful central market place or Rynek, is the largest in Europe. Dominating the middle is Cloth Hall, built in the Renaissance style, a long, elegant, cloister. Around the square street cafes extend onto the wide pavements of this pedestrian precinct, where the only traffic is horse-drawn carts. The interior walkway through Cloth Hall is now full of small shops selling high quality goods to tourists. Upstairs is a small, impressive, museum of nineteenth century Polish painting.
There are many more museums and art galleries in town. Krakow's most famous art gallery, the Czartoryski Museum, has many fine works including one of the few Leonardo da Vinci oil paintings existing 'Lady with an Ermine', and Rembrandt's, 'Landscape Before a Storm'. A guided tour around the Collegium Maius is strongly recommended. It was founded in the fourteenth century, a few years after the university at Prague. They have turned several rooms into a museum, including one dedicated to their most famous student, the astronomer Copernicus. The college records show that he paid his fees, but he obviously failed to get a degree!
At the north east corner of the Rynek stands the Mariacki Church, with two crown like towers. Inside is a beautiful gothic altar screen carved in wood by Wit Stwosz in 1447. From the taller tower, two trumpeters play a warning chorus every hour, day and night, to all four quarters of the compass in turn. The phrases being cut short in memory of an celebrated trumpeter, who was shot by an arrow whilst sounding warning of a Tatar invasion. At first you don't notice the faint high pitched sound above the bustle of the square, but once recognised it becomes part of the charm. The trumpet chorus opens the Polish news, to give it a national identity, just as we derive significance from the chimes of Big Ben.
Our rooms were in a pensjonat, beautifully situated, right across the street from the Wawel castle. It had been built as a hotel in the days before 'en-suite' was considered essential. The rooms overlooked a recreation park. The facilities, across the corridor, informed that, 'The Sauna is Co-Educational. We invite'! Breakfast alternated between the cold plate of ham, sausage and cheese and one of an individually cooked scrambled eggs and ham. Both meals were finished with coffee and genuine cheese cake. Choosing a central location in a city has a lot to commend it.
Wawel Castle and Cathedral are the premier attractions in Krakow. They lie just a ten minute walk south of the Rynek, and are sited on a hill overlooking the town and commanding the river. The courtyards are superb in themselves, but inside are four separately ticketed attractions, the Cathedral, the Treasury and Armoury, the Oriental Collection and the Royal Chambers. The last has an extensive display of tapestries from Brussels, paintings from many different schools and furniture. Most rooms feature a magnificent, ceramic tile clad, nineteenth century room heating stove, taken from a fairy tale castle. Individuals are merged in with tour parties, so when tickets are issued they define a time of entry, thus avoiding congestion. Below on the lovely walk along the river bank a realistic bronze statue of a dragon breathes fire to perpetuate a myth about the founding of Krakow.
The Jewish quarter now incorporated in Krakow was once a separate town, Kazimierz, home in the middle ages to the biggest Jewish population in Europe. The Old Synagogue, built in the fifteenth century, vandalised by the nazis, has been reconstructed and now houses The Museum of History and Culture. In the same square are two adjacent Jewish Restaurants, both claiming the name Ariel, feature evenings of Jewish music, across the square another specialises in organising tours associated with the film Schindler's List. In Krakow you are never very far from reminders of the Holocaust, but we found a simple display of old nazi film in an almost empty Isaac Synagogue particularly evocative. It recorded the journeys of some of the fifteen thousand Jews forced to move all their possessions on hand carts from Krakow into the ghetto across the river at Podgorze.
There are popular excursions from Krakow to Auschwitz, Zakopane and Wieliczka which you can easily organise yourself, maps and travel information are available from Geographica, a small shop on the street between the Rynek and the Wawel Castle. Auschwitz is easily reached for those with the stomach to deal with the simple dereliction, reminders of gas chambers and of human hair being saved for sale. A trip to the Ancient Salt Mine at Wieliczka, a UNESCO heritage site, is not to be missed. Although salt manufacture has been traced back to 3500 BC it has been mined there for just seven hundred years. In the middle ages the mine accounted for a quarter of the tax revenue in Poland. Two percent of the mine workings have now been turned into a museum, full of beautiful carvings by Poland's most able sculptors, using the dark green rock found around the salt deposit chambers. The most impressive chamber is the Blessed Kings Chapel, dating from 1896, virtually an underground cathedral, lit by salt crystal chandeliers. The Saint Anthony Chapel carved in green salt in 1698 was built to allow mass to be celebrated without the need to return to the surface. Minibuses leave Krakow every ten minutes, since they follow a circuit round Wieliczka town, arrival and departure from the museum is on the same side of the road.
A much longer trip leaves little time to explore the Tatra mountain resort of Zakopane. It's a fine ski resort in winter, currently bidding for the Olympic Games, and beautiful mountain walking country in summer, well deserving of another kind of holiday.
Krakow is now becoming much easier to reach by air thanks to regular scheduled flights from London shared between BA and the Polish Airline LOT. Alternatively there are travel agents who specialise in Eastern Europe, like New Millennium, who also offer the alternative of cheap coach travel.
All the attractions are contained in a compact central area around the Rynek. There are restaurants galore. A good meal downstairs in the Hawelka costs less than ten pounds, it's essential to book at what is arguably the best restaurant in town. In general our money goes twice as far. A tasty pizza, big enough to share, cost a shade over a pound from a fast food place near the college. As for entertainment there's Krakow Philharmonic or opera, we just missed a performance of Faust. Cellar jazz clubs, and cellar night clubs where you could savour fine vodkas, the way you might tackle malt-whisky in Scotland. Four days was enough for a good taster, seven would have been better, we will have to go again.
For decades Paris was unrivalled as my favourite city destination. But now, on a much smaller scale there is Krakow, capital of Poland before Warsaw, and undamaged in the last war. The beautiful central market place or Rynek, is the largest in Europe. Dominating the middle is Cloth Hall, built in the Renaissance style, a long, elegant, cloister. Around the square street cafes extend onto the wide pavements of this pedestrian precinct, where the only traffic is horse-drawn carts. The interior walkway through Cloth Hall is now full of small shops selling high quality goods to tourists. Upstairs is a small, impressive, museum of nineteenth century Polish painting.
There are many more museums and art galleries in town. Krakow's most famous art gallery, the Czartoryski Museum, has many fine works including one of the few Leonardo da Vinci oil paintings existing 'Lady with an Ermine', and Rembrandt's, 'Landscape Before a Storm'. A guided tour around the Collegium Maius is strongly recommended. It was founded in the fourteenth century, a few years after the university at Prague. They have turned several rooms into a museum, including one dedicated to their most famous student, the astronomer Copernicus. The college records show that he paid his fees, but he obviously failed to get a degree!
At the north east corner of the Rynek stands the Mariacki Church, with two crown like towers. Inside is a beautiful gothic altar screen carved in wood by Wit Stwosz in 1447. From the taller tower, two trumpeters play a warning chorus every hour, day and night, to all four quarters of the compass in turn. The phrases being cut short in memory of an celebrated trumpeter, who was shot by an arrow whilst sounding warning of a Tatar invasion. At first you don't notice the faint high pitched sound above the bustle of the square, but once recognised it becomes part of the charm. The trumpet chorus opens the Polish news, to give it a national identity, just as we derive significance from the chimes of Big Ben.
Our rooms were in a pensjonat, beautifully situated, right across the street from the Wawel castle. It had been built as a hotel in the days before 'en-suite' was considered essential. The rooms overlooked a recreation park. The facilities, across the corridor, informed that, 'The Sauna is Co-Educational. We invite'! Breakfast alternated between the cold plate of ham, sausage and cheese and one of an individually cooked scrambled eggs and ham. Both meals were finished with coffee and genuine cheese cake. Choosing a central location in a city has a lot to commend it.
Wawel Castle and Cathedral are the premier attractions in Krakow. They lie just a ten minute walk south of the Rynek, and are sited on a hill overlooking the town and commanding the river. The courtyards are superb in themselves, but inside are four separately ticketed attractions, the Cathedral, the Treasury and Armoury, the Oriental Collection and the Royal Chambers. The last has an extensive display of tapestries from Brussels, paintings from many different schools and furniture. Most rooms feature a magnificent, ceramic tile clad, nineteenth century room heating stove, taken from a fairy tale castle. Individuals are merged in with tour parties, so when tickets are issued they define a time of entry, thus avoiding congestion. Below on the lovely walk along the river bank a realistic bronze statue of a dragon breathes fire to perpetuate a myth about the founding of Krakow.
The Jewish quarter now incorporated in Krakow was once a separate town, Kazimierz, home in the middle ages to the biggest Jewish population in Europe. The Old Synagogue, built in the fifteenth century, vandalised by the nazis, has been reconstructed and now houses The Museum of History and Culture. In the same square are two adjacent Jewish Restaurants, both claiming the name Ariel, feature evenings of Jewish music, across the square another specialises in organising tours associated with the film Schindler's List. In Krakow you are never very far from reminders of the Holocaust, but we found a simple display of old nazi film in an almost empty Isaac Synagogue particularly evocative. It recorded the journeys of some of the fifteen thousand Jews forced to move all their possessions on hand carts from Krakow into the ghetto across the river at Podgorze.
There are popular excursions from Krakow to Auschwitz, Zakopane and Wieliczka which you can easily organise yourself, maps and travel information are available from Geographica, a small shop on the street between the Rynek and the Wawel Castle. Auschwitz is easily reached for those with the stomach to deal with the simple dereliction, reminders of gas chambers and of human hair being saved for sale. A trip to the Ancient Salt Mine at Wieliczka, a UNESCO heritage site, is not to be missed. Although salt manufacture has been traced back to 3500 BC it has been mined there for just seven hundred years. In the middle ages the mine accounted for a quarter of the tax revenue in Poland. Two percent of the mine workings have now been turned into a museum, full of beautiful carvings by Poland's most able sculptors, using the dark green rock found around the salt deposit chambers. The most impressive chamber is the Blessed Kings Chapel, dating from 1896, virtually an underground cathedral, lit by salt crystal chandeliers. The Saint Anthony Chapel carved in green salt in 1698 was built to allow mass to be celebrated without the need to return to the surface. Minibuses leave Krakow every ten minutes, since they follow a circuit round Wieliczka town, arrival and departure from the museum is on the same side of the road.
A much longer trip leaves little time to explore the Tatra mountain resort of Zakopane. It's a fine ski resort in winter, currently bidding for the Olympic Games, and beautiful mountain walking country in summer, well deserving of another kind of holiday.
Krakow is now becoming much easier to reach by air thanks to regular scheduled flights from London shared between BA and the Polish Airline LOT. Alternatively there are travel agents who specialise in Eastern Europe, like New Millennium, who also offer the alternative of cheap coach travel.
All the attractions are contained in a compact central area around the Rynek. There are restaurants galore. A good meal downstairs in the Hawelka costs less than ten pounds, it's essential to book at what is arguably the best restaurant in town. In general our money goes twice as far. A tasty pizza, big enough to share, cost a shade over a pound from a fast food place near the college. As for entertainment there's Krakow Philharmonic or opera, we just missed a performance of Faust. Cellar jazz clubs, and cellar night clubs where you could savour fine vodkas, the way you might tackle malt-whisky in Scotland. Four days was enough for a good taster, seven would have been better, we will have to go again.
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