Kraków , the beautiful capital of Poland until 1596 and one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life, also lives in the shadow of one of the worst atrocities known to mankind
Growing from a Stone Age settlement Krakow became Poland’s second-most-important city and a busy trading centre for Central Europe. With new universities and cultural venues with the creation of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and thereafter throughout the 20th century, Kraków also became a major national academic and artistic centre.
Its history can be traced by touring the architectural masterpieces that owe much of their heritage to the Golden Age of the 15th and 16th centuries and thereafter into the Baroque era of the early 17th century. Many works of Polish Renaissance art and architecture were created that stand today and make Krakow such a distinctive destination to visit.
Rynek Główny, old town market square
Krakow and its environs are quite compact and a tour in one of the kitsch horse and carriage combos that wait in the market square will give you an excellent understanding of the principal sights of the city. It’ll also give you a guide as to the landmarks you’d like to visit in more detail.
Three full days is adequate to give you a really good appreciation of the city, with extra time allowed if you wish to delve deeper.
If you travel no further than Rynek Główny, the market square in the centre of the old town you’ll get an appreciation of the majesty and history of this significant city.
Although the main function of the Market Square was commerce, after the city was destroyed by the Mongol invasion in 1241, it was rebuilt and its commercial role expanded. It emerged in its current form, with each side repeating a pattern of three evenly-spaced streets set at right angles to the square. The exception is the much older Grodzka Street, which connects the Main Square with Wawel Castle.
Several public gardens add colour to the network of stylish streets that connect the city.
Originally filled with low market stalls and administrative buildings with a ring road running around it, King Casimir III the Great then built the original Gothic Cloth Hall and the town hall that filled nearly a quarter of the square. As the capital of the Kingdom of Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League, the city flourished as an important European hub.
In addition to its original merchant functions the Main Square witnessed many historical events and it was also used to stage public executions of prisoners held in the city’s Town Hall.
Like many cities across Europe it was no stranger therefore to the cruelty of its rulers but the invasion of Poland by the Nazis at the beginning of WW2 must have eclipsed anything in its dark history.
Much has been written about the holocaust and the sheer magnitude of slaughter that befell the Jewish and Romany populations of Europe but this is polarised at the sites of Auschwitz Birkenau.
It’s difficult to visit the city centre without coming across the Jewish Quarter, The Ghetto and Schindler’s factory but nothing can really prepare you for the bleakness and brutality of Auschwitz.
You might wonder why on earth you would want to visit the location of so much misery but there is somehow a sense of duty that prevails in putting this period of history into context.
It’s not a morbid fascination for man’s inhumanity to man that sent us to Auschwitz but a belief that somehow knowledge of events through simply reading was not enough to instil a true comprehension of this hideous period in history – that remote learning is no substitute for experience. We felt it a duty to understand.
We don’t intend to dwell on the detail of the camps – Auschwitz was broadly speaking a group of 40 camps, the original brick built human torture and experimentation complex, with Birkenau as one of the most extensive landscapes of hideously overcrowded wooden huts for labour and extermination.
To stand in Birkenau by the solitary railcar and the offloading hard standing for ‘Selektion’ where life was decided on the whim of Nazi officers, we were dumbstruck by the sheer vastness of the camp, where the footprint of huts disappears to the horizon in every direction.
Over 1,000,000 poor souls were exterminated at Auschwitz.
You’ll need a full day for this sobering experience and whilst it won’t be on everyone’s wish-list of fun places to visit on a weekend break, we can only hope by keeping the memory fresh of such events that we can possibly hope to avoid their recurrence.
So many personal histories changed forever in Auschwitz that we were truly grateful to be enjoying the colourful delights of modern and historical Krakow on our return to the city.
Whatever your motivation for visiting Krakow, you’ll find it unforgettable, even if you’re only there for the entertainment, cuisine and nightlife.
If you’ve a mind, or stomach, to be thinking about food after this article then we’d recommend:
Czarna Kaczka (The Black Duck) – great food; situated in a stylish tenement house at Poselska 22, 31-002 Kraków
Starka Restaurant & Vodkas (Vodka with everything; excellent food, must book) , Józefa 14, 31-056 Kraków
Hevre Bar & Restaurant (converted synagogue with great atmosphere, and ancient murals on walls), Beera Meiselsa 18, 31-058 Kraków
Restauracja Corleone, ulica Poselska 19, 31-002, Kraków
Charlotte (excellent for traditional breakfast, a 3min walk from Rynek Główny) plac Szczepański 2, 31-011 Kraków
Szal Cafe (nice terrace for beers above the main square) in Rynek Główny, through the museum entrance to get up the stairs
