Overview

Krakow – No less than Prague

Vistula’s Gem shakes off old moniker to emerge victorious

Krakow has long lived life as ‘The New Prague', but now finally it has come into its own as a much loved tourist destination. The fact is proven by the throngs of tourists that dot the city’s major attractions, its squares and gardens during the glittering summer months. And it is not hard to see why people love to come to Krakow. You only have to give its wealth of monuments, museums, parks and its nightlife a one over and you know why this magical city studded like a gem between the Jura uplands and the Tatra Mountains, on the banks of the Vistula River gets thronged by visitors.

Krakow has one of the best-preserved medieval city centers in Europe and its dozens of churches cover almost every architectural period. Walking through the Old Town streets is like drifting back through the musty pages of a historical novel… who wouldn’t love that feeling? People come here to walk around the mostly unspoilt Old Town, the Rynek Glowny dominated by the 16th-century Sukiennice or the Cloth Hall, the oldest cloth trading center in the world, the Planty - a leafy park that follows the line of the Old Town walls and the enormous Wawel Castle - the seat of Polish kings from the 11th to the early 17th century. Even though the Kazimierz district has seen some rough times, people still come here to pay their respects to the lost, innocent lives.

The city’s cultural heritage, its famed nightlife and its beautiful overall atmosphere, all come together to produce a Krakow that is now the most visited destination in the country. Get the whole story on the city; the best hotels, the top restaurants, its attractions and a low down on its lively night life before your visit.

The story of Krakow

The first known record of Krakow’s existence date from around the 7th century. In the 8th and 9th centuries Kraków was one of the main settlements of the Vistulans or the Wiślanie; the tribe that several centuries earlier had spread around the region known as Małopolska. Interestingly, the earliest written record of Kraków dates from 965, when an Arabian traveller - Ibrahim ibn Yaqub from Cordova, visited the town and wrote about the trading center called Krakwa in his journals.

Records exist to show that in 1000 the bishopric of Kraków was established, and in less than four decades after that, Krakow rose to prominence as the capital of the Piast Kingdom. The 11th century saw the building of the Wawel Castle and several churches the small trading town rapidly grew in size and power.

In 1241 the Tatars overran Kraków and razed it to the ground. In 1257 the new town's centre was designed on a grid pattern, with a market square in the middle, and brick and stone largely replacing wood; Gothic became the dominant architectural style.

Krakow’s fortunes rose under the rule of King Kazimierz Wielki who as a generous patron of art and scholarship founded the Krakow Academy in 1364. This was the predecessor of the Jagiellonian University - the second university in central Europe after Prague's and the place where Nicolaus Copernicus, who would later develop his heliocentric view of the universe, studied the late 1400s.

Kraków's economic and cultural expansion reached a peak in the 16th century when the medieval Wawel Castle transformed into a mighty palace, learning and science prospered, and the population passed the 30,000 mark. The good times however were reaching a low as the capital was moved to Warsaw in 1596, and although Kraków remained the place of coronations and burials, the king and the court moved to Warsaw making it the political and cultural hub of the region. The Swedes invaded Krakow in 1655 and left a track of damage and the subsequent invasions by neighboring kingdoms in the 18th century did little to repair the broken Krakow.

During the Third Partition of Poland, Kraków fell under Austrian rule and surprisingly this did a lot of good to the city’s fortunes. Krakow experienced a good amount of cultural and political freedom under Austrian rule and things took a turn for the better during this time, so much so that by the time the sun set on the 19th century Kraków had become a major centre for Polish culture and the spiritual capital of the formally nonexistent country - a focus for intellectual life and theatre. The avant-garde artistic and literary movement known as Młoda Polska (Young Poland) was born here in the 1890s. It was also here that a national independence movement originated, which later produced the Polish Legions under the command of Józef Piłsudski.

WWII brought with it the ills associated with every war and the city witnessed the mindless torture and oppression of innocent Jews and departure of Jews who were never to be seen again. The Nazis stripped the city of its resources as best as they could but Krakow somehow escaped the scars of a major combat or bombing, which is why the city still has most of its old architecture almost intact.

The communist era saw Krakow stumble in the wake of snatched freedom, oppressive policies and a not too healthy economy. Regardless of all the invasions, plunder and tough communist rule, Krakow has emerged from the sea of upheavals with its historic, spiritual and social core intact. Today it is a place that spells optimism and seduces every visitor enough to make him come back over and over again.

The Best time for Krakow

May is the loveliest month to go to Krakow but tourists start pouring in from April when the Easter celebrations are in the top gear. The tourist months traditionally are from April to October but you will find a good fraction of the population to be tourists during the rest of the months of the year as well.

Even though new hotels, Bed & Breakfast, pensions are opening up in the city at a break neck speed, it is still advisable to book ahead if you are going to Krakow in the peak months. Most of the biggest annual festivals fall in the month of July and you can find a host of entertainment options in Krakow.