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KRAKOW - Sightseeing Highlights

Main Market Square
Krakow’s central Main Market Square, the largest plaza of medieval Europe and one of the worlds finest with its spectacular landmarks, has remained the hub of the city since the 13th century.

Cloth Hall
Occupying the centre of the square, the Cloth Hall is the world’s oldest shopping mall and has been in business for 700 years. The building was destroyed by fire in 1555 and rebuilt in Renaissance style. It is filled with market stalls in its vaulted ground-floor passages, and upstairs the Krakow National Museum exhibits 19-century Polish art.

St. Mary’s Church
St Mary’s Church, with its twin spires houses the largest gothic sculpture in the world. It is 42-feet-high and 36-feet-wide and consists of 200 fine limewood sculptures treated with colour and gold foil. The taller of the two towers, 81m in height, was the city’s watch-tower and every hour a golden trumpet shows in the west window and the Krakow signal is played by the town trumpeter, who cuts off the last note to commemorate the death of a trumpeter by a Turkish arrow. The Krakow signal dates back to the Middle Ages when it was announcing the opening and closing of the city gates. The bugler also played it to alarm people when he saw a fire or enemy forces.

Town Hall Tower
Krakow has its own leaning tower. In fact, the 70-m-tall Town Hall Tower at the city’s central Main Market Square leans just 55 cm. Several fires weakened the Town Hall Tower during the ensuing 150 years, so its west wall has been supported since 1680 by a mammoth buttress reaching up to the third floor. Its present baroque roof dates back to 1686. Vast cellars under the Town Hall Tower used to contain the city dungeon with a torture chamber as well as a popular beerhouse, and now they have been turned into a cafe and a theater. Visitors can climb the tower up its 100-step narrow and steep stairs can enjoy the panoramic view from the top.

Wawel Royal Castle
From the year 1000, when the bishopric of Krakow was established Wawel Hill has been at the heart of Poland’s history. Located at Wawel, the Royal Castle has been the seat of Poland’s kings from the 11th to the early 17th century. The majority of the castle is Renaissance in style (1504-35), although Romanesque and Gothic elements remain. Today, it is a museum, and among the treasures in the historic interior of the State Roomsis a collection of 16th-century Flemish tapestries, paintings and period furniture. The Museum of Oriental Art (west wing) has an excellent collectionof Near and Far Eastern art, including important 17th-century Turkish items.

Wawel Cathedral
The Wawel Cathedral was the coronation site of Polish monarchs. It is arguably the most interesting place in the whole country, with the adjacent Wawel Royal Castle being a close second. Its present 14th-century walls shelter a great variety of top-class objects of art, from Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque to Classicist to Modern. It is also the burial ground of most Polish royalty as well as the greatest national heroes, two poets, four saints and countless Krakow bishops.

The relics of St Stanislaw, the patron saint of Krakow and Poland, are kept here. It is possible to climb the tower to see the 11-tonne Zygmunt Bell and enjoy the fine view.

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