Cracow ( Krakow )
Cracow ( Krakow )
Cracow, a
city with thousand years of municipal history and an
erstwhile capital of Poland, is undoubtedly one of the most
beautiful cities in Europe. One of Europe's oldest academic
institutions, the Jagiellonian University, founded in 1364,
is based here.
The heart of the city is the Market Square, the biggest medieval
square in Europe. It's the favourite place of street artists, travelling
the market square in
Cracow
musicians, and pigeons. On the corner of the Market Square in
St. Mary's Basilica you can see the biggest and one of the most
beautiful medieval altars in Europe, carved in limewood by Veit Stoss.
Close to the Old City, there lies the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill.
It was the
centre of power and chief residence of the kings of Poland from the
10th to the late16th
century.
Wawel Castle
and Cathedral
overlook the River Vistula, and both
edifices have had numerous conversions and additions over the
centuries,
which has resulted in a mixture of styles: Romanesque, Gothic,
Renaissance, and
Baroque.
In Wawel
Castle you'll see the biggest and most valuable collection of
Renaissance arrases
(Flemish tapestries) in the world - over a hundred of
them.
the
Royal Castle of Wawel
But there's one more place in Cracow
that is fascinating in
every respect, and that's Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter,
founded in the 14th century as a separate borough.
Kazimierz is the world's second biggest and most valuable
group of Jewish fistoric buildings after Prague's Josefov.
Kazimierz by night
page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Home ( of the meeting section )
Accueil (section française) Home (english section) Acogida (sección en español)