The motorway from Wroclaw to Krakow is fast, smooth and meanders through flat and fertile land as far as the eye can see. Welcome to what seems to be the agricultural heart of Europe as well as its transportation hub. Giant warehouses line the motorway off ramps into towns with rows of trucks backed into a bay of 25 dispatch/delivery hatches side by side. A whole lane of the highway, on either side of the road is dedicated to a continual snake of truck and trailer units going about their deliveries. Rosie has never seen so many trucks on the road, anywhere, at one time.
The flow of trucks didn’t stop us, The Operator sat on the three lane motorway at a steady 140km quite comfortably. We stopped at a truck stop for a toilet break and the signs on every door warned us to keep the lids on rubbish bins when dumping rubbish so as not to encourage bears. Frequent toll booths didn’t really slow us down either and before we knew it, after 3 hours we were driving into Krakow, or, at least trying to.
Every street in the old part of town where Rosie had booked an apartment was closed and ripped up as new pipes were being installed.
To make matters worse, a lot of the streets were one way, it was like a giant maze puzzle where we went round and round trying to get to where we wanted to go, sometimes so tantalizing close…yet so far. As always we got there, with a bit of driving ingenuity on The Operators part….Its a one way street yelled Rosie and you have just turned up it the wrong way! Its closed at the other end said The Operator so no one can go the right way so we are OK going the wrong way. Parked at our destination all we had to do now was tow our suitcases 300 meters over the rubbley road works to our apartment where we we were staying for the next 4 days.
Out on the streets of Krakow a cold bitter December wind was blowing. We were staying on the outskirts of the Old Town and for our first foray we walked through the barren, leafless Planty Park.
The park is a 4 kilometer green belt completely surrounding the Old Town which follows the original shape of the former city fortifications and moat ( of which the park is planted in) both of which were removed in 1822.
The park was deserted but Rosie could see the beauty of it come summer, seating under huge spreading trees would be welcome shade to the citizens of Krakow in sweltering summer heat. In the freezing cold winter weather…the park just looked forgotten, skeletal and brown. Art installations popped up here and there on the footpath and the far side of the park buzzed with traffic on the busy ring road that leads to the modern city.
Our destination was The Barbican, a beautiful red brick ‘castle’ like structure that is one of the original defense structures of ancient Krakow.
Built in 1498 it linked one of the original eight gates of the city via a moat, drawbridge and enclosed corridor. The structure housed solders and is completely circular with three meter thick walls. In the back of the picture below you can see the entry to the city it defended. St Florians Gate.
St Florians is the only surviving gate out of eight in the original medieval fortifications. It is grand and beautiful and the starting point for many walking tours to depart from.
Rosie skirted those groups, ducked inside the gate and stopped and look at the lovely shrine to St Mary of Piasek which is built inside the tower.
On the inside of the gate looking back up at it, it is even more beautiful and you get the real sense of what the medieval protection wall was all about with a stretch of the original still there with its beautiful wooden defense corridor still intact.
This part of the wall today is used as an open air art gallery and it was quite beautiful to see the art hanging up on the ancient brick.
St Florians Gate leads straight up Florianska Street all the way to the main square with the beautiful spires of St Marys church standing tall and proud at the end of it. This area is for pedestrians only and is also the main shopping street of Krakow.
The Small Market Square is the first one you enter from Florianska Street and has the petite church of St Barbara sitting to the side of it.
This church was built in 1338 and was initially used as the graveyard chapel. Graveyard? Yes, Rosie was standing on it, The Small Square was the former graveyard of the Old Town and was ‘paved over’ in the 18th century according to the guide books….
Rosie and The Operator are getting closer to the Main Square and can see so much going on and are excited to start visiting everything. Your eyes however are drawn to the amazing spires of St Marys which sits solemnly on the edge of the square.
Lines of horse and carriages line the thoroughfare all waiting to take you on a spin around the city with beautiful animal skins placed over your knees like a princess. The drivers sit up top and all politely tout for business as you walk past.
St Marys Basilica was built in the 14th century and it sits today in its original form. Wealthy townspeople paid for the beautiful interior to guarantee them a spot in heaven and wow….it is totally breathtaking inside, hope they made it!
The golden and turquoise interior just goes on forever, so tall and so long. The main focal point is the 15th century gilded altarpiece that stands three meters high and depicts the life of Mary.
Outside, the Basilica is made of red brick and has two uneven towers. Legend has it that the towers were built by two brothers, each in charge of his own tower. The brother working on the higher tower finished his before the other brother had a chance to finish, and afraid of being out performed by his brother, he killed him so he couldn’t build a more grandiose tower.
Racked with guilt, the brother then jumped off his own tower killing himself. The lower tower was never finished and just covered with a steeple to reflect the double tragedy. The tallest tower is 82 meters tall and Rosie and The Operator are going to climb the 239 steps to get a view out over the city.
This used to be the cities watchtower and a bugle player would sound a call every dawn and dusk to send the cities workers out to work and then home again at the end of the day. The bugle was also sounded if there was a fire or if enemy troops were approaching the city.
Every hour on the hour a bugler plays to commemorate the death of a fellow player who was heroically shot and killed by an enemies arrow whilst he was sounding the alarm for the city. The sound of the bugle on the hour stills the town square, a hush falls and all eyes are turned to the tower as the crisp clear notes ring out over the Old Town….halfway through the warning crescendo the bugle stops short…in the exact spot, on the exact note that the original bugle boy died playing.
Below is Florianska Street heading straight towards St Florians Gate.
This is Wawel Castle, in the background, sitting on a hill overlooking the Vistula River, home of the Polish Kings through the ages and that of the original settlement of Krakow established over 100,000 years ago.
The view from the top of the tower really gives you an insight into the size and majesty of the Town Square. Rosie cannot even get it all cleanly into her photo, my angle isn’t wide enough!
The Rynek Glowny (Main Market Square) of Krakow is impressive, the sheer size and scale of it is immense as you stand on the periphery and look around. The footprint of this square is the original layout from when the city was founded in 1257, it measures 200×200 meters making this square the largest medieval square in Europe. It is just incredible that the original square hasn’t been eaten away with additional streets and buildings encroaching onto it over time.
There are many buildings and structures occupying and sharing the space on the square, temporary and permanent…one of those being the Krakow Christmas Market. The market is big, but dosen’t appear big as the square it sits in is so huge and the Christmas market only takes up a fraction of it.
The huge building that dominates and sits in the middle of The Square cutting it in half is The Cloth Hall. This beautiful colonnaded building is best to seen from up high as it is so big.
This was the site of the original marketplace of Krakow, in the 13th century when it was established it consisted of two rows of stone stalls separated down the middle by an alley. The grand embellished building you see today was built in 1556 to cover the market in all weather and is said to be the worlds first shopping mall.
The bottom floor still houses a market to this day, with a beautiful arched ceiling and wonderful inbuilt wooden booths. The colonnaded walkway gives a wonderful view out to the square on all sides.
Upstairs in the Cloth Hall are art galleries and below the Cloth Hall is a museum showing the excavations that unearthed the original 12th century marketplace. The photo below is from the underground museum and shows the 2006 excavations of the Square when more rows of market stalls were uncovered outside the perimeter of the cloth Hall that they didn’t know existed before.
The tower poking up behind the Cloth Hall is all that is left of the Old 14th Century Town Hall , this pretty tower leans a little to the left these days and now houses an art gallery.
In the shadow of the Town Hall Tower, on the opposite side of the Town Square to St Marys is the super tiny St Aldaberts Church. It is so teensy tiny and super cute. We peeked inside and a man was selling tickets to a string quartet concert which was playing that night in the church….honestly, you would only have been able to fit ten paying customers in there.
On the same side of the square lies the large bronze sculpture known as ’empty head’ because of it being hollow. It was hard getting a photo of this at any time of the day because of the amount of people that wanted to clamber inside and look out of the eye sockets whilst their chum took snaps. Then we had to wait further whilst the positions were reversed and more snaps taken. It was way to cold to wait around…Rosie got her pics after returning a few times. Lol
Next to ’empty head’ is a giant angel that looked so beautiful all lit up at dusk….don’t worry Rosie is not forgetting the Christmas Markets are on….just like the markets in the other cities, this one too has its own distinct flavor.
Krakow Christmas Market is not as beautifully decorated as Wroclaw but the festive yuletide spirit is certainly alive and well. Mulled wine is the big seller and the food stalls always have people queuing day and night in front of them. The favorite food stalls in Krakow are the fried cheese slice stalls….small mouth size portions of all types of flavored cheese; plain, smoked, fruity, nutty….placed on a charcoal grill and quickly fried to just the right consistency…till just soft and warm…teamed with a dab of plum or cranberry sauce…yum.
This stand smelled delicious! Slices of bread were cut like giant bruschetta, grilled and then you added your toppings of choice, mince, meat, stew or a combination….this was a nice lunch size or light dinner.
Then there are the meat stands for the hard core meat-a-holics. Steaks, kebabs sausages made from every animal you can imagine, served with your choice of potato – roasted, fries, pancake (heavy, yet delicious, like a soft, buttery fritter) or boiled.
The stalls at this Christmas market were larger and seemed to have more classy wares, this hut smelled like spicy heaven, dried fruits and cinnamon sticks, cloves and scented Yuletide essential oils adding to the heady blend you could add to your indoor burners, ornaments or wreaths.
Every market we have been too also has a blacksmith hand making ornaments and small trinkets, a live fiery forge spits sparks into the night mingling with the Christmas lights above.
Krakow Old Town was amazing! There was so much to see and do. The city is completely walkable, the people are friendly and the nightlife and food was fab, don’t worry Rosie will fill you in our excesses and tragedies….tomorrow we are heading out on a day trip to Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps, come along for this sobering tour.
