The road that goes south from St Florian’s Gate (Brama Floriańska) to the main plaza and then east through Ul. Grodzka to Wawel Palace bisects the historic centre of Kraków. In monarchical times in Poland this was the “Royal Road” (Via Regia), the traditional route followed in the ceremony for the coronation of Polish kings. The Old Town is a roughly cone-shaped area of central Kraków encircled by an attractive narrow green strip known as Planty Park (or just ‘Planty’ to locals). Before the greening of Planty this was the location for the Medieval city’s fortified walls and moat.
Most tourist activity in the Old Town revolves around the immense Rynek Glówny (the Main Square) and Grodzka street which runs off it. This central square is the heart of Krakow’s Stare Miasto (Old Town). It encompasses a massive area, around 40,000m in size. Right in the middle in a dominant position is an oblong-shaped building, tremendously large in itself – the Neo-Gothic Cloth Hall (Pol: Sukiennice). Historically a major centre for trade in textiles, today there are various commercial enterprises at street level and upstairs a Polish art museum. In the Gallery tourists can find rows of stalls selling the usual souvenir wares.
Main SquareAside from the monolithic Cloth Hall building in the centre of the Main Square, there are other impressive buildings around the plaza, one of the more intriguing is St Mary’s Basilica, famous for its wooden altarpiece. What got my attention however was St Mary’s facade, an unusual double tower, unusual because of the disparity between the two spires in height and appearance. The bases of the towers are pretty much identical but one spire is much shorter and has a different design, a real curio piece! On the other side of the Cloth Hall is the Town Hall Tower – its views across the city are worth the small entrance fee. Once a prison the Tower is the only part of the Town Hall to survive the demolition of the building in the 19th century. When visiting Kraków it’s more or less obligatory to take in Grodzka, one the most historic streets in the city (good for sighting churches, restaurants, cafés, lively street entertainers).
Cloth HallRynek Glówny is a great spot to casually wander round looking at the passing human cavalcade. Many street performers (in clown costumes, on stilts, etc) operate in the Square and in the adjoining Grodkza street which connects back to Wawel Castle. Almost continuously through the day and evening, elegant horse-drawn carriages stream past the plaza ferrying sightseers around the Old Town. Around the edges of two sides of Rynek square there are a dazzlingly large grouping of outdoor restaurants arranged in an L-shape. Too many restaurants to choose from, but in reality most of them have much the same menu! Despite that we spent an inordinate amount of time checking out 20 different eateries before settling on one which provided us with a nice variety of typical Polish dishes washed down with several Tyskies.
By following the long Ul Grodkza and turning right you will find your way to Wawel Royal Castle, set up high on the hillside above the Vistula River which defends its southern flank. Legend has it that a fire-breathing dragon (a Smok) guards its walls. There is a bronze statue of the mythical Smok next to the River which people hover round waiting for it to unleash a burst of fire which it does at irregular intervals. The castle hill also contains a series of caves known as the Dragon’s Lair (Smocza Jama).
Zamec CourtyardThe castle/palace is a Renaissance structure with other architectural features incorporated (predominantly Romanesque and Gothic). From Podzamcze street you get a good view of the castle’s impressive defensive walls (Bastion) and the Tower of Sigismund Vasa. You enter the castle complex from a sloping road through a series of archway gates. At the top the castle wall forms part of an ensemble of buildings together with Wawel Cathedral and smaller surrounding chapels. Once the residence of the occupying Austrian Army and later the Nazi Governor-General, Wawel Palace is now a museum with state apartments, works of art and a Crown Treasury and Armoury to visit. The Royal Castle as a whole is an impressive structure but the stand-out visual feature of the complex is the spectacular, majestic, arcaded central Courtyard.
