Krakow: Day One!

In the hostel, there was a board about what to do and see in Krakow and they had these walking tours. So since I didn't know anything about the city I figured why not!

I had some time before the tour because it started at 10am and I was up and ready by 9am. The hostel I was at had breakfast from 7am-10am but since everyone was early risers and the floor creaked, I was up at 7 and dressed and ready to go by 830. The picture above is the Krakow opera house.

Just some good old Polish architecture 

This spot was apart of the old wall around Krakow.

St Mary's church and the start of the tour! I found out that Krakow is over 900 years old and it was and continues to be the cultural mecca in Poland.

Left opera house build in the 19th century. Right a church from the 11th century. I loved the clash of styles in Krakow! 

Apparently the opera house was modeled after the Parisian opera house. Not half as much gold or any on the Polish one but thats what makes it really such a beauty, the simplicity.

The only tower still standing from the city's old wall and defense system. Built in the 1300s and named after the patron saint of Krakow, St Florian. It was used when the Kings of Poland lived in Krakow and defense like the wall wasn't really necessary, he used to process with his new bride through the city. 

The only piece of the wall still in tact.

They have two performers here every day playing traditional Polish music. I wanted to take a video so everyone could hear but we didn't stick around that spot for very long.

back side of the tower

It was so green!!!!

This was where the watch would be. So there was a tunnel built from the wall to the gate so that if intruders were coming then the soldiers could move from the look out spot to the city without being seen.

View from one of the streets toward the church.

When we got there, a trumpeter was playing. They have one play every hour of the day as a tradition they held from the days before clocks were invented. It was very pretty. If you can see the slender window to the left is open and that is where the trumpeter played.

Another view of the city

The inclosed market square

Adam Mickiewicz Monument - a 19th century Polish poet and the monument was made in 1898. It was tore down by the Nazis in 1940 because they believed Polish people were not capable of creating art and were just put on the planet to be farmers and workers. So they did not want to remind the Polish or anyone else in Poland that they had this capability. During the Soviet regime, the citizens of Krakow pushed the government to rebuilt the statue and if I remember correctly it was rebuilt in the 1980s.

Okay so this was really a cool fact, during the middle ages the town square was where everyone came to sell their goods. Obviously it got dirty. Well the city officials decided to coat the square one or twice a year with straw to clean it up a bit. Over time the shop's doors started to get covered by the 'new' ground so they had to recreate their doors and entryways. So if you're ever in the square and you go into a shop you have to go down instead of up. Its quite interesting.

So in the square there is this tiny tiny church called St. Adalbert built in the 10th century, literally just a room but still very neat!

Town Hall Tower: A Gothic tower that was built in the 13th century. Apparently the tower leans 55 centimeters because of a strong wind that happened in 1703. The tour guide was like maybe in a hundred years more people will come to see this tower and it will be renamed the Polish leaning tower like the Italian one lol. 

The tower was attached to an actual building until the 1820s.

"The Head" or officially "Eros Bendato" created by the Polish artist Igor Mitoraj. He made it for an exhibit the Krakow School of Art was having in 2003/2004. He gifted it after the exhibit to the city. Apparently, the town officials didn't know what to do with is so they put it in front of the clock tower and despite the controversy it created being in such a public place, it has stayed.  

Inside the Jagiellonian University which was founded in 1364 by Casimir III. It is the oldest university in Poland and the second oldest in Europe. 

Bishop's Palace - where Pope John Paul II lived before he became Pope. When I was there, the city was getting ready for his upcoming sainthood. The whole city seemed to be very excited for this.  According to the guide, it was because of Pope John Paul II that Poland recreated itself. During the Cold War, citizens of the Soviet Union could not talk about what was going on in their hometown. When Pope John Paul II became Pope he was outside of the Soviet sphere so he could bring Polish and other countries under the Soviet rule to the forefront of world politics. The Polish in Krakow have quite a love still for him and as a Catholic visiting it was nice to be in a city that was and still is proud to be Catholic. 

St Peter and Paul's Church with the statues of all the apostles out front. When it was built, the church had to be parallel with the road and it didn't turn out that way so they put the statues out front to create the illusion that it was. 

St. Andrew's Chruch

Piotr Skarga Statue: He was the first Polish representative of the Counter-Revolution. It was interesting to find that this statue was placed in front of St Peter and Paul's Church. According to the guide, it was placed here so that the Polish would continue to question the church to help her continue to learn and grow.  

Our walk up to Wawel Castle.

A part of Wawel Castle (there's a lot more of it!). Some of the stones on the buildings date back to 970AD while the site itself dates back to the 9th century. The castle was the seat of the monarchy from 1038 to 1611 because during that time Krakow was the capital city of Poland.

All of the white(cream) stones on the wall are dedicated to those who helped rebuild and continue to help fund the castle after WW2.

It was a bit rainy but this is the view from the castle. It was built on top of a limestone deposit so its pretty high up compared to most of the city.

Inside the castle is the Wawel Cathedral.

This dome on the castle is made out of solid gold. It is the most expensive thing in all of Krakow.

This part of the castle was built during the Renaissance period. It used to be covered in paintings however over time they were destroyed and no one decided to do the upkeep so they are lost.

This corner is symbolic for Krakow and Warsaw. A fire happened here in 1595 and it burnt down the north-east part of the castle. The king at the time, Sigismund III, decided to have it rebuilt while he visited Warsaw. During his stay in Warsaw, the king decided to move himself and the politics there and in 1611 Warsaw became the new capital.  If you're in Warsaw, the fire was sent by God because he wanted Warsaw to be the capital. If you're in Krakow, the fire was a mistake and Krakow should still be the capital. Polish gossip :) 

(in my best tour guide voice…ahhemmm) To your right you will find the architectural style of the Renaissance period. To your left the simplicity of the Nazi regime. 

Yes, the building on the right was build by the Nazis, used by them when they had control of the city, and (if memory serves me right) Hitler was once here as well. 

Our little tour group, the lady holding the sign was the tour guide. She was very informational :) and had an awesome Polish accent when she spoke English!

More shots of Wawel Castle

After the tour, I went with two girls who were in the hostel I was saying at and were on the tour with me to go get lunch. There were Easter markets out in the square so we wandered through there for food and stumbled upon this. It is like a super doughy elephant ear with garlic butter and Polish cheese. It tasted SO SO good! It was huge though and two people probably could've shared it but I was hungry and ate it all. Whoops  

During the second half of the afternoon, I took the Jewish quarter walking tour aka the tour of Kazimierz. It has been the center of Jewish life for over 500 years. This tour had much more of a somber effect. Before WW2 there were over 60,000 Jews living in Poland (over a fourth of the population), only 2,000 survived. Today there is only about 1,000 Jews living in Krakow however only 200 are apart of the Jewish community. Many of them own homes or shops in Krakow but do not live in the city itself, choosing to live in the States or in Palestine. 

This rock symbolizes all those who were killed during the Holocaust. The tiny rocks represent those who are on a pilgrimage to Poland from any other part of the world and placed here. They are in remembrance for either a family member or someone they knew who died during that time. 

One of the functioning synagogs in Krakow. There is only about 2 or three synagogs that are still holding services today. Usually one holds services for all those in Krakow during the fall/winter and in the spring/summer when there are more people in town the open another one. 

Even though it was not exactly the happiest tour, the colors of the buildings were awesome!! I'd love to live in a teal house! 

Old Synagogue built between the 15th and 16th century. It is the oldest surviving synagogue in Poland. Unfortunately it is not open all the time and is only open when it is busy season.

Remuh Cemetery: dates to 1553. This cemetery was spared the Nazi violence because many of the head stones were buried so the Nazi's wouldn't know the importance of it. It still holds two tombs from the 16th century.

Temple Synagogue: the newest in the area because it dates to 1862. It was used by the Nazis as a warehouse and stable so it was also spared. 

(Side Note: This tour had a lot to do with the Nazis and the Holocaust. So if you are not interested in it or do not wish to see things that deal with either subject, I suggest you skip the rest of this and go to the first post on Warsaw.)

A little bar we found on our tour, the area on the opposite side of the bar was used for making movies about the Holocaust and WW2 because the architecture remains intact.

Other side of the bar sign

Some of the streets in the Jewish quarter. You can easily tell that the war and the Soviet Union were not good periods for these people.

The inside of Skalka (Church of St Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery). A Catholic gothic church built in 1472.

The bridge that connects the two parts of the Jewish quarter together. On the other side of this quarter is the Jewish ghetto.  It really was quite a small place. For how many people used to live in this city, what is left is depressing. The area we walked was the exact amount of space the Jews had when they were forced into the ghettos before going to the extermination camps. Honestly, I am happy to have not lived through that and I prayed during the entire time I was there for the amount of lives that were lost. It needs to be seen though because if we do not educate ourselves on the horrors of the past we are bound to repeat them.

On the bridge, they are trying to recreate the Pont d'Arts in Paris where all the lovers leave a lock.

Entrance to the old ghetto and yes some of those buildings were still here and held the Jews before they left to concentration camps. I could never live in a building with that kind of history. However according to the guide, the years during the Soviet Union were not pretty so any housing you got you were thankful for.

This painting is supposed to symbolize the Jewish freedom after WW2. However after someone wrote "never follow" in the corner it has now taken on a new meaning.

This part had to be the hardest and the most shocking to see. This square was the holding place for the Jews before they were loaded like cattle onto train cars and taken to a concentration camp. The chairs are apart of an exhibit by two Krakow artists and was inaugurated on December 8, 2005 in the square. The chairs symbolize the amount of waiting the Jews did in this square essentially (and they did not know it then) to die. Some are placed right by the bus stops to be a reminder to the citizens that anyone can be a victim. It also represents absence. There are over 50 chairs in the square, each representing 1,000 victims, and they are all empty. 

Empty.  

The building were the Nazi soldiers would keep watch over the Jews before they were deported. Once again, the actual building.

After the tour ended, I still had enough time to go see the Schindler's Museum. The movie was based of off what Schindler did during the war to save his workers who were Jewish from being sent off. It was quite a good museum, very heart warming to see a man dedicated to saving his fellow man during such a horrible time.