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Grand
Square
Krakow's
central square, the
largest of medieval European cities, is arguably one of
the world’s most beautiful plazas. It boasts a plethora
of landmarks and myriad restaurants, clubs, and cafes.
Go
to the Grand Square
The
Wieliczka Salt Mine
Millions of visitors, the crowned heads and such
celebrities as Goethe and Sarah Bernhardt among
them, have enthused over that subterranean world
of labyrinthine passages, giant caverns,
underground lakes and chapels with sculptures in
the crystalline salt and rich ornamentation
carved in the salt rock. The last 900 years, when
the Wieliczka Salt Mine has been worked, produced
200 kilometers of passages as well as 2,040
caverns of varied size.
Go
to the Wieliczka Salt Mine
Prettiest
Leonardo da Vinci
Krakow is one of just six
places in the world that can boast a painting by Leonardo da
Vinci. And of his three female portraits Krakow’s Lady
with an ermine is arguably the most beautiful.
More
on Krakow's Leonardo
Kanonicza
Street
Scenic
Kanonicza Street used to constitute the last and most
glorious part of the Royal
Road,
Krakow’s ceremonial route leading from the main city
gate to the central
square
to the Royal
Castle.
Lined with stately, mostly Renaissance houses, it is
arguably one of Europe’s finest streets.
Go
to the Kanonicza Street
Auschwitz
The site of the Nazi notorious Auschwitz death camp
is an hour’s drive from Krakow. About one million men,
women and children of many nations perished here between June
1941 and January 1945.
Go
to Auschwitz 
Ojcow National
Park
With its mere 21.5 sq. km it may be the
smallest of Poland’s twenty national parks, but
the Ojcow National Park ranks among the most
attractive recreational areas in Europe, and it
is just a 15 minutes’ drive–i.e. 24
km–northwest of Krakow.
Go
to the Ojcow National Park
Window
of awe
The
world’s arguably greatest modern stained-glass
window, the powerful depiction of the Creation, shines
above the entrance to the
basilica of St. Francis’
since 1900.
More
on the 'Creation' window
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Wawel Hill
Mecca of every Pole and a must for
foreign tourists, the Wawel Hill is a microcosm of Polish
history and culture. From the 11th century
on Poland's monarchs took up their residence here
in the Royal Castle. And they were both
crowned and buried here in the Wawel Cathedral. The place
overflows with art treasures,
architectural beauties, relics of the past and
curiosities. It is also full of glory, magic,
history and fable.
Go
to the Wawel Hill
World's
greatest medieval sculpture
The 42-foot-high and
36-foot-wide Veit Stoss' magnum opus is the largest Gothic
sculpture in the world. It consists of 200 fine limewood
sculptures treated with color and gold foil. The central part,
with huge lifelike statues of the saints, depicts dramatically
the Virgin Mary's Quietus among the Apostles.
More
on Stoss' altarpiece
Collegium
Maius
The
Grand College, or Collegium Maius, the oldest
college of Poland's oldest and best university, houses
the University Museum now. It was rebuilt by the end
of the 15th century as a splendid late-Gothic edifice
around a vast courtyard with surrounding arcades and a
well of 1517 in the center. Professors lived and
worked upstairs, while lecturing downstairs. In the
1490s they had Copernicus among their students.
More
on the Collegium Maius
Renaissance
pearl
The gold-plated dome of the
Sigismund Chapel crowns the best example of
Renaissance art and architecture with no match
without Italy and few equals within.
More
on the Sigismund Chapel
Kazimierz
Town
Now in Krakow's downtown, the ancient city of Kazimierz
used to be its medieval rival. The area contains many
landmarks and the former Kazimierz
Jewish Quarter,
one of the main centers of Diaspora in the past.
Go
to Krakow's Kazimierz District
Signal
trump
Every full hour a golden trumpet shows above
Krakow’s central Grand
Square
in the west window just below the spire of the higher,
municipal tower of the Basilica
of the Virgin Mary's.
More
on Krakow's signal
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