Selected
Archive News Stories from Krakow Info in 2005
Year
2005 in News from Krakow Info
World
Leaders Honor Auschwitz’s Victims
Over 30 heads of state – Russia’s Vladimir Putin,
France’s Jacques Chirac, and Israel’s Moshe Katsav
among others – as well as US Vice President Dick
Cheney arrived to Krakow January 26-27 to commemorate
the 60th anniversary of Auschwitz’s capture by the
Soviet army. Set up in 1940 for Polish political
prisoners, the notorious Nazi death camp in the town
of Oswiecim, 75 km west of Krakow, evolved in a couple
of years into a mass-execution complex of three major
camps – Auschwitz proper, Birkenau and Monowitz –
and their more than forty sub-camps. Over million men,
women, and children perished there during WW2, mostly
Jews but also Poles, Gypsies, Russian POWs as well as
other European nations.
One
Mall Closer to the City Center
A brand-new 36,000-sq-m, four-story shopping mall has
opened in downtown Krakow. ‘Galleria Kazimierz’
takes up block of streets Podgorska, Gesia,
Masarska and Daszynskiego on the Wisla river bank. The
mall boasts 150 shops of varied size, a supermarket, a
ten-theater multiplex, its share of eateries, and a
six-story parking garage for 1,800 vehicles. Currently
it’s situated closest to the central Old Town
historical district of all Krakow’s shopping
centers.
April 4, 2005, Mourners keeping
vigil in front of the palace of Krakow's bishops where Pope
John Paul II once lived.
Krakow Mourns Its Beloved Son Pope John Paul II
The citizens of Krakow keep grieving over the loss of
the Pope whom they have seen as their Holy Father in
the most literal sense. Their sorrow overflows
households and churches and manifests itself
powerfully in the streets as people pray and light
candles and put flowers at all sites associated with
John Paul II, one way or another. In the first place,
the Bishop’s Palace at Franciszkanska street where
he resided as the Krakow archbishop for fifteen years
before taking over the Holy See. And entertainment as
well as some public
events–from cultural to sports
to political ones–may be cancelled even beyond the
period of official mourning. Before he became Pope
John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla had lived in Krakow from
1938 to 1978, first as a student then priest and
academic and finally bishop and cardinal. As the
Pontiff he always remembered his city fondly and
visited Krakow as often as possible. Now the fellow
citizens hope that at least his heart will be buried
in the city one day.
Krakow’s
New-Old Basilica
Krakow has got its tenth basilica May 15 as pope
bestowed that status on the 600-year-old Corpus
Christi church (Kosciol Bozego Ciala) in the heart of
the Kazimierz area that stretches southeast of the
city’s central Old Town historical district. Since
1405 the church has been in the possession of the
adjacent monastery of the order of Regular Lateran
Canons.
Taxpayers
Make Krakow Second City in Poland
Krakow’s last year’s revenue of 1.81 billion zloty
(an equivalent of roughly $0.55 billion) makes it the
second richest municipality among Poland’s
provincial capitals after Warsaw, the country’s
biggest city and the seat of national government that
doubles as the metropolis of the Mazowieckie province.
Save Lodz all major Polish cities are capitals of
Poland’s 16 provinces.
Krakow
Football At the Top, Again
Krakow’s top soccer team, Wisla, has won Poland’s
2005 football Championship. It’s the third title the
club secured in a row and the tenth one in its 99-year
history. In Poland the professional football league
plays from September to June with a winter
break.
The
Late Pope’s Aide to Run Krakow’s Archdiocese
John Paul II’s lifelong assistant, Archbishop
Stanislaw Dziwisz, 66, is taking over the Krakow
archdiocese. Pope Benedict XVI named his
predecessor’s private secretary for 27 years and the
Holy Sees’ eminence grise to replace archbishop
Franciszek Macharski who at 78 is three years past the
Church’s retirement age. In 1966 the then Krakow
archbishop Karol Wojtyla, future pope John Paul
II,
made 27-year-old Father Dziwisz his chaplain and would
take him to Vatican in 1978 as his closest aide till
death last April. Archbishop Dziwisz is to take hold
of his new Krakow duties at the end of August.
Most
Serious Crime Stays Low
This year, till May 31, six homicides happened in
Krakow, city of 800,000 with numerous visitors, all
cases solved and killers arrested. In 2004 there were
24 murders of which three remain unsolved to
date.
Krakow
Teen Wins Wimbledon
Krakow’s 16-year-old tennis player Agnieszka
Radwanska won this year’s Wimbledon women’s
tournament for juniors. It was the second competition
on grass surface she ever played in. Krakow’s
teenage champ has played tennis since five and her
father, once Poland’s tennis champion himself,
remains her coach.
Under
Construction: Brand-new Steel Mill
Mittal Steel Poland, subsidiary of Indian
international giant Mittal Steel Co., has awarded the
contract to build a $350-million hot strip mill in
Krakow to Austria’s Voest Alpine. The
state-of-the-art mill, due 2006, will churn out 2.4
million ton of top-quality steel sheets per year.
Mittal Steel bought the bulk of Poland’s steel
industry, in that number Krakow’s mammoth HiS
steelworks on the city’s eastern outskirts.
MAN
Trucked Next to Krakow
Germany’s truck maker MAN has decided to place its
new assembly plant in Niepolomice, Krakow’s
satellite town to the southeast. The factory, due in
mid-2007, is to employ 650 and produce up to 15,000
vehicles per year. It will cost 96 million euro to
build, part of the amount covered by Polish
government’s grant. And the provincial government of
Malopolska has pledged 142 hectares of land plus
access road and railway.
Centrally situated
Auditorium Maximum of the Krakow university, 35 Krupnicza street,
often
doubles as a music hall for 1,200
Auditorium
Maximum, Address to Remember
Krakow’s 650-year-old Jagiellonian
University, has
got a brand-new, state-of-the-art building for events
with large attendance. The long overdue
14.3-million-dollar Auditorium Maximum at 35 Krupnicza
street seats 1,200 in its main amphitheater-like hall
whereas the smaller ones have capacity of respectively
250 and 100. The posh building, meant for everyday use
as a set of lecture halls, is to serve as a venue for
university gatherings on official occasions and double
as a conference center, also available for performance
arts and other events.
Krakow,
the Detour City
Wholesale modernization of Krakow’s crucial arteries
plays havoc with the city’s transportation system
this summer and fall. Most consequential seems closing
of the busy junction next to the Krakow Glowny central
station where many of popular bus lines and tramways
crossed, now having been rerouted. In consequence the
nearest bus and tram stops are now to be found two
blocks east and west from the train station. The
junction is to stay closed till November.
Rynek
Glowny, Half-closed Due to Modernization
Renovation of the eastern half of Krakow’s huge
Rynek Glowny central square is under way. The
5.7-million-dollar refurbishment of the city’s
unrivalled hub entails replacing of the entire
surface, improvement of its foundations, and thorough
overhaul of underground installations – all preceded
by archeological excavations. Completion of the works
is scheduled for May 31, 2006. For the meantime, Rynek
Glowny’s multiple functions – from everyday
socializing to open-air concerts to traditional
festivals – squeeze into the square’s western
half, already renovated last year.
New
Bus Depot, At Last
Krakow has got a long overdue brand-new depot for
long-distance buses. The modern bus station is
situated at Bosacka street, just east of the Krakow
Glowny main train station that abuts on the city’s
central Old Town historic district. One may get there
by taxi or on foot, walking the underground passage
that connects railway platforms.
Modern Art Is Back at the Krakow National Museum, At
Long Last
Krakow National Museum’s Gallery of the
20th-century Polish Art has opened after a
six-year-long, $ 2.3-million overhaul marred by
financial shortages and technical glitches. The
spacious 3,000-sq-m gallery takes up the entire third
floor of the museum’s flagship edifice at 1, 3 Maja
street and houses nearly 500 outstanding works by
Poland’s modern artists, with a tilt towards those
most important for Krakow. Arranged with regard to
schools and trends rather than chronology the exhibits
provide a wide cross-section of the Polish art,
starting from the 1890s up to now.
Krakow
Attracted 7,000,000+ in 2005
This year number of visitors, foreign and Polish, to
Krakow totaled over seven million, nearly a million
more than in 2004–recent estimates say. An average
tourist from abroad spends roughly $200 in Krakow
while a Polish one just $90 or so, and the aggregate
windfall for the city amounted to about $250 million
in the third quarter. The city attracted less
Americans and Israelis than in 2004 but proved
increasingly popular with Germans and Britons.
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