2010 Archive News Stories from Krakow Info
Year
2010
A
Reincarnation: John Paul II Papal University in Krakow.
Pope
Benedict XVI has turned Krakow’s Papal Academy of Theology into John
Paul II Papal University. Thus it becomes the seventh university among
25 institutions of higher learning in Krakow. Currently its 300-plus
faculty members teach over 3,000 students. The university has five
departments – theology, philosophy, history and cultural heritage,
social sciences, and a theology department in Tarnow. Krakow’s John
Paul II Papal University (Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawla II) is the
fifth incarnation of the institution of higher learning whose tradition
dates back to 1397 when the faculty of theology was established at the
Krakow University by decree of Pope Boniface IX. In 1954 the communist
rulers of Poland chased the theologians from the state university. Since
then the faculty has continued as a church institution of higher
education, first as Department of Theology, renamed Papal Department of
Theology in 1974, and made Papal Academy of Theology in 1981 by Pope
John Paul II. The new university’s headquarters takes up the
historical building at 25 Kanonicza street, next to houses at 21 and 19
Kanonicza where Father Karol Wojtyla, future John Paul II, lived
in the years 1951 to 1963.
Man
Behind the Auschwitz Theft Awaits Extradition to Krakow.
A
Swede implicated in the theft of the Auschwitz infamous "Arbeit
Macht Frei" have been finally extradited from Sweden to Krakow on
the 9th of April, 2010. 34-year-old Anders
Hoegstroem was taken into custody in Stockholm on February 11th.
Krakow’s public prosecutor had issued a European warrant for his
arrest a couple of weeks earlier. Mr. Hoegstroem is thought to have masterminded
the larceny carried out on December 18th, 2009 by five rogues from
northern Poland he had hired. Stockholm’s prosecutor Agnetha Hilding
Qvarnstrom had said that Mr. Hoegstroem could be transferred to Krakow
before the end of February but he then challenged the extradition in the Swedish court. Nevertheless
he didn't appeal against the court decision to send him to Poland for
investigation and likely subsequent trial in Krakow. The
Polish perpetrators, five men ages 25 to 39, have been arrested last
December. On March 18th, 2010 three of them were sentenced to 30,
28, and 18 months in prison respectively plus 10,000 zloties of
compensatory damages each after they had pleaded guilty to the
theft. The other two Poles are accused of complicity. Polish
police recovered the iconic Auschwitz sign on the third day after the
theft but it wasn't possible to it put back into place before the solemn
celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
death camp on January 27, 2010. An exact replica has temporarily
replaced the stolen the 5-meter steel inscription over the main gate to
the Auschwitz site turned into a museum commemorating victims of the
Nazi atrocities. The original, cut into three pieces by the thieves,
underwent forensic test and has been returned to the
Auschwitz museum on January 21. The museum's management promises to do its best to renovate the "Arbeit
Macht Frei" sign both thoroughly and quickly yet it will take
months anyway. Auschwitz
site is situated in the town of Oswiecim 70 kilometers west of Krakow.
The theft sent shock waves through the world and in Poland the case
continues to reverberate to this day. 
World
Leaders Did Not Come to Krakow for President Kaczynski’s Funeral.
U.S.
President Barack Obama, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Prince Charles of the UK are just four
VIPs among many heads of state and
government who failed to turn up at President Kaczynski’s funeral in Krakow
on
Sunday, April 18th. They cited the cloud of volcanic ash that halted air
traffic in Europe, including Poland, as the reason. President
Kaczynski and his wife died in the presidential plane crash
near Russia’s city of Smolensk on April 10th, 2010 when all passengers
and the crew were killed – 96 in total including many of Poland’s
political and military elite. The late presidential couple have been entombed in
a hallway of the
crypt of the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow where Marshal Jozef Pilsudski has
been laid to rest since 1936. The decision to bury
President Kaczynski and his spouse in one of the Wawel crypts
resulted in a firestorm of
controversy in Poland because the place is considered a national
mausoleum meant for the burial of kings and the nation’s greatest war
heroes only. Besides the Polish royalty and Marshal Pilsudski just three
other famous Polish military leaders have been interred here – Prince
Jozef Poniatowski in 1817, Tadeusz Kosciuszko in 1818, and General
Wladyslaw Sikorski in 1993. Plus the separate "Bards'
Crypt" contains tombs of two 19th-century genius poets Adam
Mickiewicz and Juliusz Slowacki buried in 1890 and 1927 respectively. The
prospect of President Kaczynski’s funeral at the Wawel Cathedral
perplexed the residents of Krakow in the first place. Hundreds of them
staged street rallies in front of the Archbishop Palace at
Franciszkanska street to protest the decision of Cardinal Stanislaw
Dziwisz.
Car
Theft Is Up, Back.
After five years in a row of decline the number of
stolen cars rose in Krakow last year. Recently
published police statistics reveal 1,039 motor vehicle
thefts in 2009 compared to 818 in 2008. Areas worst
hit by the scourge are high-rise housing developments
of Pradnik Bialy, Pradnik Czerwony, Prokocim, and
Podgorze. German-built cars, notably Volkswagens and
Audis, remain the most popular makes with car thieves
in Krakow. Even more alarming is the sharp increase in
the number of muggings that rose in Krakow almost by
half in 2009 compared with year 2008.
Rain,
Floods, And Disruptions
A few days of heavy rain all over southern Poland
played havoc with transportation in Krakow and the
entire Malopolska
province starting on Sunday, May 16th.
Enormous traffic jams paralyzed Krakow. At the same
time travel to the city was hindered due to closed
roads and bridges, gigantic tailbacks, train delays
and cancellations. As many rivers and streams
overflowed a number of towns as well as some rural
areas in the Krakow region suffered serious damage
from floods. Also such popular tourist destinations as
the former nazi death camp Auschwitz
and Wadowice,
the birthplace of Pope John Paul II, were affected.
Krakow’s
Pizza Beats Italy’s
World's
biggest pizza ever has been baked and eaten
in Krakow. Krakow's 450 cooks prepared the monster on
August 29, 2010 with the Guinness Book of Records in
mind. The record pizza was 1.1 kilometer long and
about one meter wide. It consisted of
4,000 kilograms of flour, 1,500 liters of tomato
sauce, and 1.6 ton of mozzarella.
New
Attraction in the City
An underground archeological museum beneath Krakow’s
Rynek Glowny central square combines
excavations of medieval buildings, exhibitions of
ancient artifacts, and multimedia presentations
including holographic reconstruction of historical
architecture. It opened in
September 2010 and has become an instant sell-out with
would-be visitors queuing at the box office every day.
The museum cost about 14 million
euro to launch.
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