Day 1 – Krakow
Sandy and the kids had a week off from school in October for Fall break, so we used the opportunity to cross Poland off our list. We flew into Warsaw and arranged for a car to take us to the central train station so that we could buy tickets to Krakow. While the people in Poland are extremely friendly and helpful, that excludes the ladies working the counter at the train station. Despite that, we managed to get ourselves tickets on the 10.30 train. It was supposed to be a 2 hour 40 minute ride, but it ended up being a 4 hour trip. There were some unexpected delays, but when it turned out to be the same going from Krakow to Warsaw, we concluded that the public transportation does not have the same commitment to punctuality as Switzerland. We made our way to the hotel which advertised itself as a Bed & Breakfast. As it turned out, we stayed in an apartment and the “breakfast” was served in a hostel down the street. The room was OK, but the floors and beds squeaked horribly – difficult to sleep as we all toss and turn and get up in the middle of the night for the bathroom. Regardless, the price was right, especially given the location, right in the middle of the old town. While food is cheap, the cost of lodging is pricey so this place worked out great.
We used the rest of the day to walk around the old town called Stare Miasto. The heart of the old town is Rynek Glowny (Main Marketplace). It is the biggest medieval marketplace worldwide with more than four hectares of area and twelve streets beginning here. It is lined with shops and restaurants. In the center of the square is Sukiennice (Cloth Hall). Sukiennice was built in the early 14th century in the middle of the Main Market as a trading hall in Gothic style. Nowadays, souvenir shops are there. We scouted out the souvenirs and then walked around the old town for a place to eat. We came across a basement restaurant called Bohema. We ordered Zurek (barly based soup with sausage and onions), goulash, pork knuckle, and goose. It was heavy, but very good and incredibly cheap. Most of our dinners were well below 50, including drinks.
Day 2 - Krakow
On the second day, we woke up early to beat the crowd of teenagers at the youth hostel to the breakfast buffet. We got there just before 8AM and were successful in our quest. It was not much of a buffet, but we were glad to get seats.
After breakfast, we walked down the street to the main attraction of the day - Wawel castle, which granted free access on Mondays (today). Wawel is the name of a lime hillock situated on the left bank of the Vistula at an altitude of 228 metres above sea level. This is a symbolic place of great significance for Polish people. The Royal Castle and the Cathedral are situated on the Hill. Polish Royalty and many distinguished Poles are interred in the Cathedral and royal coronations took place there. It's considered to be the most beautiful castle in Central Europe, besides the Hradcany in Prague.
Towards the end of the first millennium A.D Wawel began to play the role of the centre of political power. In the 9th century it became the principal fortified castrum of the Vislane tribe. The first historical ruler of Poland, Miesco I (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslas the Brave (992-1025) and Miesco II (1025-1034) chose Wawel Hill as one of their residences.
During the reign of Casimir the Restorer (1034-1058) Wawel became a significant political and administrative centre for the Polish State. Casimir’s son, Boleslas the Bold (1058-1079) began the construction of a second Romanesque cathedral, which was finished by Boleslas the Wrymouth (1102-1138). In his last will of 1138, this prince divided Poland into districts, and provided that Cracow was to be the residence of the senior prince. In 1291 the city of Cracow along with Wawel Hill temporarily fell under the Czech rule, and Wenceslas II from the Premysl dynasty was crowned King of Poland in Wawel cathedral.
In 1306 the Duke of Kuyavia Ladislas the Short (1306-1333) entered Wawel and was crowned King of Poland in the Cathedral in 1320. It was the first historically recorded coronation of a Polish ruler on Wawel Hill.
The accession to the throne in 1385 of Jadwiga from the Hungarian dynasty of Andegavens, and her marriage to a Lithuanian prince Ladislas Jagiello (1386-1434) started another era of prosperity for Wawel.
The Italian Renaissance arrived at Wawel in the early 16th century. King Alexander (1501-1506) and his brother Sigismund I the Old (1506-1548) commissioned the construction of a new palace in place of the Gothic residence, with an impressive large courtyard with arcaded galleries which was completed about 1540. Close artistic and cultural relations with Italy were strengthened in 1518 by the king’s marriage to Bona Sforza.
The reign of Sigismund III Waza (1587-1632) also made a strong impression on the history of Wawel. After a fire in the castle in 1595 the king rebuilt the burned wing of the building in the early Baroque style.
After Poland had lost its independence in 1795, the troops of partitioning nations, Russia, Prussia and Austria, subsequently occupied Wawel which finally passed into the hands of the Austrians. The new owners converted the castle and some of the secular buildings into a military hospital, and demolished some others, including churches. After the period of the Free City of Cracow (1815-1846) Wawel was once more annexed by Austria and turned into a citadel dominating the city. By the resolution passed by the Seym of Galicia in 1880, the castle was presented as a residence to the Emperor of Austria Franz Josef I. The Austrian troops left the hill between 1905-1911.
When Poland regained its independence in 1918, the castle served as an official residence of the Head of State, and as a museum of historic interiors. During the Nazi occupation the castle was the residence of the German governor general, Hans Frank. Polish people managed to remove the most valuable objects, including the tapestries and the “Szczerbiec” coronation sword to Canada, from where they returned as late as 1959-1961.
We visited a couple of permanent exhibitions on our tour. The first one was called The Lost Wawel. This permanent exhibition, opened in 1975, presents archaeological discoveries, fragments of architecture and the history of the development of Wawel Hill from the Middle Ages to modern times. It is located in the basement of a building which encloses the arcaded courtyard from the west. The archaeological and architectural collection created here, comprises the remains of the Renaissance royal kitchens, the remnants of the Gothic castle, and above all, the four-apsed Rotunda of the Blessed Virgin Mary –later re-named the Rotunda of SS. Felix and Adauctus.
The second one was called Crown Treasury and Armory. The exhibition is located on the ground floor of the north-eastern corner of the castle. It is related to the historic institution of the Crown Treasury once located here, which was a visible sign of the independence of the Kingdom of Poland, and later of the Commonwealth of the Two Nations. From the 14th century the insignia of royal power were stored here (crowns, scepters, orbs, a sword, the Book of Gospels and a tray used in the ceremony of anointing a ruler), as well as a variety of valuables and curiosities which were official state property. At the same time in the castle the monarch’s private treasury consisting of the personal insignia, valuables and ornamental vessels was established. The assets of the Crown Treasury, augmented by diplomatic gifts and royal bequests, including the last will of Sigismund Augustus, were not on public display.
Single objects were only removed on special occasions, primarily for coronation ceremonies. Lists were made of the Crown Treasury’s content during regular audits. The first special public presentation of royal insignia took place in 1792. Three years later the Prussians broke into the Treasury and almost completely destroyed its contents.
Following the destruction of the royal insignia by the Prussians and the loss of almost all the treasures, the new collection, systematically augmented since 1930, only gives an inkling of the old magnificence of the place. Yet, it does include significant works of art, among them some historic artifacts, at the head of which is the Szczerbiec coronation sword - the most significant Polish historic artifact.
We next explored Wawel Cathedral, which included the Royal Tombs, Sigismund Bell and Pope John Paul II Cathedral Museum.
Wawel Cathedral holds a very special place in the history of Poland and the Poles’ national awareness. For centuries it has been the place of worship of St Stanislaus, the saint who has been inextricably connected with the idea of a united and independent Polish State, a concept which was equally valid in the period of regional disintegration, the Partitions of Poland and communist rule. The grave of the martyr has been considered the Altar of the Homeland. The history of the Cracow Diocese and its main church reached its culmination at the election of its host, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, to the Holy See as Pope John Paul II.
Cracow Cathedral was the centre of worship of St Stanislaus (Stanisław), the Cracow bishop who was murdered in 1253 on the orders of King Bolesław the Bold. The grave of the bishop became a destination for pilgrims from all over Poland and neighbouring countries. The veneration of this saint was associated with the idea of the unification of the Polish Kingdom after the period of its regional disintegration. It was for this reason that the tradition of having coronations of Polish kings at the Gniezno Archcathedral was broken on the 20th of January. 1320, when King Władysław the Short was crowned at Cracow Cathedral, close to the relics of the patron saint of the restored Polish monarchy. After that, Wawel Cathedral became the site at which the coronations of Polish rulers took place.
For as long as a thousand years, the Cracow Metropolitan Basilica of SS Stanislaus and Wenceslaus has been the “mother of churches” in one of the most important Polish dioceses which in 1925 was raised to the rank of an archdiocese. The Lord’s service has been always conducted here with great splendour and was considered a model for other churches. In its glorious days, more then a hundred priests were involved in the cathedral services, and prayers continued day and night without interruption.
We finished our tour of the castle complex with a stop the Dragon’s Den. This is a large cave underneath the castle. Early medieval legends tell stories about a dreadful dragon that lived in a cave on Wawel Hill, about his slayer Krakus, and about the latter’s daughter Wanda, who drowned herself in the Vistula rather than marry a German knight.
After the tour, we grabbed a quick lunch, and also had our first serving of golumpki and pierogi. The golumpki was huge, filled mostly with rice and a little bit of minced meat, and covered in a gravy like sauce, only creamier. The pierogis were pretty similar to what we have back home, only a lot greasier and served with caramelized onions. One of favorites was the pierogis filled with spinach.
After lunch, we decided to find our way to the town of Wieliczka to visit the famous Wieliczka Salt Mine. The mine continuously produced table salt from the 13th century until 2007 as one of the world's oldest operating salt mines, for most of this time span being a part of the undertaking żupy krakowskie. It is believed to be the world's 14th-oldest company. The mine's attractions include dozens of statues and an entire chapel that has been carved out of the rock salt by the miners. They said on the tour that the price of our ticket includes all the salt we could lick, so the kids made use of the opportunity to lick everything in sight – they were constantly asked if it tastes like salt and apparently it did.
We took the bus back, walked around the old town for a bit and then went back to our apartment to freshen up. We noticed a Swiss restaurant (the 27th Canton) next to the apartment, so we decided to give it a try. It actually did not have much in the way of Swiss cuisine. But I had trout in this creamy walnut sauce that was fantastic.
