Touring the Old City of Krakow

So much time has passed since our trip to Poland, I have to rely on my notes, photos and the Internet to tell the story of our visit.

After the feast of the Three Kings parade, we went on a wander.  We were on the hunt for an excursion. Cindy had read about the tour of Krakow's salt mine, also known as Wieliczka Mine.  Unfortunately, we were too late to get in on that due to our wandering.  We had walked around a bit just to explore and in so doing, we had lost some time.  The salt mine tour lasts four hours, demanding an entire afternoon.   Instead of the salt mine tour, we ended up reserving space on a tour of the old city. 

There was some time to kill before we set off on that tour, so we headed across the street from the place we booked the tour for a cup of hot chocolate, or "ho-cho" as my dad used to call it.  The chocolate shop was hopping, but we managed to get not only the ho-cho, but also a few pieces of delicious chocolate confection.

We then headed back in to the Rynek Glowny/Grand Square where our tour was to commence.  While there we took a closer look at some of the wares for sale.

I think Cindy regretted not buying one of these Psy pops for Isabel, but we moved on to other attractions, such as this quartet.

It had started to snow, but it seemed like it was just a step beyond rain--at least at first.

We were told to wait by the Church of St. Adalbert's.

The interior was more like a chapel than a full fledged church.  The nativity scenes (including a mechanized version) and other Christmas decorations were still on display.  It was quite cozy, charming and attractive.  All too soon, it was time to go on the tour.

The red circle on the map marks our starting point.  We met our guide "Jack" at the appointed time.  He presented as a brash man; he dressed in an overcoat and fedora and smoked like a chimney throughout the tour.  Jack told us he had studied architecture and the history of culture at the university.  He took us first to a strange courtyard off the main street.

Apparently, this was part of a sales ploy to encourage tour participants to sign up for the salt mine tour for the following day.  Once Jack had processed the tickets of those who were inclined to sign up for the next day, we moved up the street.

Jack offered a proud narrative of his native city, pointing out the sacred and secular landmarks.  He told us there are no skyscrapers permitted in the old city. 

I'm not sure what the model in the center of this light sculpture represents, but I liked it.  It might have been the Barbicon, but I'm not sure.  As we walked up the street, Jack told us that the old city of Krakow had been influenced by the Italian Renaissance.  The Polish and Italian nobility intermarried, bringing a court of 5,000 Italians to Krakow.  Jack said that one in five Krakovians is part Italian, and many of Krakow's restaurants are Italian. 

Jack pointed out this statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko who fought in the American Revolution and shared a passionate interest in human rights with his friend Thomas Jefferson.

We moved on past the Franciscans' church, also known as  the church of St. Francis Assisi.

As most people know, Krakow is a very Catholic city.  Of Krakow's 1,618,593 population, 1,566,555 (96.8%) are Catholic.  Most people are also aware (or would be once they set foot in the city), Krakow was home to Pope John Paul II.  He was archbishop of Krakow before he was named Cardinal.  The evidence of John Paul's importance to the city can be found in many places.

Just as there's a bar on most corners of Wisconsin towns, there's a church every few blocks in Krakow.

This is St. Andrew's church, built in the 11th century and served a defensive function as a fortress church.

Jack told us that some of the statuary outside the church had been damaged by acid rain during the communist rule--the assumption was the Communists didn't spend any money on restoring churches.

The Church of Sts. Peter and Paul is a baroque church noted for having the largest seating capacity of Krakow's  historic churches.


We also passed by many of Krakow's great academic sites, including the Collegium Juridicum of Jagiellonian University.  Our rooms were also connected to Jagiellonian University..

Apparently, at 11:00am you can see the beautiful clock outside the library play the university anthem and watch the figures come out and travel around the clock.  We were there on a holiday, so we missed that.  The universities and colleges in Krakow date back to the middle ages.  The Jagiellonian University boasts the world's oldest library, predating Oxford's Bodleian by 100 years.  The great Copernicus is its most famous (and greatest?) graduate.

The focal point of the tour was the Wawel Castle.  I failed to change my clogs before commencing the tour, which made the walk up the hill to the castle rather treacherous, particularly in the snow, but we soldiered our way to the top.

The only building we entered was the Cathedral.

There was still quite a lot of religious activity, so it didn't seem polite to take too many photos--that and we were admonished not to do so.  Plus, man were told to remove their hats.

While in the church, Jack told us the story of Hedwig who had succeeded to the throne at 14 as "King and queen in one."  She was originally slated to marry the Hapsburg prince who was handsome, educated, fluent in many languages, a good warrior and only six years her senior.  Jack referred to him as vital, code for virile.  Hedwig's advisor pushed her to marry the Lithuanian Casimir instead.  Casimir was 20 years older, a pagan, not as well educated as the Hapsburg prince and didn't speak other languages.  Hedwig was very devout and prayed in the cathedral for weeks.  Legend has it Jesus spoke to her and convinced her she should marry Casimir so she could baptize him and all Lithuanians.  This she agreed to do.

The cathedral features many beautiful marble tombs--all with remarkably intact noses, feet and fingers, unlike many of the tombs I saw in England.   This was the cathedral where John Paul II presided for official ceremonies when he was archbishop of Krakow.
 
We were ushered in to the great courtyard after our visit to the church.

The courtyard is a combination of Gothic and Renaissance styles--heavier columns on the bottom, narrower and narrower columns on the third level where there were two-column lengths.   The roofs were not Renaissance style.  They are pitched vertically which is more decidedly Polish, given the weather.  The four main colors of fresco paintings are red, green, gold and blue.  These colors can still be seen on the remaining wall paintings and columns.

Jack told us about one king who loved women (he'd fathered 552 children), gambling and porcelain--all very expensive pastimes.  He ordered his alchemist to produce the philosopher's stone so as to improve his wealth.  Instead, the alchemist figured out how to make thin porcelain, which had been a state secret of the Chinese and then Japanese for centuries.  The king was well pleased and commissioned a statue of himself in porcelain.  While that wasn't produced, a model was.

Jack also told us about the Chakra stone.  According to Wikipedia, it "is believed to be a holy stone, one of seven mysterious energy sources placed in different locations around the world - the seven main energy centres of Earth.  The  Chakra stone guards Wawel’s hill, and thus - the whole city.  There is an assumption that the Earth has seven special places quite like ‘force centers’ of the human body called chakras in the tantric and yogic teachings of Hinduism. Krakow, and specifically the Wawel Hill, is supposed to be one of those holy areas. Also Rome, Jerusalem, and Delhi are usually awarded the same status. No consensus as regards the remaining three places on the list."

We ended our tour with a rather enchanted snowy walk through a park bordering university buildings, but it started with this unusual sight.

The rest of our walk was more "traditional".

Unfortunately, we ended our day by eating at a terrible Trattoria.  Cindy had tomato soup which she said tasted like Prego with a few noodles.  I had Risotto con Frutti di Mare which was too crunchy.

Still, it had been a full day and we learned a lot.  The next day we went to Auschwitz which served as a dramatic contrast.