#mesto Guide

Introduction | Brief History | Sights | Culture

Brief History of Krakow

Krakow

The uniqueness of Kraków is primarily due to the rare cultural heritage embodied in the city's walls. Here, in the year 1000 a Roman Catholic bishopric was founded; a renaissance royal castle was built on Wawel Hill, which became the coronation and burial place of kings, for Kraków was the capital of Poland from the 11th to the 17th century. In 1364, the Kraków Academy was established; the first Polish university (today renamed Jagiellonian University). In the Middle Ages, Kraków was a safe, rich, fortified city surrounded by walls with 55 towers (fragments of the city fortification have been preserved to this day). During the Renaissance, Kraków became a centre of new ideas and culture that attracted the most outstanding humanists, writers, architects and musicians. Even later, while the city was going through economic decline during the period of Modernism, the whole of the Polish artistic elite found safe haven. City life focused around the Market Square, the second largest in Europe after St. Mark's Square in Venice.