Cracow 4

St. Mary’s basilica towers above sightseers as they gather by the Mickiewicz monument in the city plaza. Photo: Levan Natadze

The city of Cracow has a long and varied history. Traces of human settlement near Cracow go back 20,000 years to the Stone Age. According to legend, the city of Cracow was founded in honor of King Grakh, whose sons slayed the Wawel Dragon which terrorized the king’s subjects. “Dragon bones,” actually those of a mammoth, decorate the Wawel Cathedral today. Chartered in 1257, Cracow became a center of government and commerce as well as education and culture in the Middle Ages.

Three days is not enough to appreciate the richness of this city’s history and culture. We started off with lectures at the Polish Academy of Sciences, including a history of medieval Polish universities from Paul Knoll. We visited the Collegium Maius, the oldest building of the Jagiellonian University which was founded in 1362 by Casimir the Great. We toured the Gothic Wawel Castle, which was built as a royal residence in the thirteenth century. Group members shopped for amber jewelry in the city plaza’s colorful Renaissance Cloth Hall. For more information and pictures of this historic city, see Krakow or Cracow.


Paul Knoll and group on the steps of the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow, Poland	A model of the Wawel Castle, which is celebrating its 1000th anniversary in the year 2000 with displays of rare art and manuscripts in the castle’s museum. Photo: Levan Natadze	Dinner with members of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow. Lijana, Nadia, Rita, Alexandru-Florin, Dmitri, Tatiana, Iryna, Snezana, Adam and Levan. Photo: Levan Natadze

Dave, Jay, Olga, Dr. Nancy, Irina, Paul, Tatiana and Oleg gather to enter the Jagiellonian Library. Photo: Irina Abramova	Nancy, Olga and Maureen after mid-day meal in Cracow. Photo: Irina Abramova

Kosice was founded in 1241. During the Middle Ages, its excellent location allowed it control of one of four major trade routes in Hungary. Wine and precious metals flowed north across the Carpathian Mountains into Poland from Hungary, while textiles made their way south into Hungary from Cracow.

We stopped here in the afternoon on our way back to Budapest and admired the town with its beautiful plaza and church, St. Elizabeth Cathedral. Fortunately, Irina took a picture of the cathedral. See Kosice for information on the town, including more lovely photographs of St. Elizabeth Cathedral.

The construction of St. Elizabeth Cathedral began at the end of the fourteenth century and was finished in 1508. After damage from various occurrences of fire, flood and earthquake, the last reconstruction of the cathedral was in 1892. Walking around the outside of the cathedral, we were able to see the difference between areas of construction and reconstruction.


Nancy, Oleg and Dmitrij take in the beautiful St. Elizabeth Cathedral. Photo: Irina Abramova

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