Discover Krakow

About Krakow

Kraków is Poland's cultural capital and the country's most beautiful city — a UNESCO-listed medieval centre that came through WWII almost completely undamaged (Nazi governor Hans Frank had made it his administrative capital, sparing the architecture), giving it the country's finest collection of Gothic, Renaissance, and baroque buildings. The vast central Market Square (Rynek Główny), one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, is anchored by the spectacular twin-towered St Mary's Basilica (with the famous hourly bugle call cut short at the same point every hour, commemorating a 13th-century watchman shot by a Tatar arrow) and the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice), the Renaissance-era covered market still selling amber and crafts. Walk up to Wawel Hill for the Royal Castle and the Cathedral where Polish kings have been crowned and buried for 700 years; the brilliant Wawel Cathedral Museum has the country's crown jewels. Cross the Vistula to Kazimierz, the historic Jewish Quarter, for moving synagogues, the Galicia Jewish Museum, and the regenerated atmospheric food scene around Plac Nowy. The harrowing Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial (1.5 hours west by guided tour) and the Wieliczka Salt Mine (UNESCO-listed underground cathedral 30 min south) are essential day trips. Kraków is also Poland's best food city and home to its strongest craft-beer culture.