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Adam Mickiewicz statue
A few steps north from the Church of St Adalbert on Rynek Główny (the Main Market Square) is the Adam Mickiewicz statue surrounded by four allegorical figures representing the Motherland, Learning, Poetry and Valour. The szopki (Nativity scenes) competition is held beside the statue in early December.
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Barbican
The most intriguing remnant of the medieval fortifications, the Barbican is a powerful, circular brick bastion adorned with seven turrets. There are 130 loopholes in its 3m-thick walls. This curious piece of defensive art was built around 1498 as an additional protection of the Florian Gate, and was once connected to it by a narrow passage running over a moat. It's one of the very few surviving structures of its kind in Europe, and also the largest and perhaps the most beautiful.
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Basilica of St Francis
The mighty Basilica of St Francis was erected in the second half of the 13th century but was repeatedly rebuilt and refurnished after at least four fires, the last and the most destructive being in 1850 when almost all the interior was destroyed. Of the present decorations, the most interesting are the Art Nouveau stained-glass windows in the chancel and above the organ loft; the latter is regarded as among the greatest in Poland.
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Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady
Overlooking Rynek Główny (the Main Market Square) from the northeast is the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, better known in these parts as the Mariacki. The first church on this site was built in the 1220s and, typically for the period, was 'oriented' - that is, its sanctuary pointed eastward. Following its destruction during the Tatar raids, the construction of a mighty basilica began, using the foundations of the previous church.
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Benedictine Abbey
A distant suburb of Kraków, 12km southwest of the centre, Tyniec is the site of the Benedictine Abbey dramatically perched on a cliff above the Vistula. The Benedictines came to Poland in the second half of the 11th century, and it was in Tyniec that they established their first base. The original Romanesque church and the monastery were destroyed and rebuilt in the 14th and 18th centuries.
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Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland
In the northwestern part of Nowa Huta is the Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland, otherwise known as the Arka Pana (Lord's Ark). This interesting, though rather heavy, ark-shaped construction was the first new church permitted in Nowa Huta after WWII, and was completed in 1977 entirely by volunteer labourers. Up till then, Nowa Hutans used the two historic churches that had somehow managed to escape the avalanche of concrete.
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Church of SS Peter & Paul
The first Baroque building in Kraków, the Church of SS Peter & Paul was erected by the Jesuits, who had been brought to the city in 1583 to do battle with supporters of the Reformation. Designed on the Latin cross layout and topped with a large skylit dome, the church has a refreshingly sober interior, apart from some fine stucco decoration on the vault. The figures of the 12 Apostles standing on columns in front of the church are copies of the statues from 1723.
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Church of St Adalbert
In the southern corner of Rynek Główny (the Main Market Square) is the small, domed Church of St Adalbert. It's one of the oldest churches in the Old Town, with its origins dating from the 11th century. You can see the original foundations in the basement, where a small exhibition also presents archaeological finds excavated from the Rynek.
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Church of St Andrew
Built towards the end of the 11th century, the Church of St Andrew is one of Kraków's oldest, and has preserved much of its austere Romanesque stone exterior. As soon as you enter, though, you're in a totally different world; its small interior was subjected to a radical Baroque overhaul in the 18th century.
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Church of St Anne
The Baroque Church of St Anne was designed by the omnipresent Tylman van Gameren and built in the late 17th century as a university church. The Church of St Anne was long the site of inaugurations of the academic year, doctoral promotions and a resting place for many eminent university professors and rectors.
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Church of St Barbara
The sombre 14th-century Church of St Barbara, bordering Plac Mariacki on the east, was the cemetery chapel and served the Polish faithful (the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady was for Germans) during the Middle Ages. Note the skull and crossbones on the north exterior; just inside the entrance is an open chapel featuring stone sculptures of Christ and three of the Apostles, also attributed to the Stoss school.
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Church of St Bartholomew
Until the construction of the Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland in 1977, Nowa Hutans used the two historic churches that had somehow managed to escape the avalanche of concrete. They are both on the southeastern outskirts of Nowa Huta, in the Mogiła suburb about 2.5km southeast of Plac Centralny (tram 15), and are worth a visit if you are in the area. The small, shingled Church of St Bartholomew dates from the mid-15th century, which makes it Poland's oldest surviving three-nave timber church.
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Church of St Catherine
The Church of St Catherine is one of the most monumental churches in the city, and possibly the one that has best retained its original Gothic shape. It was founded in 1363 and completed 35 years later, though the towers have never been built. The church was once on the corner of Kazimierz's market square but the area was built up in the 19th century. The lofty and spacious whitewashed interior boasts the imposing, richly gilded Baroque high altar from 1634 and some very flamboyant choir stalls.
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Cistercian Abbey
Until the construction of the Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland in 1977, Nowa Hutans used the two historic churches that had somehow managed to escape the avalanche of concrete. They are both on the southeastern outskirts of Nowa Huta, in the Mogiła suburb about 2.5km southeast of Plac Centralny (tram 15), and are worth a visit if you are in the area.
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Cloth Hall
Dominating Rynek Główny (the Main Market Square) is the centrally positioned Cloth Hall, once the centre of Kraków's medieval rag trade. It was formed in the early 14th century when a roof was put over two rows of stalls and extended into a 108m-long Gothic structure in the second half of the 14th century. The hall was rebuilt in Renaissance style after a fire in 1555; the arcades were added in the late 19th century.
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Corpus Christi Church
In the northeastern corner of Plac Wolnica is Corpus Christi Church. Founded in 1340, it was the first church in Kazimierz and for a long time the town's parish church. Its interior has been almost totally fitted out with Baroque furnishings, including the huge high altar, extraordinary massive carved stalls in the chancel and a boat-shaped pulpit. Note the surviving early 15th-century stained-glass window in the sanctuary and the crucifix hanging above the chancel.
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Dominican Church of the Holy Trinity
The powerful Dominican Church of the Holy Trinity was built in the 13th century and badly damaged in the 1850 fire, though its side chapels, dating mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries, have been preserved in reasonably good shape. Monumental neo-Gothic confessionals and stalls topped with angels playing musical instruments are a later adornment. Note the original 14th-century doorway at the main (western) entrance to the church.
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Florian Gate
The Florian Gate is the only one of the original eight gates in the city's mury obronne (defensive walls) that was not dismantled during the 19th-century 'modernisation'. It was built around 1300, although the top is a later addition. The adjoining walls, together with two towers, have also been left standing.
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Franciscan Monastery
Adjoining the mighty Basilica of St Francis from the south is the Franciscan Monastery, which preserves its original Gothic cloister complete with fragments of 15th-century frescoes and portraits of Kraków's bishops. Enter the cloister from the transept of the church.
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Ghetto Wall
Just south of Plac Bohaterów Getta in Podgórze are the remains of the ghetto wall with a plaque marking the site.
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High Synagogue
Less than 100m southeast of Isaac's Synagogue is the High Synagogue, built around 1560 and the third oldest of the Jewish quarter's synagogues after the Old and the Remuh Synagogues. It contains a photographic exhibition on the 1st floor and Kraków's best Jewish bookshop, Austeria, on the ground floor.
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Isaac's Synagogue
Near the southeastern edge of the Remuh Cemetery is Isaac's Synagogue, Kraków's largest synagogue. Completed in 1644, it was returned to the Jewish community in 1989. Inside you can see the remains of the original stuccowork and wall-painting decoration and a photography exhibition.
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Kościuszko Mound
The prime attraction of the suburb called Zwierzyniec, just under 3km west of the Old Town, is the Kościuszko Mound, erected between 1820 and 1823 soon after Kościuszko's death, to pay tribute to the man who embodied the dreams of independent Poland in times of foreign occupation. The mound stands 34m high, and soil from the Polish and American battlefields where Kościuszko fought was placed here. The views over the city are spectacular.
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Mały Rynek
East of Plac Mariacki is the Mały Rynek, the 'Little Market Square'. It was the meat market in medieval times.
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Monastery of the Camaldolese Monks
The hilly southern part of Las Wolski (Wolski Forest) facing the Vistula, known as Srebrna Góra (Silver Mountain), is topped with the mighty Monastery of the Camaldolese Monks. The order, part of the Benedictine family of monastic communities, was brought to Poland from Italy in 1603 and in time founded a dozen monasteries throughout the country. Today there are just two in Poland, including another in Masuria.
