Marcel Burger - Third time's the charm

Looking proud on the banks of the Wisła river (Vistula), the former royal city of Kraków is remarkably easy-going. It is a popular magnet for the creatives and tourists alike, with about a million people calling it home if one count the about 200,000 students in that are still officially registered in the villages of their mums and dads. And the about 100,000 Ukrainians that fled the war, and of which many found a job in the buzzing city. Having students is a real long historic fact for Kraków, as the Jagiellonian University was founded here in 1364 and remains the centrepiece of the academic world today.

The rooftops of Kraków are a must see, and the city has several options, like here from the rooftop terrace of the Music School. The white domed building is Poczta Główna, the now mostly empty Central Post Office building. The balloon in the distance is a tourist attraction, on a wire.

Unlike many Polish cities, the buildings of the Old Town are authentic, and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Word has it that the Nazi-German general advancing into Kraków in 1939 liked it that much, he forbid bombing like what happened to almost all other Polish cities. Some buildings date back to the Middle Ages. The iconic Wawel Castle is from the 16th Century, and the city just grew around it.

On this page, my expanding illustrated story of Kraków, which I first visited as a tourist in 2017 and has been my home town since 2021.

"Art wall" on the reconstructed old city wall near the Florian gate.

"The bridge of love", pedestrian and bicycle bridge that connects the popular centre city areas of Kazimierz and Podgórze.

The biggest and probably most impressive landmark of Kraków and its Old Town (Stare Miasto) is Wawel Castle. Once it was the residency of kings, ever since king Kazimierz the Great ordered it built in the 14th Century. After that it was expanded, and it shows at least four different main architectonic styles. Some parts look more German, some parts - like the inner courtyard, Italian. But it is the Polish flag on top. The fortified stronghold is a tourist magnet, with an estimated 1 to 2 million visitors every year post-COVID.

Especially in summer, tourist boats float up and down the Krakowian part of the river Wisła (Vistula)

Inside the Sukiennice, or Cloth Hall, bazaar on Kraków's main square one can find anything from jewelry to souvenirs

The main square (Rynek) with the Saint Mary's Basilica (Kościół Mariacki), the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and the touristic horse and carriage

The touristic horse and carriage, with almost always a crew of a male horseman and a female side-kick - and with not always the greatest chemistry between them

Kraków is home to about 200,000 students, that give the city a lively vibe

On Rynek, the main square in the old town is one of Europe's biggest.

The trumpet player in the cathedral tower on main square. Four of them work in shifts, playing the same tune every hour. Legend has it that centuries ago a predecessor tried to signal the alarm for advancing forces and was killed by an archer. Up to today the trumpet player stops where - according to the stories - his fellow man was silenced in history.

View at the main cathedral, the Bazylika Mariacka, on main square - seen from the rooftop terrace of the Music School.

The Bazylika Mariacka during a crazy 2 January sunset.

The Old Town (Stare Miasto)

The historic centre of Kraków is UNESCO World Heritage since 1978. This was the capital of Poland for almost five centuries, until the "Swedish" king Sigismund III Vasa moved it to Warsaw in 1596. As a merchant town, the medieval Kraków was surrounded by a city wall and 46 defence towers and seven gates. Apart from the Florian Gate and a piece of renovated wall, not much of the old walls is left. But the city has marked the locations of the old towers with plates on tilted stone to give you an idea of the old defences.

Kraków's Stare Miasto (Polish for Old Town) has Europe's biggest market square, with the Cloth Hall standing proud in the middle of it. At and in the adjacent streets are former palaces, richly decorated churches, former trade houses, bars and cafés.

The old town is also the starting ground of one of the oldest universities in the world that still functions today: the Jagiellonian University (Uniwersytet Jagielloński) founded in 1364 by King Kazimierz III the Great. These days, the university is spread far outside the old town, but the former archaeological cabinet of the university of 1867at Jagiellońska street is very much worth a visit, and so is to admire the facade of the Rektorat of the university one block further south.

Poselska street, March 2025

Walk-through from Mały Rynek (Little Square) to Plac Mariacki (Mariacki Square)

Wavel Castle

The best show of Poland's historic royal might is displayed at Wavel Castle. Situated on a limestone rock at the edge of the old town, it is towering over the Wisła river and the Stare Miasto below. Established by King Kazimierz III the Great in the 14th Century, the fortified complex was changed and had additions through the centuries after. The mixture of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque styles makes Wavel Castle a highly attractive landmark for visitors and Krakowians alike. With clear weather, one can even see the impressive High Tatra Mountains further south from the castle grounds.

While Wavel Castle is a paid museum (est. 1930), much of its grounds are free to visit year round. The church inside the grounds is an entity by itself. Do visit to touch the clock in the bell tower. Word has it, this will bring you eternal luck.

Guarding the Wavel Castle down at the river bank is the Wavel Dragon (Smok Wawelsk). This mythical beast is said to have terrorised the city in books from the 12th Century, but hero prince Krakus finally killed it. As a phoenix that has risen from the ashes, the dragon has returned to spit real fire every 10 minutes or so.

The Renaissance courtyard inside Wavel Castle, March 2025.

The Wavel Cathedral, March 2025.

Magnolia flourishing in March 2025.

North entrance of Wavel Castle.

A chapel of the Wavel Cathedral.

Gateway to the Rennaissance parts.

The Wavel Dragon in action.

One of the more fancy rooms inside Wavel Castle. The arches were added more recently, after a fire damaged parts of the castle.

A beautiful tiled stove inside Wavel Castle.

Inside Wavel Castle.

Admiring the silver collection of the Wavel Castle tour.

Planty (Stare Miasto)

Stretching over 4 kilometres (2.9 miles) in length, Planty offers you a glimpse of the size of the city until the end of the 1700s / early1900s. Stroll around the Old Town (Stare Miasto) and imagine the city walls that encircled Kraków of the past. Not much is left of the original wall, but the renovated / reconstructed Florian Gate on the norther side is a gem. Here one can also find the Barbican, the old circular mini fortress. Along the stretch of Planty one can find references to where towers were, and parts of the fundaments and walls can be seen.

For Krakowians, Planty is a favourite park to run through, cycle through, commute through, dance in (there is a gazebo on the eastern side), sit and relax on a bench, talk with friends (live or on the phone), behold of the many different trees and see them change in the seasons, or enjoy it any other way. The photos of this series I took on an early April morning in 2024.

The Kazimierz district

Now a very popular district for lunches, drinks, outdoor seating and nightlife, Kazimierz was once a town by itself - separated from Kraków by an old flow of the Wisła river and named by its founder, king Kazimierz. After the old river flow was filled at the end of the 19th Century, Kazimierz got more connected to Kraków. But the district has managed to keep a different vibe than the Stare Miasto.

Kazimierz is also known as the Jewish quarter. Jews settled here under the protection of the king in the mid-1200s. Most Jews were killed in the Nazi-German death camps during World War II, and the Soviet/Communist rule that followed after 1945 ignored the heritage of Kazimierz. But after the fall of Communism, Kazimierz is back on its way up. An annual Jewish Cultural festival in June attracts many from all backgrounds since its first edition in 1988, buildings are restored and Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Schindler's List was partly shot at now famous locations in Kazimierz. Friends visiting often say they like the authenticity of the district above the show-off of the Old Town, despite the fact that Kazimierz has changed much since my first visit in 2017.

A passer-by in Bożego Ciała street, March 2025.

Świętego Stanisława street with the Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel in the background.

The princess.

The monsieur.

View into Joszefa street.

Nowa Huta

Nowa Huta is one of the biggest communist model city districts outside the former Soviet Union. Started in 1949, it expanded substantially in the 1960s, when a giant steel plant was opened here. After renovations this century, Nowa Huta has attracted younger people with better salaries. Some simply love the straight city planning. Compared to new developed areas in many parts of Poland, including Kraków, Nowa Huta has spacious avenues, wide pavements, and a lot of trees in between the similar apartment buildings.

A female runner passes the vegetables and fruit kiosk at Stefana Żeromskiego street in Nowa Huta, March 2025.

A mixed taste of Paris and Berlin at Reagan Square (Plac Centralny im. R.Reagana).

Arches at majestic buildings at Reagan Square, which is the centre of Nowa Huta.

The 1960s Sfinks Cinema (Kino Sfinks) and the C.K. Norwida cultural centre.

Details of 1960s Nowa Huta architecture.

The IS-2 tank memorial in Nowa Huta.

The St. Vincent Pallotti Public Primary School. (Publiczna Szkoła Podstawowa im. św. Wincentego Pallottiego).

Park Zalew Nowohucki (the park of Nowa Huta lake).

The church of MB Częstochowskiej w Krakowie.

Park Zalew Nowohucki, March 2025.

The marshlands of Nowa Huta that seperate it from the rest of Kraków (Łąki Nowohuckie w Krakowie).

Bronowice Małe and a century old double love story

A true double romance of more than a century old has been kept alive in the Bronowice Małe area of Kraków. It is the love story of the Polish painter and progressive politician Włodzimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer who married Anna Mikołajczykówna, the daughter of a peasant, in 1890. The Tetjmajers' manor house in the then village of Bronowice was the scene of another wedding, of Anna's sister Jadwiga with the Polish poet Lucjan Rydel, on 20 November 1900.

Now, we would likely not know anything about this, if it was not for Stanisław Wyspiański. This Polish writer and artist was a guest at Lucjan and Jadwiga's wedding and immortalized the event in the drama The Wedding (Wesele in Polish). Up to today, Polish people still tell the lover story of more than a century ago - likely even more dramatised - to the younger generation.

Lucjan and Jadwiga Rydel and kids around 1910 (Photo in collection National Museum)

Włodzimierz and Anna Tetmajer and kids, the beginning of the 1900s (Photo in collection National Museum)

The manor house described in Wyspiański's play still exist up to today and has been named Rydlówka, after Rydel. Since 1969 it has been a museum, and is managed by the Muzeum Krakowa (the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków) since 20 November 2018 - the anniversary date of Rydel & Jadwiga's wedding.

Rydlówka, the real manor house (partly reconstructed after a fire in the 1960s) in Bronowice that was the scene of the real wedding on 20 November 1900, and featured in the drama Wesele by Stanisław Wyspiański. All photos in this chapter are from November 2024.

Details from the outside of the manor house.

The drama Wesele, still a famous Polish book.

A copy of the 1904 theatre play Wesele.

The room where older family guests were discussing life and everything, as it was in details described in the drama Wesele.

Colourful chest in an adjacent room.

Just down the manor house hill, across the road, this traditional Bronowice wooden house is in pretty bad shape. But do note the painted details on the window frame.

The path leading to the the Rydlówka.

Morden bird feeding house at the premises of the Rydlówka.

Take a stroll through the neighbourhood of the Rydlówka manor house in Bronowice Małe to discover small gems.

Tetmajer's park is nearby, named after the Włodzimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer who owned the manor house in Bronowice in his days.

A new lake and even newer jetties are a nice new touch to Tejtmajer Park.

Detail of Tejtmajar Park.

Grzegórzki

Grzegórzki is a easy-going residential area, a little northeast of the old town. It started as a village in the 1300s, but is already part of Kraków since the 1400s. Take a stroll through the area and be a spectator of all the bigger historic houses. Almost around every corner awaits a surprise or a hidden gem for the noticeable observer. The photos of these series I took in June 2024.

The last photo of these series features a special building, nicknamed The Skeleton (Szkieletor in Polish). Officially called the Unity Tower, it is 102.5 metres tall. Construction started in 1975, but was stopped before the end of the seventies. Hence, the nickname, as just the skeleton of what it was supposed to be stood tall, for decades in a row. After long debates and court cases, the reconstruction of the building commenced again in the past decade and on 30 September 2020 it was finally completed - this time in a modern version of the 1920s Art Deco style.

The Wisła (Vistula) river

The Wisła river (Vistula in English) is the longest river of Poland, crossing almost the entire country from south to north. On its 1,047 (651 miles) journey from the mountains to the Baltic Sea, Kraków is the first major city it flows through.

The banks of the river are very popular to jog, walk, cycle, picnic, read a book or take a small boat ride on. It seldomly causes havoc. During the September 2014 record rain fall in Central Europe, Kraków escaped rather unharmed. The people in many towns and villages in the Silesia region further west were less lucky.

The photos in this section have all been taken on Sunday 15 September 2024, when during a few hours in the afternoon the Wisła flooded the pedestrian and cycle paths on its lower banks. The city itself was never under threat.

Around 10:00 the pedestrian and cycle path on the left hand side of this photo was still just above the water line.

The same path around 14:00 in the afternoon.

Two passers-by witness the flooding of the path from underneath the Dębnicki bridge, the main bridge leading to the avenue ("Aleja") that encircles the inner city.

View to the east from the Zwierzyniecki bridge. Several hundreds of kilometres upstream, the mighty Wisla has its spring. Notice the mountains in the far distance.

Tyniec

The village of Tyniec, 12 kilometres (8 miles) from the Kraków old town, is locally known for its gorgeous fortified monastery. Built on a limestone rock the Benedictine abbey and adjacent buildings are best viewed from the other side of the Wisła (Vistula river), easy to reach by car or by hopping on the electrically-powered passenger and bicycle ferry that crosses the river here. The rock of Tyniec has already been a place where monks have gathered since the 11th century.

Behind the monastery is a hidden gem: the beautiful forest of Tyniec. Hike with me in my April 2024 published new photo album of this Lasy Tynieckie.

The Benedictine Abbey and monastery of Tyniec, caught on a warm early-April evening in 2024.