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| Wawel Hill: UNESCO’ World Heritage site in Poland | |||||||
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 N UNESCO’s World Heritage list in Poland is the old town complex together with the Wawel Hill. The medieval urban layout of the Old Town has not changed for centuries. For visitors to Krakow, Europe’s largest medieval market square, St Mary’s Church with its Gothic pentaptych altarpiece carved in lime wood is a “must see”. The Wawel with the royal castle and the cathedral has its outstanding Renaissance chapel. There exists medieval university building of Collegium Maius with its unique collection of astronomical instruments. The suburban Benedictine abbey of Tyniec (11th c.) is waiting to be entered on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The Jewish quarter of Kazimierz features a wealth of Jewish heritage with its 16th century cemetery and seven synagogues of which one houses the Jewish museum. Each summer the Jewish Culture Festival is held and attracts Jewish culture lovers from the whole world. You can enjoy music concerts, theatrical performances, exhibitions, lectures, art and dance workshops, and have a wonderful time on the closing day of the festival when a great concert takes place on ul Szeroka, ending the event’s festivities late at night. Other cultural events held in Krakow each year attract thousands of visitors.
Offering an unmatched architectural cityscape, the centre of Krakow is a highly attractive place. There are plenty of vista points in the city that let you see its panorama. The best known of them has for long been Ko ciuszko Mound: the destination of numerous excursions. It commands a view of entire historical and contemporary Krakow. It may be a good idea to locate the places visited earlier from its top, and see them from afar in a very different perspective. The Mounds are among Krakow's major attractions. Two of them, namely that of King Krakus in the District of Podgórze and of Wanda in today's Nowa Huta are mysterious barrows dating back to pre-Christian times. What made the local tribes undertake such an enormous effort? Whether it was the eagerness to honour their departed chieftains, it is certain that the mounds have strategic importance and were used for vigil and observation. 
St Mary's Tower is also known as the Watch Tower, Wake, Alarm or Bugle Tower. The only tower in the world at which a bugle has been played every hour for six hundred years for the four corners of the world. To see and to hear these wonders one must climb 239 steps, to a floor 54 m above ground level. The trumpeter needs two and a half minutes to ascend the tower. Visitors do not need to hurry. Up at the top they will be heartily greeted by bugle players - members of the fire service, the last magicians of Krakow...
Royal Castle on the Wawel Hill Kanonicza, the street usually taken to access the famous Wawel Hill, is short and fairly narrow. Yet it is one of the most important and ancient streets of the city; a street whose look has hardly changed over the centuries - authentic and very much alive. Moreover, Kanonicza provides an example of favourable changes that have continued in Krakow in recent years: the complex restoration of the built heritage and preservation projects unveil the city's true beauty almost layer by layer. A look at a plan of the city proves that the space confined by the walls of the castle is similar to that of the Main Market Square. In the castle's many chambers, exhibitions that simply cannot be missed await us: royal chambers and stately rooms, collections of Oriental art and military trophies, collections of Flemish tapestries of amazing beauty, as well as archaeological specimens - a testimony of the over-a-millennium-long history of Christianity in Polish Lands. It was here, in the Royal Castle, that the monumental exhibition entitled Wawel 1000-2000 was organised in the year 2000 to illustrate the development of Polish statehood. Other place worth visiting are also the Wawel Cathedral, the Royal Tombs - crypts containing royal sarcophagi and the massive "Sigismund" Bell, which peals only to commemorate events of the greatest importance to the country and the city. Worldroom City Guide: Krakow | |||||||
