A few attractions awaiting you in Krakow

KAZIMIERZ

Another historical municipality in the outskirts of Cracow, Kazimierz, is now one of the city's most attractive districts. Dotted with old buildings which give a special ambience to the area, Kazimierz was home to the larger part of the Jewish population of Cracow till 1939. Here, we find the famous Remuh Synagogue and the Alte Schule, Poland's oldest synagogue, today an important museum of the district. Worth a visit is also the Templ founded by local Association of Progressive Jews and the Wolf Popper synagogue.

Kazimierz is once of the major sites where historical monuments and artefacts Christian and Jewish cultures are gathered. Here, both ethnic groups settled centuries ago and left their traces which are still visible today.

Every year in June/ July, a Festival of Jewish Culture is held in the Kazimierz district. attracting hundreds of performers and thousand of spectators from all over the world. Here, in the labyrinth of the narrow streets of Kazimierz, they can travel into the distant world of a fascinating, once-existing culture.

WAWEL

Wawel is the name of a limestone outcrop situated on the left bank of the Vistula in Kraków, Poland, at an altitude of 228 metres above sea level. This is a symbolic place of great significance for Polish people. The Royal Castle and the Cathedral are situated on the Hill. The Wawel cathedral has witnessed royal coronations and funerals; and in the Wawel Castle were taken the most important decisions determining the subsequent stages of the country's development. The origins of this magnificent structure date back to the year 1000. Every visitors to Cracow should see the cathedral, the Renaissance cloisters of the castle and the beautiful royal chambers, decorated with tapestries manufactured by Flemish masters. The most impressive is the Chamber of Deputies with its original carved ceiling featuring polychrome heads of Cracovian burghers.

Adjacent to the castle is the Wawel cathedral, not only a splendid historical building but also a functioning church as well as a national Pantheon, containing the tombstones of many Polish kings, national heroes and poets of the Romantic period. The showpiece of the church interiors is the Renaissance Sigismund Chapel. At the western edge of the hill is the entrance to the Dragon's Cave, former home of the legendary Wawel Dragon.

If you want to know more... http://www.wawel.krakow.pl/en/

WIELICZKA SALT MINE

Wieliczka Salt Mine a Material Culture World Heritage Site, is among the most eagerly visited tourist sites in Poland. During the seven centuries of salt exploration, the mine developed into an extensive underground city, mysterious and unique. The route through the mine leads you through galleries and chambers on three levels, all of these from 64 to 135 meters below the ground and including the unique and splendidly adorned Chapel of the Blessed Kinga. You need to be in a fair physical shape, as the route is 2.5 km long and the tour starts by descending 400 steps down one of the main shafts (journey back by elevator, though!). And this is just a small part of the total labyrinth, which has a total of 9 levels and 300 kilometers of corridors. If you want to know more, read this.

AUSCHWITZ BIRKENAU

The most well-know cemetery and genocide site in the world. It started in 1940 as a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, and then in 1942 Auschwitz became the focal point for the extermination of European Jews. During 1940-1945 the Nazis killed about 1,500,000 here, mainly Jews but also Poles, POWs, Gypsies, Russians, and other nationalities. The tour begins with a 15-minute documentary film about the liberation of the camp, and then a museum-guide shows you the exhibitions in some of the surviving prison blocks, the gas chamber, and the crematorium. Visiting Auschwitz for the first time can be shocking. A gruesome exposition in the former camp makes the visitors rethink their basic human values, such as humanity and dignity.

If you want to know more .