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Welcome to the heart of Poland

6  Photos
The eastern half of the artificially lit Main Market Square proudly demonstrates its Christmas lighting at pre-dusk. The bottom left-hand corner is taken by the roof of the Cloth Hall. A tall Christmas tree is standing to its left in front of the uneven-towered St Mary’s Church. A large expanse of the city spreads behind a line of bright façades of Main Market Square mansion to its right, reaching the horizon behind which the Sun has just set.
Kraków’s Main Market Square
Two almost identical small three-storied white buildings with red roofs flank a low gate of masonry topped by two white lions, huddling between two taller buildings. The name “Ariel” displayed on all the three central structures is that of a popular Kazimierz restaurant. A group of tourists standing outside on the pavement under a tall leafless tree are greeted in its door by a waiter.
Kazimierz: district of Kraków
Pork ribs garnished with chilis, cherry tomatoes, and lamb’s lettuce leaves, are arranged on a wooden board, its Polish highland ornamentation partly covered by ramekins with sauce. A corner of a cloth-lined basket with some cutlery was caught in the top left-hand corner of the shot.
Spareribs, highlander delis, Witowianka Restaurant, Witów
The massive round body of the brick barbican in the foreground sports seven green-spired turrets. On the right it is reached by a lowered drawbridge. Its neck extends towards St Florian’s Gate visible among the lush greenery of the Planty Garden Ring that replaced former moats and most of the fortifications. The background consists of the roofs of houses and spires their perimeter used to defend. The skyline merges into a vividly blue though slightly overcast sky.
Rondel: Kraków’s barbican
The whole of brightly sunlit Wawel Hill seen from a drone. A wavy line of buildings and walls roofed with brick-red tiles are standing among the greenery, to reach the Cathedral with its green-spired towers in the centre, just left from the imposing body of the Castle. The city centre with its numerous churches makes up the background.
Wawel Hill from above the river, Kraków
A bird’s eye view of Wawel Hill. The brick and limestone walls of the cathedral with its towers boasting tall patinised spires dwarf both the Gothic houses of the same material on the left, and the wing of the castle plastered white under a tall dark red roof on the left. The distant plane consists of the mottle of buildings under a dusky sky with sandy, blue, white and almost black clouds.
The Cathedral and Castle on Wawel Hill, Kraków

Welcome to the heart of Poland

 

When choosing your holiday destination abroad, apart from the obvious desire for comfort, you look for unique and fascinating architecture, delicious cuisine, and a lavish treasury of stories, ranging from ancient legends, via tales of great historical moments, to gems of information about the lives of the locals, whether famous or ordinary, Małopolska and its capital Kraków are here for you. More

Małopolska, with an increasing number of sites recognised as part of the World Heritage by UNESCO, has waited for you for at least ten centuries, preparing an especial welcome for you in recent years.

Our region is not only compact and very well connected, but also boasts a perfect accommodation base and many people with vast local knowledge who are eager to help you. Apart from the obvious tourist guides, you’re likely to find aficionados of local culture among, e.g., the bartenders. Some, like you, were attracted to the city from far away. And they have decided to stay. We, the locals, attribute this to the genius loci – the spirit of the place.

Speaking of the spirit, there are many who believe that the steep limestone rock on which Wawel Castle was built contains a very special stone: one of the seven chakram of the world radiating soothing energy and lavishly bestowing it upon people coming within its range. And like stones – it has been here forever. Waiting for you.

Built on that rock known as Wawel Hill are Wawel Castle and the Cathedral – the heart of Polishness and the key to understanding Poland. There were times when the local dynasty, now buried here, commanded a quarter of Europe from this very place. And that’s only the beginning of your history lesson…

You’re probably interested in the most recent additions to the city: they include the full range of hotels, from five-star chains, boutiques and spas to accommodation preferred by students. You are also certain to find your preferred fare as, apart from delicious local cuisine, the region offers a range of international tastes and – believe it or not – English breakfasts with dishes as alien to the Polish palette as fried tomatoes and baked beans in tomato sauce.

May we suggest?

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A drone-eye view of Kraków's Main Market Square at dusk on a winter evening. The brightly illuminated Christmas market stalls take the bottom left-hand corner are surrounded by a line of townhouses, the Cloth Hall, and the Town Hall Tower, with the façade of St Mary's Church peering from behind the centrally photographed Cloth Hall. Everything is gently sprinkled with snow.

Shopping in the Christmas spirit.

It is shopping in the Christmas spirit, and not Christmas in the spirit of shopping that Kraków Christmas fairs boast most happily and truly. It is no surprise that their fame is on the rise, and it is definitely a good idea to hurry and visit them before they become overcrowded like so many of their counterparts throughout Europe. More

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A young couple with a small child are walking briskly in the Main Market Square in Kraków. There is a flock of pigeons on the square's floor behind them on the right, the Town Hall Tower peers from behind the man’s shoulder, while the Cloth Hall provides the background for the woman. It is a sunny day, and the setting sun is casting long shadows.

Kraków: a multi-faceted UNESCO gem.

In 1978, UNESCO, a UN agency promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in arts and culture, published its original list of just one hundred World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites scattered all around the globe. One of them was the city centre of Kraków encompassing the Jewish district of Kazimierz. However, UNESCO did not stop at that as it granting Kraków the title of UNESCO City of Literature in 2013. More

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An aerial view of the Tarnów market square. Tarnów town hall stands In the centre of the square, surrounded by townhouses. The whole is dominated by the tall spire of the cathedral soaring from among more townhouses into the white clouds that are visible in the blue sky.

Eastern Małopolska: rightfully stepping out of a shadow.

Hailed as the warmest corner of Poland with the highest number of sunny days in the country, the area around Tarnów, Małopolska’s second-largest city, is often obscured and outshone by the global fame of Kraków, the region’s capital. If this part of Małopolska is sometimes neglected, it is a great injustice indeed! More

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An aerial view of Kraków’s Main Market Square, with the brightly illuminated Cloth Hall taking the centre of the shot. Standing tall behind its left wing is the Town Hall Tower outlined against the evening orange-red sky. The foreground is speckled with a few rows of restaurant tables under umbrellas.

The Cloth Hall. Kraków’s oldest shopping arcade.

One of the buildings that visitors arriving in Kraków immediately recognise from countless photos is the Cloth Hall – Sukiennice, taking the centre of the city’s Main Market Square. Not all of them, however, realise that the building is the city’s oldest shopping arcade, and that it stands in the middle of a square where the inhabitants of the rapidly growing royal capital city could buy all the commodities they needed. More

Małopolska has more to offer. Look and see:

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delicious local food
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incredible adventures
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wellness and relaxation
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meetings
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tour operators