Rynek Glowny and Saint Marys Basilica on Krakow Day One
We began our time in Krakow in fairly conventional fashion, visiting Rynek Glowny and Saint Marys Basilica on Krakow day one. For those who haven’t been there, Rynek Glowny is the main square in the middle of Krakow’s Old Town, and Saint Mary’s is the city’s main church which stands on the northeast corner of Rynek Glowny and features the famous Veit Stoss altarpiece, the largest wooden gothic altar in the world and, therefore, one of the most well-known.
I will talk more about St. Mary’s in a bit, but first: there is a lot more going on in Rynek Glowny, and Krakow’s Old Town, than just that famous church and its famous altarpiece. Here’s how the day unfolded for Therese and I. We took a taxi to the northern border of the old town, where St. Florian’s Gate and the Krakow Barbican stand.
The way these two monuments are connected with a courtyard between them reminds me of the Puerta de Bisagra Nueva in Toledo, Spain. Like that monument, the inner part here – St. Florian’s Gate – is more beautifully, delicately rendered, while the outer section, the Barbican, is built more for function, i.e., it looks like it could withstand an armed assault. And while Florian’s Gate is free to walk around and explore, the Barbican now holds a museum, a branch of the Historical Museum of Krakow, for which there is an admission fee (we elected not to visit it).
We turned and walked south on Ulica Florianska the three blocks to Rynek Glowny. But along the way we saw several shops selling ceramics that we vowed we would return to explore further. And then we emerged onto the grand square.
Rynek Glowny
This is a huge square, no question. But unlike squares in, say, Brussels, this one is full of buildings, making it impossible to see the whole thing at once. For example, the old City Hall Tower.
City Hall Tower Krakow
In 1820, the surrounding city hall was demolished to bring more space to Rynek Glowny. Once upon a time, the city hall contained torture chambers. Now, the tower is another branch of the Museum of the History of Krakow (which we also elected not to visit – don’t worry, we visited some great museums in Krakow, just not these two).
While they demolished the city hall to make room, they left the massive Cloth Hall, bisecting the entire square.
Because of the Cloth Hall’s position right in the middle of the square, when you are on one side of it, you can’t see the other half of the square. The main floor of the Cloth Hall is a market that sells souvenirs of all kinds (you can buy things there, but the prices tend to be inflated – better to buy the same things you see in the Cloth Hall elsewhere in Krakow, where they will cost significantly less). Then the second floor is an museum of 19th century Polish art called the Sukiennice Museum (which we visited later in the week), and the basement below is also a museum called Rynek Underground, which features excavations of the markets that pre-date the Cloth Hall, and galleries exploring all aspects of Krakow’s history.
The third monument that clogs the square is the tiny Church of St. Adalbert, dating from the 11th century and thus one of Krakow’s oldest surviving buildings.
To say that this church is tiny is an understatement. There is room in there for about 20 people if they don’t breathe. Concerts are held regularly, but I can’t imagine the band is more than three or four performers, because I don’t know where you would fit more musicians without losing some of the audience.
We enjoyed just wandering around the square for a while, taking it all in. There was a summer crafts fair going on, on the west side of the square, and we found one booth that particularly attracted us, Koza Dereza.
Apparently, “Koza Dereza” is a character from an old Slavic folk story similar to our Billy Goat’s Gruff. This company makes folk art like handmade rugs and delightful stuffed animals (we bought a small rug).
We had been wandering around enjoying ourselves for a few hours when it looked like it was going to rain. We thought, “hmmm, maybe we better find a place to eat some lunch out of the rain.” We no sooner entered Dobra Kasza Nasza, a restaurant on the southwest corner of the square that specializes in kasha (dishes whose base is roasted grains), when it started pouring!
The Sudden Downpour Flooding Dobra Kasza Nasza’s Doorway
Luckily, the staff at this charming restaurant kept their heads. The rain was so intense for the better part of an hour that the restaurant threatened to flood – the floor under our feet soon became covered with maybe a half an inch of water – but using brooms and mops, these four persistent waiters swept the water back out of the restaurant over and over until the rain let up.
Meanwhile, we had a delicious lunch in this ancient-looking cozy place.
I ordered one of the specials of the house, a kasha dish made of pearl barley baked with apples and casing-less sausage, paired with a dish of fresh garlic mayonnaise and nice sweet sauerkraut. It was served on the most interesting wooden tray, which has holes in it for the three different-sized dishes – the kasha, sauerkraut and mayonnaise.
When we finished lunch, it was still raining a bit (neither of us had brought an umbrella with us for this trip!), but we decided to brave it and scramble across the square to St. Mary’s. Now you should know that the main public entrance for the church affords you entrance to just the back of the church, and it is expected that if you enter there, you have come to pray, not take photos.
Front Entrance to St. Mary’s Basilica
If you want to get close to the fabulous altar, you have to buy a ticket, and enter on the right side of the church. And if you want to take photos there, you have to buy an additional permit. So of course I did buy the permit, which looks like this:
St. Mary’s Krakow Photo Permit
Anyway, I don’t have too much to say about St. Mary’s, other than that it was fabulous. The Veit Stoss Altarpiece is just as breathtakingly beautiful as you would imagine a Renaissance altar carved all out of wood might be. I took pictures of the separate panels – I have refrained identifying what scenes from Jesus’ life they represent simply because a few of them are not readily apparent to me. But those of you who know such things will recognize them, I am sure.
The altarpiece isn’t the only thing beautiful in this church. Here are some of the remaining beautiful details in this gorgeous church.
By the time we came out of St. Mary’s, the rain had nearly stopped, and it was growing late in the afternoon. We elected to explore Ulica Grodzka, a street that leads south from Rynek Glowny’s southeastern corner.
Ulica Grodzka
There are a number of attractive shops there. Just off Ulica Grodzka is Krakow’s Church of Saint Francis. I don’t remember now how I had heard of this church – perhaps I was following a bit of a walking tour from a guide book – but I’m glad we went there. It’s combination of extraordinary modern stained glass (most of it designed by 20th century artist Stanislaw Wyspianski), beautiful ornamented wallpaper and carved wood made it one of my favorite places in Krakow.
Further down the street are some other intriguing churches, the Church of Saints Peter and Paul (Krakow’s Jesuit Church) and the Church of Saint Andrew.
And at the end of this block, we got our first glimpse of the Wawel Castle on its hill.
Entrance to Wawel Castle with Wawel Cathedral on the Left
With the afternoon on the wane, we walked back up Ulica Grodzka two blocks – on the right there, just in front of the Dominican Church, there is a taxi stand. We got in, I announced, in my best Polish accent “Hotel Kosciuszko, prosze!” and we headed back to our hotel, to rest up after our full day in town. We finished the day with dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, and went to bed early, fully satisfied and looking forward to more incredible exploring of Krakow.
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