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Cracow
Tourist information - Cracow
The first written document to mention as much as three times the name of Cracow dates back to 965. It was written by the Spanish Jew, Ibrahim ibn Jakub. It follows that at those times Cracow was a big settlement, with the centrally located Wawel Hill. The settlement, belonging to the so-called Vistula People's country grew in importance after its incorporation with the state founded by Mieszko I, and especially, when the bishopric was founded here in the year 1000. These are the historic beginnings of Cracow. The archaeologists however have proven that 50 thousand years ago, in the Paleolithic period, there was a large settlement in the area occupied by the city today. The evidence to this fact may be various tools made of flint, which can be seen in the invaluable Museum of Archaeology. Finally, the anecdote about the beginnings of the city and a king called Krak, whom the town dwellers liked very much. One of the mounds - probably of Celtic origin, dating back to the 7th century - was called after his name
The city was growing permanently until the end of the 16th century, when it lost its position as the capital city. The Wawel castle kept growing, Cracow Academy came into being, townsmen lived in better and better houses and traded in a more and more beautiful, larger Cloth hall. We are lucky to be able to see today the effect of our ancestor's work. And not only see, since the Jagiellonian University is the leading Polish academy, one can still do a good shopping in the Market square, and drink beer or even have lunch in the deep cellars of several-years-old houses.
Today Cracow has 740,000 inhabitants and a few dozen thousand people living there temporarily, mainly students, should be added to that number. There are more people living only in Warsaw and Lodz. Both these cities have less cafes and drink bars per square meter than Cracow. We owe this to the recent prosperous decade.
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