Hello everyone! Welcome to Poland with Ela.
I'm Ela and I'll be your guide through the most interesting and beautiful places
in Poland as well as the Polish history, culture and traditions. And today I
will be showing you around Kraków. Cracow is like a scene from a medieval fairy
tale. It's a historical city bursting with color and culture. It's a travel destination for
those who are looking for a romantic weekend away, for those who might be searching for a
fun getaway or those, who want to learn history through experience. From 11th until
the late 16th century Cracow was actually a capital of Poland. That's where the Polish
kings lived. That's where the first Polish university was established and that's where
many of the legends and stories defining the Polish identity came from. So let's dive
in. Cracow or Kraków in Polish is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Its Old
Town and Jewish District Kazimierz were listed amongst the first 12 UNESCO World Heritage
Sites when this concept was born in 1978. Unlike other significant cities in Poland,
Cracow was not destroyed during World War II. Here you will witness more than a thousand
years of authentic history. Behind me is the Behind me is the Mariacki Church, which is one of the landmarks
in Cracow. Its altar is made out of gold by Wit Stwosz. There's a very interesting
legend that says that one of the helpers of Wit Stwosz lost his yellow shoe behind the
altar as he was trying to recover a Bible, which he misplaced. When the altar was being reopened
and renovated, they found a little yellow shoe. What's great about the market square here in
Cracow but also in most of the Polish cities, is that wherever you turn
it's going to be beautiful. The Cracow main square used to
be the biggest market square in the medieval ages in this part of the world. We are right in the center of the Cracow main
square. We are in Sukiennice. There used to be market before and, as you can see, there's
still a market now. You can buy here a lot of souvenirs and local products, especially amber
which is much cheaper in Poland than it is in many other parts of the world. And also the amber
here is from the sea. It's not from the mines, which is kind of cool. I didn't know that you
could actually get amber from the mines, but it turned out you can. But that's not the way you get
it in Poland. In Poland people find it in the sea. Lots of amazing things. I try to go
through here as quickly as I can, not to spend all my money. And as we leave
the Sukiennice, we enter the other side of the market square, because Sukiennice
divides the market square right in half. Inside the Sukiennice, apart from all the shops,
there is also museums. You can visit the museum of Sukiennice and go underground to check out
how the underground of the market square looked like. And there's also a coffee shop inside
there, and there's a beautiful view from there. The trumpet call from the tower of the Mariacki
church is considered very symbolic for the city, but also for the country itself. The
story goes that since the 13th century, when Tatars and other nations used to
invade Poland or if there was a fire in the city, a trumpeteer would alarm the
inhabitants of the city about the danger. And that's what happened in 1241, when
the Tatars invaded and the trumpeteer went on the tower and played the melody on the
trumpet. As you can hear in the melody itself, it gets interrupted at the end.
And that's because the trumpeteer, as he was warning the inhabitants and playing the
trumpet, one of the arrows of the Tatars has hit him straight in the throat. And that's
where the melody ended. And every time, every hour when the trumpeteer is playing
the melody, he ends at the same point when the arrow has hit the throat of the trumpeter
in 1241, when the Tatars were invading Cracow. A long, long time ago, there was a dragon
terrorizing the city of Cracow. He would eat only young beautiful virgins. To satisfy his exquisite
tastes, the inhabitants of Cracow have organized a lottery. Every week, the dragon would eat one
of the girls in town. One day at the lottery, the king's daughter was chosen to be eaten by
the dragon. The king didn't know what to do, so he organized a contest saying that
whoever kills the dragon gets to keep half of the kingdom and his daughter's hand. A
lot of brave knights tried to kill the dragon, but none of them succeeded. They
were all burned by the dragon's fire. But there was also one really brave young
shoemaker Dratewka. He decided he's going to be the one to kill the dragon. He took a dynamite
and hid it inside the sheep skin. He put it by the dragon's den and the dragon, the monster that
he was, and as greedy as he was, took the sheep, swallowed it and the dynamite, together
with the fire inside of the dragon's belly, started to make it really, really
hot. So the dragon was so thirsty, he got to the Vistula River and started
to drink all the water from the Vistula, until he blew up. The shoemaker Dratewka
got the half of the kingdom and the king's daughter's hand. There's different versions of
this legend, but all of them end with Dratewka killing the dragon, the dragon blowing up
and Dratewka marrying the king's daughter Wawel Royal Hill is a centuries old seat of kings.
In 1930 the Wawel Castle also became one of the most important museums in the country, storing
a valuable collection of paintings, graphics, sculptures, militaria, porcelain and furniture,
among others. The Wawel cathedral's uniqueness is demonstrated not only by historic works of
art and impressive architectural solutions but also by the mortal remains of Poland's crowned
rulers, national bards and leaders who've had a great impact on our country's history. The Wawel crypt and the interior of the Cathedral constitute a necropolis unique in
Europe. The entrance to the Wawel cathedral itself is unusually decorated by three bones,
suspended from chains, the largest measuring over a meter in length. According to the medieval
legends, these were the bones of the Wawel dragon, found in the dragon's den or fished out from the
Vistula, cleaned from sand and placed in the most important place in the city, as a talisman
to deter unclean forces. The mystery of the bones was solved quiet recently. It turns out that
the upper bone is a fragment of a mammoth's leg, the middle one is part of a whale's jaw and the
lower one is the skull of a woolly rhinoceros. I've been going around Cracow
for like the whole day now, for several hours. And I've gotten really
hungry. So I thought - why not get some traditional Cracow bagels? And I got two. One
with poppy seeds and another one with cheese. The cheese one is my favorite and the one with
poppy seeds I used to do some nice shots with st. Mary's Basilica. And yeah, I'm going
to show you how the cheese one looks like. Delicious! I'm not sure why they're only
sold in Cracow. Maybe there's some sort of authorization necessary to sell it
somewhere else. They're really good. Try some when you're in Cracow. All the tourists
eat them, all the locals eat them. Try some. If you go through the streets
of Cracow any time of the year, there's going to be tons and tons
of tourists. Don't get discouraged, because it's a beautiful city. And
that's why all the tourists are here. While walking around Cracow, make sure
you don't miss the buildings. The beautiful decorations that many of the buildings
here have. When walking around Cracow, you will see around the city center especially, loads and loads of churches. They are almost
incorporated in the tissue of the city. A long, long time ago the city of Cracow
was surrounded by big defensive walls. And today we can admire whatever is
left of it. And here is the barbican. While in Cracow, it's nice to take a
break from all this sightseeing and take a little walk in the Planty, which is a
sidewalk where you have trees on both sides of it. And it surrounds the whole market
square and the buildings surrounding it. We're inside the Collegium Maius, which is part of
the Jagiellonian University, which was established in 1364 by king Casimir the Great. And it was the
second university after Prague in this region. Looking around, one might come to a
conclusion that studying in this university, you must have gotten a very serious education. Number 3 Franciszkańska street. I
think every Pole of my age and above knows this address. This is where
Pope John Paul II used to show up in his window, whenever he'd come on
a pilgrimage and stayed in Cracow. The Jewish District, named Kazimierz after
the king who invited the Jews to Cracow, is an absolutely unique place. For hundreds of
years, the Jewish community grew and developed here culturally, religiously and economically.
Today Kazimierz neighborhood in Cracow is the only place in Poland that is a live material witness
to the fact that Poland was once a true home to European Jews. Right behind me is a street where
I used to live called Paulińska. And it's right in the middle of the Jewish quarters. It's very
beautiful. We don't have much time to go and see it now because we're rushing to see the Plac
Nowy before it gets completely dark. It's only two blocks away from here. We are in Plac Nowy. I got
here before it got completely dark, so I can film it for you guys. And we're in front of a famous
roundhouse, where, especially in the evenings, people come to get the zapiekanki, which are
very known in Cracow. Especially from here, from the Plac Nowy. Plac Nowy is surrounded
by bars, cafes. So people come here, locals and tourists come here, to relax. Cracow is in
that sense very different from Warsaw, because people in Warsaw are very much work oriented and
in Cracow every day is a good day to come relax, come to a bar or a cafe and meet friends, eat
a zapiekanka. In the evenings, when the bars and cafes here close, people tend to go towards
the market square and all the streets around the market square have usually some clubs, nightclubs,
especially in the weekends. During the week it might be a little dead, but during the weekends
that's the place to go, to enjoy the night. But before, people come here to eat and, as you can
see, it's 6:00 p.m., but there is a line, a queue already forming for the zapiekankas and
the whole roundhouse has different little shops that serve them. And this one, the one behind me,
always has a queue, especially in the evenings. This was the main street, the biggest
street. It's called actually "the Wide Street". This is where the rich Jewish
people lived in the Jewish quarters and now it's full of bars and restaurants, and
maybe you can hear the music behind me. And yeah, this is where the Jewish
Festival takes place every year. The Jewish district and the area of the
former Cracow ghetto established by the Germans during World War II, are separated only
by the Vistula River. During a tour in Cracow, crossing the bridge usually means crossing
to the story of about half a millennium old Jewish community in Cracow and
its almost complete disappearance. Cracow is cool and hip, but at the same
time refined and classy. There is so much to discover that it's impossible to do it all
at once. I'm thinking to do more episodes on Cracow in the future. One that I really want to
make is about the meaningful places related to the Jewish population, who used to live in Cracow
before World War II. That was actually a quarter of the whole city's population, so that's a lot
of people. And I'm thinking to ask my brother to show us around. He's actually a travel guide
in Cracow, the best I know. So let me know if you're up for it in the comments, and I will
show you around, tagging along with my brother. That's it for now. Make sure you subscribe not
to miss the next episodes and and see you soon.
