A short break in Krakow: Former royal capital, crammed with history and splendour

By Dr Chitra Gopinathan

Chitra Gopinathan is a Consultant Anaesthetist working at Queens Hospital in Romford. Her hobbies and passions are varied. She enjoys the creative side of herself. She attempts a bit of writing and drawing when she gets the chance and feels inspired. She has a blog site, ‘Chitra’s musings’ at gchitra.com. Although it was a regular feature, it has now become a bit adhoc as she puts it. She enjoys reading, travelling and eating out.

We are coming to the end of our three day trip in Krakow. It is a gloriously sunny autumn afternoon and we are taking a boat cruise along the Vistula river. Unlike river boat cruises in other major cities, this is a smaller boat and there are only eleven of us on board including the captain. Classical music streams through the speakers, interrupted at intervals to announce the passing of major landmarks. The start and end for the trip is from the barge point near Wawel castle. With history dating back from medieval times the castle sits atop Wawel Hill in the midst of a royal complex comprising the Wawel Cathedral and other historic buildings. It provides a stunning backdrop as the boat pulls away. Further along the river, trees flanking the riverbanks are showcasing their foliage in full autumnal glory. A breeze catches the loose leaves and some fall onto the river like snowflakes. A couple of swans glide past. Along the riverbanks, joggers and bike riders are making the most of the autumn sunshine.

The Vistula river has been flowing through Poland for many centuries and it has witnessed many wonderful days like this and also some of the worst atrocities that history has to offer. I cast my mind back to Sunday, the first day of our trip here, when we started our walk from the ‘Ghetto Heroes Square’ in Podgorze. It was a grim grey day with the weather ten degrees lower than today at 13 degrees. During the German occupation of WWII, a ghetto was created here and cordoned off from the rest of the city by a wall, the remnant of which can be seen nearby. The top of the walls were shaped in the form of Jewish tombstones to make the people aware that this was the beginning of their final journey. For the Jewish people settled in Krakow, the urgency of their plight began during the end of the summer break in 1939, when Poland was invaded by the Germans and Russians. Within six days the country was outrun by invaders. In Krakow, the Jews were ordered to evacuate and those who stayed were moved into the Ghetto. Only those with valid work permits were allowed to leave and return. If you’ve watched ‘Schindler’s List’, you’ll recognise the Square as the meeting place where the residents socialised and the final deportation place from where they were transported elsewhere when the ghetto was liquidated in 1943. Seventy metal chairs now occupy the Square as a memorial to the victims.

At the corner of this Square sits the Eagle Pharmacy which was run by a Pole, Tadeusz Pankiewicz. He and his staff were the only Poles allowed to stay and work in the ghetto. From here they helped the stranded as much as they could and witnessed their sufferings. It is now a museum which was helped to expand with a donation from the director, Roman Polanski, who as a child was a prisoner of the ghetto. Around the corner from here is Jozefinska street where the buildings which once housed the Jewish orphanage and Hospital is located. Here children, staff and patients were murdered when the ghetto was liquidated. Next door is the Bank where the selections took place as to where the Jews were to be transferred and nearby is the German Labour office where the work documents were issued and had to be renewed every month. These sites were memorably depicted in the Spielberg movie. A short walk from here takes us to Krakus Mound, a prehistoric monumental mound from where you can get a panoramic view of the city. If you continue the walk you will reach the grounds of the Plaszow concentration camp, which is an open air memorial park now. We didn’t have time to explore this park as we had tickets for a guided tour of Oskar Schindler’s enamel factory and didn’t want to miss our time slot. The walls of the factory are adorned with photos of the Jews who worked here and formed part of the 1100 Jews who were saved by Schindler. As we wait for our time to enter, I notice Itzhak Stern among the photos who was played by Ben Kingsley in the film. The factory has been converted into a museum where we are taken on a history tour starting from the summer of 1939, through the Nazi occupation of the city, life in the ghetto and finally its liquidation and transportation to the death camps. Schindler’s original office is where the tour ends. We have time for a leisurely dinner before a guided walking tour around the Old Town.

After dinner we wait by the Grunwald monument for our guide. The monument was first erected in 1910 to mark the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, one of the nations most famous victories. It was destroyed during the Nazi occupation. What we see today is a restored version which was re-opened in 1976. Crossing the road from here we reach the entrance to the Old Town. Krakow’s history starts centuries back when it was burnt down during the Mongol invasion. Following this the city’s defence walls were built. Only part of the wall remains today and the rest have been replaced by trees along the perimeter where the wall once stood. It is possible to do a circular 4 kilometre walk along this path around the Old Town. Our walk today takes us through the middle of the Old Town past the main market square, St Mary’s Basilica, Collegium Maius where Nicolaus Copernicus studied, various churches, museums and Basilica till we reach Wawel castle and where the tour ends. The main market square is one of the largest Squares I have seen compared to other European cities and is bustling with restaurants and cafes. Horse drawn carriages await tourists who would rather be driven along the cobbled paths than walk the distance. It is 8pm when the tour ends and my phone tells me that I have walked 10 miles today.

We have an early start on Monday and after breakfast we make our way to the pickup point for our trip. It is a twenty minute drive to the first stop. Wieliczka Salt mine is one of the popular tourist destinations from Krakow and one of the oldest salt mines in the world. It was excavated in the 13th century. On entering the building a guide takes us down the mine’s tourist route which lasts around two hours, comprises of 800 steps and over 3 kilometres of walking to a depth of 135 metres underground. The actual depth of the mine is 327 metres. Along the way we pass tunnels, chambers, chapels and underwater lakes. She reminds us to stick with the group and not wander off as it is possible to get lost in these mines. Salt forms the ceiling, wall and ground along which we pass but it looks more like granite. In parts where the brine has seeped through, cauliflower like growths of salt can be seen mixed with stalactites resembling noodles. The ventilation in the mine keeps the temperature at a cool 18 degrees centigrade. At parts wood is used to provide scaffolding to strengthen the walls. Many sculptures and statues adorn the various chambers and these were carved by the miners out of the rock salt during their spare time. They were not trained sculptors but one wouldn’t know this by looking at the perfect shapes. The highlight of the tour is St Kinga chapel, an underground chapel carved entirely from salt with carvings along the walls and chandeliers made from salt. Wedding ceremonies are conducted here. Another chamber contains an underground lake where we are entertained to a light show accompanied by Chopin’s music. When the tour ends we take a lift back to the main building.

Aushwitz is 70 kilometres from Wieliczka and our next destination for the day. I have read the books, heard personal experiences and seen the documentaries but am not sure if I am ready for this, but one cannot come to Krakow and not pay homage to the Aushwitz victims. We go through a security check and need to show some form of ID to enter the camp. The place is packed and compared to eight decades ago those of us passing through the gate and under the replica arch which reads ‘Arbeit macht frei ‘, we are here on our free will. We walk past brick buildings, twenty of which were army barracks built for the Polish army and another eight were added when it was converted into a concentration camp. The interior of one of the buildings has been maintained in its original form while others display the belongings of those who were incarcerated and killed. The most difficult part was the children’s section. We continued the guided tour along the execution walls, the punishment rooms and the gas chamber. The commandant of the camp, Rudolf Hoess, lived with his family next to the camp and the house can be seen behind the wall. He was hanged after his trial on a gallows erected between the house and the gas chamber in 1947. The second part of the camp is in Birkenau a short 10 minute ride from Aushwitz, where our guide continued the tour. Here, there are brick and wooden barracks, remnants of the large gas chambers and crematoria along with the rail track and carriage that brought the Jews and other prisoners here from all over Europe. The majority of Jews came from Hungary and there were even some from further afield as Norway and Greece. The last building we were taken to was the one where women who were too ill to work were sent to wait for their turn to be taken to the gas chamber but most perished before the day came. The guide described their plight, how they had to share the bunk beds and rat infested spaces with water leaking in creating puddles on the floor. The beds leaked and those sharing the floor not only had to lie on wet floors but endure whatever dripped down from the bunks above. The sun was setting as we finished our visit. I look back to a vision resembling that of an inferno rising from the desolate buildings. Was the sun trying to engulf the site and erase the sufferings I wondered as I made my way back to our transport.

It’s the third and last day and there is still so much to do in Krakow. We haven’t had a chance to explore the Jewish quarter apart have dinner there last night. The temperature has been creeping up and the grey skies have cleared leaving us a perfectly fine day to explore the city. Before we do anything else, there is one thing I had to do. I missed Da Vinci’s exhibition when it came to London in 2011 and now there’s a chance to see the ‘Lady with an ermine’. We walk to the Old Town and queue up outside the Czartoryski Museum. The online time slots had all been sold out and I was hoping to get in when the doors opened at ten. The couple in front of me are also queuing up to see the painting. Is this going to be like the Mona Lisa, the guy wondered. I too hoped that this was going to be a better experience. The portrait of Cecilia Gallerani caressing an ermine did not disappoint. She had a room all to herself and there was hardly any visitors at the time and I had ample time to take in the delicate features and lose myself in the beauty of the oil painting.

The entry for tourists to St Mary’s Basilica is at eleven with a timed opening of the wooden Gothic altar everyday at 1150. This gave us the perfect opportunity to sit and star gaze at the blue ceiling covered in gold stars and the colourful wall decor. Every hour local firemen play a 40 second bugle call from the Basilica Tower. This is one of Kraków’s most celebrated traditions and dates back centuries. We wandered around the Old Town and Krakow castle, ate lunch and whiled our time till the boat ride. Our time in Poland’s ancient capital, before Warsaw took over the title is coming to an end. The Polish food didn’t disappoint either and we enjoyed the savoury and sweet pierogies, potato pancakes and local cuisine. It has been a short but memorable trip in a city with a rich history and one that will stay with me for a very long time.