Rynek Glowny in Krakow, the old town market square, with its size (over 200 meters on each side) is one of the largest medieval squares in Europe – even today it is one of the steps required in the city.
It is just an old medieval square, surrounded by Kamienice, the ancient palaces and noble merchant, divided in two by the Cloth Hall (now an art gallery) which houses paintings by Polish painters of the nineteenth century. And yet, the great statue of Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish Romantic poet of the nineteenth century, the small church of St. Adalbert, one of the oldest in Poland, the tower of the town hall demolished in the nineteenth century, and the Gothic Basilica Santa Maria, with its two towers of different heights do show their presence in the square.
Not only that, but still the market has stalls and tables of bars and restaurants that surround it, the bells ringing the hour, the coming and going of the horse-drawn carriages and people who travel far and wide, with trumpeter that sounds from the top of the ancient tower of the town hall.
In short, after visiting all there is to see in Krakow (the Castle, the Czartoryski Museum with his Lady with an Ermine, the Jewish Quarter), it is most likely that you’ll want to end your day in this market square of Krakow.
How to get there:
By Alba V
Photos: Mieszko Stanislawski , Krzysztof Jasiak , Poland Transfer
