Poland's royal capital — Wawel Castle, Europe's largest Gothic square, zapiekanka from Plac Nowy, and Schindler's Kraków preserved by accident
Kraków was Poland's royal capital from 1038 to 1596 and retains the largest medieval market square in Europe (Rynek Główny, 200m × 200m), the Wawel Royal Castle and Cathedral where Polish kings are buried and married, the Jagiellonian University (founded 1364, where Copernicus studied), and the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz (established 1335, the center of Central European Jewish life for 600 years). The city escaped WWII bombing because the German governor-general Hans Frank set up his headquarters at Wawel — a catastrophic moral choice that accidentally preserved one of the great medieval cit…
Kraków was the seat of Polish kings from the Piast dynasty (1038) through the Jagiellonian dynasty until the capital moved to Warsaw in 1596. The Wawel Hill complex — castle, cathedral, and dragon's den — is the symbolic heart of Polish nationhood. Copernicus studied at the Jagiellonian University from 1491–1495, developing the mathematical foundations for heliocentrism. Kazimierz, established as a separate Jewish city in 1335, grew into one of the most important centers of Jewish learning and commerce in Europe, with a Jewish population of 70,000 in 1939. The Nazis established the Kraków Ghe…