There are several approaches to explain the origin of the name “Krakow”. One of them derives from the word city name Crack, meaning raven, different from the name of the legendary Prince Krak. The first known written mention of Krakow, as an important city of trade, from Ibrahim ibn Jakub relationships with approximately 966 years.

In the past, in its role as capital of the country and being the seat of kings, Krakow attracted great scholars and artists from around the world. It is their talents and imagination we owe a lot of unique historical monuments, representing the most important trends in European culture. Each location has its own story here, in memory of the inhabitants are many interesting related legends and anecdotes.

As stated in the location of the city of Magdeburg law in 1257 Krakow market is still one of the largest in Europe (approximately 200 x 200 meters). Around the Market, even in the twelfth century, mostly perpendicular to set the grid of streets in which entered the earlier buildings here and there (including street Grodzka earlier highway leading from the Castle of Hungary). In the center of the medieval market, market hall was built, the Cloth Hall and Town Hall, which survived until our times, only the tower.

In order to ensure peace and security of residents of Krakow surrounded by a double stripe walls with numerous towers and several gates (construction began in 1285). With time, both due to the development of the city and the destruction of the same walls, the demolition of it.

In the years 1810-14, most of the city walls were demolished together with the towers and the moat was filled, in their place in 1820 decided to create a “garden city”. In this way the park was present surrounding the historic center of Krakow called the Planty. For the purposes of representation retains only a small section of the walls surrounding the Florian Gate and the Barbican. In the Middle Ages defensive functions satisfy a powerful stone churches.

Great tourist attraction is Krakow, the city surrounding the periphery of the ring of nineteenth-century fortifications built by the Austrians called. Kraków Fortress. Several of the forts on adaptation, function as cultural centers such as Fort 49 “Krzeslawice.

Located on traffic routes and commercial center of Krakow was a vigorous city and commercial center of the region. From 1364 years was also a university town. Historic buildings Collegium Maius Collegium Minus, Collegium Novum Collegium Juridicum so far are the most prestigious part of the university. Krakow was and is an important cultural center.

The splendor of a bygone era in the preserved today in Cracow tenement – the richly decorated facades, we can admire the surrounding market and the historic streets of St. Florian, Grodzka Bracka, Kanoniczna, and others. The interior of the nineteenth-century bourgeois house can be viewed in the House Hipolitów (St Mary’s Square 3, a branch of the Historical Museum of Cracow).

The city has developed arts and cultural life. Especially during the Partition was not to overestimate the role of Krakow as a place of intense cultural activity and national memory. Krakow’s oldest theater, the Old Theater. Helena Modjeska, in Cracow from the end of the eighteenth century (now in the building at the corner of the Jagiellonian and Szczepanski Square). In 1839 construction was completed similar to the eclectic building of the Paris Opera Theater. J. Slovak, designed by John Zawieyski. It was erected on the spot and destroyed the monastery of St. hospital. Spirit.

Currently in Krakow, 11 large theaters, including the well-known in Europe Stary Teatr im. Helena Modjeska in Krakow, one of the oldest in Poland. Functions are also a number of smaller theaters, including the small atmospheric cellars, actively used by a number of formations and theater groups.

In Krakow, there are over 30 museums, which are the most important National Collection of Art – Wawel Royal Castle, National Museum, with a large collection of paintings of Polish and world, and the Czartoryski Museum with the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine.”

Numerous shopping centers and community centers carry a wide activities in the area of culture, each year hundreds of organizing exhibitions, concerts, and diverse forms of educational classes for the residents of Krakow.

To commemorate the many people and historical events created a lot of monuments in Cracow and tables. The most famous monuments of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Market Square, Grunwald Monument, erected in the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald, a monument to Nicolaus Copernicus, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, Jozef Dietl and monuments adorn the Planty Park and Jordan. The area’s historic Old Town and Kazimierz entered in 1978, the first UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The attractiveness of Krakow create both places and the people who build the city’s cultural offer are trying to accommodate the needs of a wide audience: Cracovians and visitors. There is a lot of festivals. Many of them have a rich tradition and regular audience. From year to year as new projects arise, including those launched in recent years: Mysteries Paschalia, Sacrum-Profanum Festival, Long Night of Museums, Polish Music Festival, presenting works of Polish music in the world’s most outstanding performances, and Shakespeare Festival of Nations.

In the ranking carried out in August 2006 by a high-monthly Travell & Leisure Krakow is one of five European cities perceived best along with Florence, Rome, Venice and Istanbul. At the end of 2006 the great American travel agency Orbitz has considered most fashionable city of Krakow for 2007. Earlier, in 2005, the company Project for Public Spaces recognized as the best Krakow’s historic market square of the world, putting him up against the square of St.. Mark’s in Venice.