When in Krakow, my first thing to visit was the famous Old Town Market Square and interestingly it's pretty close to the railway station of Krakow city in Poland. This post shares about how to reach Old Town Market Square from different parts of the city, main places to explore in the Market Square and things to do around this beautiful place with some important sights like Town Hall Tower, Renaissance Sukiennice Cloth Hall , St Mary’s Basilica etc. We are also sharing about some of the museums, restaurants around this place to visit & explore. There are some specific tips for folks interested in shopping. And much more about it's heritage and some interesting facts.
I took early morning train from Warsaw to Krakow and from Railway station, one needs to cross through the famous Planty Park to reach the heritage centre of the city and as you go towards the middle of the circle created by Planty Park, you hit the main Market square of Old Town. Planty park is one of the most beautiful parks I have seen so far and it's very lively. You would notice lot of locals walking/jogging throughout the day and tourists doing cycling or on segways.
Related Post - Planty Park - Well located park in Krakow to offer diverse experience of this Historical City
As you cross through the Planty Park you would come across lot of birds and some of them would be curious :), like the one above. Her face is not towards the camera but certainly keeping an eye on what am I up to.
There are plenty of heritage buildings around Planty park, but to reach the Market Square you need to follow one of the streets going inside & towards the centre. Most of them would lead you to the Market Square. It's preferred to follow the map, as some of the street may give you a good tour of Old Town and Planty Park but may not lead to the Market Square for a long time. Google map works pretty well and there are higher chances that you would find people walking towards specific direction from Railway station through Planty Park and most likely they are also going towards the Market Square.
As you enter into the Market Square area of Krakow Old Town, you see this huge architecture on one of the corners of the square and it's knowns as St. Mary's Basilica. When I entered into the square, some music was being played from the top of this tower and hundreds of people were standing just below it to witness the ceremony and lot of them were making videos.
For more about St. Mary's Basilica, do check out - St Mary’s Basilica - One of the Architectural Marvels of Krakow City in Poland
This Market Square of Krakow Old town is built in 13th century and supposedly it's Europe's largest Medieval town-square. Because of this Market Square, Krakow has been listed in various lists of world famous things and it's street life is very special in comparison to european squares.
This is probably a rare lion which is clicked a lot in front of the Town Hall Tower of Krakow. This is beautifully built and I noticed lot of kids getting clicked with it. These are two of them in front of the entry gate of Town Hall Tower.
Above photograph shows Town Hall Tower located in Market Square of Krakow City of Poland. One can go till the top, but we missed because of lack of time as we had to head towards Wawel Castle.
Check out more about Town Hall Tower Tour - Town Hall Tower Tour - Things to know before visiting Krakow City in Poland
If we talk about main places to explore and things to do in Krakow, here are some pointers :
- Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
- Planty Part
- Main Market Square (Rynek Glówny)
- St. Mary's Basilica (Kosciól Mariacki)
- A walk around Vistula River
- Wawel Cathedral
- Oskar Schindler's Factory.
- "Wieliczka" Salt Mine.
- Polish Aviation Museum.
- Wawel Castle & Wawel Hill.
- The Jewish Quarter.
- Krakow Ghetto & Deportation Monument.
- Jewish Ghetto Wall.
- Plaszow – Former Nazi Extermination Camp.
- Krakow City / Old Town.
The Cloth Hall in Market Sqaure is oldest marketplace in Krakow city and it also popular for it's renaissance style of architecture. Known as one of the important pearls of Krakow Cloth Hall is one of the most visited places in Krakow city of Poland and also one of the top visited squares in Europe. Above photograph shows a smaller part of it.
Related post - Sigismund's Column & Royal Castle - Wonder why these are most photographed places in Warsaw, Poland
There are some unique things around Cloth Hall in Main Square of Krakow Old Town and this hanging knife caught my attention. I am sure, there must some story associated but I don't know and couldn't find enough on the internet to share here. If I get to find relevant details, I will share the same soon. Like this, the pillars in Cloth Hall of Main square has multiple carvings including various faces and all of them vary from one pillar to another. Architects who build this beautiful building in Krakow must has put a lot of thoughts while designing it. It seems lot of architects contributed to this building over the years and many Italian architects were invited to Poland by the royals.
Related post - The Tour of Presidential Palace in Warsaw City and a walk around the streets - Poland Diaries
In the middle of the Square is Cloth Hall and above photograph shows one side of the cloth Hall. It's huge and above photograph is not able to show it's real scale. Some of the aerial photographs on internet show this building proportionally. On one side of the Cloth hall is St. Mary's Basilica and on the other side, there is a Town Hall Tower. There are various shopping areas inside the Cloth Hall, museums and restaurants. Apart from the restaurants within cloth house, there are open area restaurants around the cloth hall.
Above photograph shows one of the galleries in Cloth Hall and a view of Town Hall Tower on other side. In the bottom of the photograph you can see seating arrangements just outside the Cloth Hall and on the way to Town hall tower. The gallery on the left houses various shops where you can find some interesting souvenirs of Krakow & Poland.
Above photograph shows the central part of the Cloth Hall and it's full of shops and you can find some interesting polish stuff for you to carry back to your homeland. This indoor craft market is quite popular amongst tourists.
The pillars you see in above photograph are part of outer walls of Cloth Hall and each pillar has different carvings. The very first photograph of this post is a closer shot of the carvings around the pillar. And these carvings describe history of Krakow and it's various places spread around the town. And look at the size of lamps hanging around this gallery in Cloth Hall of Krakow Old Town.
Check out more about Krakow Cloth Hall - The Renaissance Sukiennice Cloth Hall - One of the main places to explore in Krakow City of Poland
After a wonderful time at Market Square of Krakow Old Town, I headed towards Wawel Castle and towards the end of the day, we headed back to Market Square as the environment at this place is very different during the evenings.
Do check out more about Wawel Castle here - Wawel Castle - A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Historic City of Krakow, Poland
If you liked this post and found it helpful, I would request you to follow these things when traveling -
- Manage your waste well and don’t litter
- Use dustbins. Tell us if you went to a place and found it hard to locate a dustbin.
- Avoid bottle waters in hills. Usually you get clean water in hills and water bottles create lot of mess in our ecosystem.
- Say big no to plastic and avoid those unhealthy snacks packed in plastic bags. Rather buy fruits.
- Don't play loud blaring music in forests of jungle camps. You are a guest in that ecosystem and disturbing the locals (humans and animals) is not polite
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