Teatr im. Juliusza Słowackiego w Krakowie

Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków is an eye-catching beautiful baroque-style building located in Plac Św. Ducha (Holy Ghost square), close to the Kraków main station (Kraków Główny). The edifice, designed by Jan Zawiejski, is ranked among the most valuable monuments of theatre architecture in Europe. 

Later named after noted Polish poet and playwright Juliusz Słowacki, the theater was modeled after some of the most beautiful venues in Europe and was the first building in Krakow to have electric lighting in 1893!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Wieliczka Salt Mine (Polish: Kopalnia soli Wieliczka) had been one of my "must-visit" destinations until this summer in 2017, although it's not so far from where I currently live (Olomouc, Czech Republic). It is located in Wieliczka within the Kraków metropolitan area. 

The salt mine, run by the Żupy krakowskie Salt Mines company, was one of the oldest mines that history dated back to the 13th century and kept producing table salt until 2007. Commercial mining was discontinued in 1996, because of salt prices going down and also mine flooding. The mine is one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments (Pomniki historii), as designated in the first round, on 16 September 1994. About 1.2 million people visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine annually!!!

Image from Wiki

In Krakow, millions of tourist offices offer guide tours. The guide tour price varies according to the service - the more expensive tour tends to include a pick-up service in front of your hotel - No need to take public transportation, and no need to buy a tour guide when you get there. 

Chapel of Saint Kinga

Joining a guided tour means you are obliged to follow your guide as a group of around 30 visitors. You are not allowed to be alone there. In another word, being alone in the mine means you are likely to get lost in humongous underground salt world!

Rock-salt carving of Pope John Paul II

After setting up the radio headphone, the following action visitors make in the tour is to come down the everlasting stairs to a depth of 64 meters. By following a guide's voice through the radio-headphone over walking almost 3 km (which is still less than 2% of the length of the mine's passages!!!) of meandering corridors, you encounter stunning beauty of chapels, statues, and reception room that are all made of salt, as well as underground lake located at 135 meters in depth. 

Underground lake in Wiemar Chamber

If you haven't been to, I strongly recommend visiting there to indulge yourself in the crystal beauty of past industrial technologies and the faith among hardworking miners.

Casimir III the Great (left)

From time to time during the tour, you encounter well-carved statues. The bust of Casimir III the Great (1310-1370) can be found in a more than 100-meter underground corridor. Of course, he is made of salt rock carved by miners. He is called "the Great" because he was deemed a peaceful ruler, a “peasant king,” and a skilled diplomat. He reformed the Polish army and doubled the size of the kingdom. He reformed the judicial system and introduced a legal code, gaining the title "the Polish Justinian". He was the founder of the University of Kraków, the oldest Polish university. He also confirmed privileges and protections previously granted to Jews and encouraged them to settle in Poland in great numbers. 

He is portrayed in 50 Złoty.

St. John Chapel

The Chapel of St. John, a symbol of Wieliczka miners' faith and worship, is considered to be the most beautiful chapel with wooden furnishings. It is located 135 meters underground with a floor area of 153 square meters. It appears at the very end of the tour. Make sure your camera battery is still alive and still enough space in the memory card...

Chapel of Saint Kinga

There is no doubt that the Chapel of St. Kinga, located 101 meters underground with 31 x 15 m dimensions/ 465 square meters, is the biggest highlight of the tour. When you search for images of Wieliczka Salt Mine, you are very likely to find images of this chapel. Due to the tour, I could only stay around 12 min.... Way too short!

All made of salt!!!

There is a legend about Saint Kinga of Poland (1224-1292). Well, she was a Hungarian princess born in Esztergom in the Kingdom of Hungary. When She was betrothed to Bolesław V the Chaste, the Prince of Kraków in the 1200s, she persuaded her father, Béla IV of Hungary, for a lump of salt because Krakow had lots of gold but hardly any salts then.  Before Kinga headed for Kraków, her father King Béla took her to a salt mine in Máramaros county in Hungary where she threw her engagement ring given by her fiancé, Bolesław, in one of the shafts. Upon arriving in Kraków, she asked the miners to dig a deep pit until they come upon a rock. The people found a lump of salt in there and when they split it in two, discovered the princess's ring. Kinga had thus become the patron saint of salt miners in and around the Polish capital. Her discovery of a salt mine had brought Kraków 700 years of wealth through salt export.

Michalowice Chamber

Michalowice Chamber is another breathtaking timber-made structure built by mimers you encounter. jaw-dropping view!!!

Souvenir shop

I am not sure if the "embedded" souvenir shop was also made by miners... but so cool!

In 1978 it was placed on the first UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

St. Mary's Basilica In Kraków

St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków (also known as Church of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven; Polish Bazylika Mariacka w Krakowie) is a black gothic church located at the heart of Krakow. The history of the Church dated back to the late 13th century on the foundations of a former Romanesque church and the new temple was consecrated around 1320. The church underwent numerous reconstructions over centuries.

St. Mary's Altar

The church is particularly famous for its wooden altarpiece. The altarpiece was carved between 1477 and 1484 by German sculptor, Veit Stoss. 

Overview of St. Mary's Altar

In addition, a trumpet signal—called the St. Mary's Trumpet Call; Polish Hejnał mariacki—is played from the top of the taller of Saint Mary's two towers. It is played every hour on the hour, four times in succession in each of the four cardinal directions, by a trumpeter on the highest tower. 

Image from Wiki

When I first heard it, I thought it was played by a machine/player, programmed to play a song every hour but it is played by a real human being! The noon performance is broadcast via radio to all of Poland and the world.

The church is familiar to many English-speaking readers from the 1929 book The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly.

The Baro­que altar of the Holy Cross was built in 1735 from black mar­ble incrusted with pink mar­ble. It holds a Gothic sculp­tu­ral master­pie­ce – the sto­ne cross sculp­ted by Veit Stoss in the late 15th cen­tu­ry.

The façade of St. Mary’s Basilica has two characteristic towers of various heights and architecture. The tal­ler south tower is 82 m high and is also cal­led the Bugle Call Tower or the Excu­bia­rum Watch­to­wer. The shor­ter south tower called "bell tower" where Polish Miles Davis plays every hour is 69 m high. 

Tourist information can be found here. The admission of pres­by­te­ry and its main altar costs 10 PLN. Personally, it's worth it. The ticket office is located adjacent to the church. 

Katedra Wawelska

Wawel Cathedral, Katedra Wawelska in Polish, is a Roman Catholic Church located on Wawel Hill in Kraków.

it is the Polish national sanctuary and traditionally has served as the coronation site of the Polish monarchs as well as the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Kraków. The Wawel Cathedral has been the main burial site for Polish monarchs since the 14th century. As such, it has been significantly extended and altered over time as individual rulers have added multiple burial chapels.

ADMISSION TO THE CATHEDRAL IS FREE. Admission to Sigismund Bell, Royal Tombs, Cathedral Museum Regular Concession cost 12,00 zł for Individual tourists and 7,00 zł for Group.

Opening hours:

9:00 - 17:00 (Mon- Sat)

12:30 - 17:00 (Sun)

Synagoga Tempel w Krakowie

Synagogue temple in Krakow is located in the Kazimierz district in Krakow, Poland. It was built in 1860 - 1862. Among all Synagogues situated in the former Jewish quarter of the town of Kazimierz, this is the most recently built one.

The Moorish Revival building was designed by Polish architect, Ignacy Hercok. The temple, with its tall central section flanked by lower wings, is designed on the pattern of the Leopoldstädter Tempel, in Vienna, Austria. 

At the time the synagogue was built, Kraków was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The richly finished interior is adorned with dense patterns painted in many colors and copious amounts of gold leaf, but the patterns, with the exception of the exquisite Moorish design on the ceiling, are not stylistically Moorish. 

Today's synagogue was shaped in 1924, when ground floor aisles were added, shorter than the former body of the building. During the German occupation in Kraków between 1939 and 1945, the Temple was used as a warehouse and the northern aisle served as a stable for horses. 

The synagogue was ruined during World War II by the German Nazis, who used the building as an ammunition storage area. After the war, it was used again for prayers. 

Tempel Synagogue is not only a major place of worship but also a booming center of Jewish culture, which hosts numerous concerts and meetings, especially during the Festival.

This is one of the most exotic and ornate of all the synagogues in Krakow. I enjoyed visiting there to have a quiet and solemn moment.

The admission fee is 10 Polish zloties (10 PLN). You can enter without wearing a kippah (if you are a male visitor), however, it is under renovation (as of 9th of August, 2017)...

Pigeons In Krakow

Street Performer In Krakow At Night