Wow...Kraków!!

The City
This past week we spent four days in Poland with Renata and Dan Popelář, with our visit to Kraków

Market Square with Town Hall Tower

as the hub.  Much analogous to Prague, in that the city escaped significant damage during the Second World War, Kraków is a real showplace.  It is a vibrant city with pedestrians, hawkers, horse-drawn carriages, and street performers active well into the night.  The city is spectacular with a well-preserved medieval core and Jewish quarter. The old town is particularly unique for

St Mary's Basilica with rainbow

its huge central market square or Rynek Glowny, of 13th century origin, and the largest main square in Europe extending the length of two American football fields in both dimensions.  Of special interest in the square is the 14th century St Mary's Basilica with its distinctive twin towers. The taller tower represents the city and the shorter one the catholic church.... hum... would have thought it the other way.

The 12 disciples waiting outside
Peter and Paul's Church

Also in the square is the Town Hall tower and the Cloth Hall, a renaissance era trading outpost.  Just down the way from the main square is the St Peter and Paul Church.  Now, if you roam around the greater Kraków you will see a church on virtually every corner.... kind of like the number of Baptist Churches you will find in a stroll around Birmingham, Alabama.  What is notable is the size of these churches.... grandeur is not lost on these structures.  However, you will immediately notice the size of the Peter and Paul church tends towards the smaller end of the spectrum.  The best indication of this is the saying around here that the twelve disciples could not find room in the church so had to stand outside instead; thus the reason the twelve are all lined up across the front of the church.  The single most spectacular site in Kraków is the Wawel castle, cathedral and grounds.   This is a huge fortified

Cathedral and Palace
(not my photo but gives you the scope)

complex erected over may centuries on the left bank of the Vistula river.  The complex consists of many buildings and fortifications, most constructed in the 13th and 14th centuries. The site has strong political and historical significance for Poland and was worth the stroll through the central square and the climb up one of the perimeter towers.




The Environs

Opposition Memorial

Dan and Renata had the foresight to bring bicycles with us on this trip.  Since only two could fit on the car, we brought bikes for B.J. and Renata; Dan and I rented bikes from a shop downtown just off the market square.   The weather cooperated although it did threaten a couple times and the 3-speed rental bikes performed remarkably well in the almost flat terrain. Our goal was to visit the "Lord's Ark" church about 10 km from the square.  However, the four of us took off for a 35 km ride for most of the day in a big circuit around the outskirts of the city.  The ride took us through residential

Ceiling is bottom of Ark

neighborhoods, part of the Kraków university system and by several older and more contemporary churches and by a very intriguing monument to the opposition to the Nazi occupation of WWII. In our circuit ride we also swung by the factory owned by Oskar Schindler of 'Schindler's List' fame; but I am going to hold off that until another blog. Our goal, The Lord's Ark Church, or the Church of Our Lady the Queen of Poland, was worth the trip.  The church is located in an area called Nowa Huta in the

suburbs of Kraków in which the communists exercised what is called "the communist hallucination".  The idea was to counter the 'elitist' character of greater Kraków by moving half a million blue collar workers into the area and building a smelting facility.  The problem is the natural resources were miles away and all raw materials had to be brought in... a very uneconomical venture.  The area today is still packed with the square, concrete apartment complexes (although much improved and colorfully painted).  The church was a bone of contention between the catholics and the government but all was endured and the church was constructed in spite of several obstacles thrown up by the communists.  As you can see from the photos, the church was built on the motif of
Noah's Ark and is quite a sight to behold.

Pope John Paul II and the Lord's Ark Church