Today I attended a great virtual tour of Krakow Poland with Olga from World Virtual Tours (supported entirely by donations).
With roots back to the Stone Age, today the city's Old Town has been lovingly restored. The city's Wawel Royal Castle was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, one of the world's first sites granted the status.
After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany at the start of World War II, Krakow became the capital of Germany's General Government. The Jewish population was forced into a walled zone (the Kraków Ghetto) from where many were sent to the nearby Auschwitz extermination camp. If there was any good from this time it is that the city was spared from destruction and major bombing.
These are all high quality Creative Commons images from Wikipedia, so click to enlarge them for exceptional detail.
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| Wawel Castle (left) and Wawel Cathedral (right) |
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| Kanonicza Street, at the foot of the Wawel Castle |
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| Depiction of Krakow in the 16th century |
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| Paradise Bliss (Jan de Kempeneer's workshop, ca. 1550), one of the Jagiellonian tapestries |
The Jagiellonian tapestries, woven in the Netherlands and Flanders, originally consisted of 365 pieces assembled by the Jagiellons to decorate the interiors of Wawel Castle.
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| The citizens of Krakow saved the Jagiellonian tapestries during World War II by sending them to Canada |
Krakow map - a great detailed map that you can zoom in and out of
Evacuation of Polish National Treasures during World War II
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| Woodcut of Krakow - from the Nuremberg Chronicle |
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