KRAKOW:After decades of gathering dust, this Unesco World Heritage jewel has glammed itself up and is giving Prague some serious competition as the favourite Eastern European party spot, writes LORRAINE COURTNEY
SALVADOR DALI once said that art nouveau architecture has a “terrifying and edible beauty”. He might have been talking about Krakowian delights like the wildly imaginative Jama Michalika cafe evoking the wild air of the Belle Époque and the gaudy stained glass creations of Stanislaw Wyspianski.
But there’s more to Krakow. Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque spires pierce the skyline; suburbs tell a drab story of Soviet realism. Huddling between this architectural feast are throbbing clubs, agglomerations of consonants and lots of fairytales. For decades, Krakow was locked behind the former Soviet bloc gathering dust. But now that it has re-emerged, this Unesco World Heritage jewel has glammed itself up and is giving Prague some serious competition as the favourite Eastern European party spot.
Rynek Glowny is the city’s centrepiece market. It’s a glory of Renaissance style, all bustle and flow, and is dominated by the covered Sukiennice or Cloth Hall. Inside the Cloth Hall’s turreted arcades you’ll find masterpieces of Polish art and a superb souvenir market. Pre-dating a numbering system, the palaces fringing the square are still quaintly known by the decorative carvings above their portals such as the “House beneath the Rams” and the “House under the Eagle”.
The eye-catching Gothic exterior of St Mary’s with its steeply pitched roof and lopsided towers looms over the square. The taller tower is crowned by a cluster of spires and a golden orb, and it’s from here that the bugle call or “hejnal” sounds hourly stopping abruptly mid-note. It was a sort of medieval alarm that was cut short when the bugler was killed by a flying arrow during a Tartar raid.
You enter to a Tim Burtonesque universe with a blue, blue ceiling spangled with galaxies of golden stars. The Matejko murals colour the walls like a jewel box of cerise and ochre. Mind the pigeons outside. Legend has it they are not actually real birds – they are knights that were changed into pigeons by a vengeful 13th-century witch.
When the Austrians razed the city walls in the 1800s, they filled in the moat and left it as parkland. The bonus is that the leafy Planty Gardens still girdle Old Krakow, providing a lovely circular walk. A 10-minute stroll through Planty takes you to Wawel Hill, Krakow’s magnificent castle-cum-cathedral complex.
The cathedral incorporates virtually every architectural fad from Gothic to art deco. And in its crypt lie the mortal remains of a parade of Pythonesque Poles including three King Boleslaws – the Chaste, the Curly and the Wry-mouthed – alongside Mieszko the Stumbling and Ladislaus the Elbow High. Dragon’s Cave in the castle grounds is a must. Eroded thousands of centuries ago by the waters of a Jurassic Sea, its walls are swathed with fossilised remains of ancient sea animals as well as a mythical dragon slain by Prince Krak.
Krakow is all about cafe life and Jama Michalika on Florianska is one of the best. It’s all gilded mirrors, Oriental carpets and the ghosts of the Young Poland art movement who used to gather here and gossip over glasses of absinthe. Order one too and feel terribly fin-de- siècle.
Another sweet number is the diminutive Café Larousse. Its walls are papered with the yellowed pages of a 1906 French dictionary. You sit at one of four communal tables under a bare light bulb. The menu is limited, but the setting is everything.
FOR ALL HER glitter, you are never allowed to forget Krakow’s unsettling past. After a century and a half of occupation, a short stint of Polish independence evaporated when the Nazis invaded in 1939. The Nazi atrocities were then followed by Soviet ones. The wounds are most palpable in the Old Jewish quarter of Kazimierz with its crumbling cemeteries, carved Yiddish shop signs and haunting Klezmer music floating in the air. After all, this area was emptied by Hitler’s genocide.
Isaac’s Synagogue is now a bleak museum. The few exhibits include some battered wooden benches to remind that once there were enough Jews to fill it, and in one corner a black and white television flickers with documentary footage of these streets during the war.
You can feel something of this too at the sombre Remuh Cemetery where gravestones smashed by the Nazis have been constructed into a memorial wall. And outside the city, Birkenau deserves a pilgrimage if only to be reminded of recent evil in its bleak expanse of huts and rows of stone latrines.
Krakow is a city of artists and writers but one, Stanislaw Wyspianski, towers above the rest. The Franciscan Basilica reveals his genius. The basilica was destroyed by a fire in 1850 and around 1900 the 31-year-old Wyspianski set about smartening it up. His beyond glorious art nouveau murals and 11 glowing windows will blow your mind, especially the giant one above the organ loft. It depicts God in the moment of creation with flowing, swirling lines and intense hues.
For more Wyspianski delights visit the tiny Wyspianski museum. The collection includes his exquisite pastel landscapes and portraits.
There’s one last masterpiece to pay homage to. It’s Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine at the Czartoryski Municipal Museum. It’s an exquisite portrait of a teenage beauty queen, clothed in a velvet robe and, of course, holding an ermine in the crook of her arm. She looks out of the picture, at once haughty, classy and daring. A bit like Krakow herself.
Where to stay, where to eat and where to go during a visit to Krakow
5 places to stay
1. The Copernicus. Ulica Kanonicza 16, 00-48-12-424-3400, copernicus.hotel.com.pl. Austerely grand with medieval portals and wooden ceilings. And yes, the philosopher stayed here. From €225 for a double.
2. Krakow Apartments. Ulica Szczepanska 7/4a, 00-48-12-421-4865, krakow-apartments.com. They’re right in the throbbing heart of the Old Town. From €50 per apartment per night.
3. Hotel Pod Roza. Florianska 14, 00-48-12-424-3300, hotelpodroza.com. The inscription above the portal reads: “Let this house stand until the ant drinks the waters of the oceans and the tortoise encircles the earth”. The interior is just as pretty and Tsar Alexander I was a guest. Doubles from €230.
4. The Stary Hotel. Ulica Szczepanska 5, 00-48-12-384-0808, stary.hotel.com.pl. Created from a 15th century town house, this is a charming mix of the medieval and contemporary. Doubles start at €225.
5. Wentzl. Rynek Glowny 19, 00-48-12-430-2664, wentzl.pl. This diminutive hotel has just a dozen bedrooms on Market Square. The restaurant dates from 1792 – the hotel from 2000. Doubles from €159.
5 places to eat
1. Ariel. Ulica Szeroka 18, 00-48-12-421-7920, ariel.ceti.pl. An unmissable Jewish treat, especially on nights when a klezmer band is playing. Try the stuffed goose neck.
2. Jama Michalikowa. Ulica Florianska 45, 00-48-12-422-1561, jamamichalika.pl. A veritable Krakowian institution. After traipsing round the city, sink into one of the green banquettes for a slice of Polish cheesecake.
3. At Pod Aniolami. Ulica Grodzka 35, 00-48-12-421-3999, podaniolami.pl. You’re welcomed to the old cellar by the sound of birdsong from the caged birds singing to each other across the restaurant. The food is hearty fare.
4. Wierzynek. Market Square 15, 00-48-12-424-9600, wierzynek.com. A good bet for classic but upmarket dishes. It’s also the oldest restaurant in town dating from 1364.
5. Bar Grodski. Ulica Grodzka 47, 00-48-12-422-6807, grodzkibar.zaprasza.net. A Communist-era relic dishing up budget meals such as beetroot soup with ravioli.
5 places to go
1. The mighty Franciscan Church (Ulica Grodzka) is a delight in itself but Wyspianski’s boldly original art nouveau murals and windows steal the show.
2. The House under the Singing Frog (Dom Pod Spiewajaca Zaba) is an exquisitely overblown creation by Teodor Talowski. It gets its name from the river’s croaking frogs that used to accompany the singing students it once housed.
3. Wawel is home to the national cathedral and castle and was the seat of kings for over 500 years, meaning that it’s a curious melange of architectural styles from Gothic to Baroque.
4. Nowa Huta is the Soviet showcase suburb built after the second World War to house steelworkers. It’s a surreal masterpiece of socialist-realist planning, and you can take in an authentically drab Soviet restaurant, the still-operational steel mill and a time-capsule flat.
5. Make a pilgrimage to the haunting Remuh cemetery at Szeroka 40 and gaze at the poignant memorial wall that has been assembled from the gravestones smashed by the Nazis.
Hot spot
Follow the arty crowd to Café Camelot (Ulica Sw Tomasza 17, 00-48-12-423-0638, lochcamelot.art.pl). Its basement is a candle-lit grotto that’s perfect for a Zubrowka vodka with apple juice and a slice of the obligatory cheesecake. The nightly entertainment varies from live jazz to gypsy music and cabaret.
Shop spot
Try the Florian Gate for original pieces of art, the Cloth Hall for souvenirs of amber, crystal and hand-carved chess sets, and trendy Florianska for upmarket boutiques peddling their wares to the crowds.
Go there
Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) and Ryanair (ryanair.com) fly from Dublin to Krakow.