Krakow city: Old Square

The square in the middle of Krakow old town is vast, with many restaurants on every side of it and in the middle by the cloth workers hall, which also hides three interesting sites, a covered market at street level, an art gallery up stairs, and hidden in the basement an amazing museum, the Rynek Underground Museum showing the layers oh history underneath the present square. Some of the restaurants in the square have jazz playing, at least at night, one offered concerts of Chopin’s music. When we were there in August there was a daily market of folk craft as well as a daily concert of folk music, part of the celebrations of 100 years of Polish independence. Trotting round the square was a regular procession of three horse drawn carriages offering tourist rides. The horses looked well-groomed and cared for and the carriages sparkled white in the light. The friendly bustle of the place went on well into the evening with crowds not in the restaurants gathering round a large statue outside St Mary’s church, a huge but elegant gothic brick building with beautiful decorations insided from which an hourly bugle call is played. In another corner of the square is a very small church in which daily chamber concerts were held. From the square we strolled down broad streets busy with pedestrians crossing the tramtracks to other restaurants and churches and the royal castle and cathedral on its hill overlooking the Vistula river. Around the old town, of which the square is at the centre, is a tranquil green space through which one can walk for ages, a broad wooded area where the city ramparts used to stand, and parts of them, like the barbican, remain. Aug 2018