Kraków Old Town
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How it came to be
Kraków stands on the Vistula in southern Poland. A fortified settlement existed on Wawel Hill from around the 8th century, and in 1038 it became the seat of Polish monarchs. After the Mongols sacked it in 1241, the city received its charter in 1257 and was laid out anew as a merchants' town around what is described as Europe's largest market square.
In 1335 King Casimir III founded a new town named after himself, Kazimierz, in the southern suburbs, and in 1364 he founded the university that is now the Jagiellonian University. In 1495 King John I Albert ordered the Jews out of the Old Town, and they settled in Kazimierz, which became a town of both Catholic and Jewish faith.
Kraków remained the capital of Poland until 1596, when Sigismund III moved the court to Warsaw. The castle and cathedral on Wawel symbolised royal and episcopal power, and the kings of Poland were buried in the cathedral. In the Second World War Nazi Germany made the city the capital of the General Government, but most of its buildings survived. It was inscribed in 1978, and the property covers about 150 ha: the Old Town, Wawel, Stradom and Kazimierz.
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