Krakow is not a city lacking in historical monuments, but one of its most exquisite can be easily overlooked as such. This is the Planty, the narrow garden walk that rings the Old Town and, besides providing a pleasant place for an afternoon stroll, is one of the most fascinating and comprehensive monuments to the city's past. The Planty roughly follow the line of the city's former defensive wall...

If you gaze down Pilsudskiego Street from the Planty, out toward the wide green meadow called the Blonia, you will see at the top of the distant hill a distinctly man-made mound of earth rising above the trees and rooftops. This is Kopiec Kosciuszko, the Kosciuszko Mound, one of four such structures in Kraków, each built on a hilltop, each a monument to an important figure in the city's history. ...

Outside the mill of tourists and crush of narrow Old Town streets, Kraków’s Botanical Gardens provide a pleasant retreat. Hundreds of specimens, including a 500-year-old oak and a fine collection of carnivorous plants, blossom in vivid colour over the grounds, which cover 9.5 hectares of what once was the Wisla riverbed. The gardens are above all a centre for plant conservation and r...

Krakow is a vibrant cultural centre and one of Poland's largest cities, but part of its special charm lies in its proximity to the beautiful, unspoilt countryside. While close to the city centre you can find many open parks and wild stretches of riverbank, a particularly charming spot lies about twelve kilometres upstream from Wawel Castle - the Benedictine monastery at Tyniec. This quiet spot, b...

Originally Krakow’s Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz was for centuries where Catholics and Jews existed peacefully side-by-side, having a noticeably different architectural character than the main city. Jewish people first started arriving here in the 14th century, living in a separate are known as ‘Jewish Town’ up until the 19th century when Kazimierz was incorporated into the surround...