Kraków

Kraków is a city in southern Poland, on the Vistula River below the hill of Wawel. Its old town was among the first places added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978. Legend says the city was founded by Prince Krak, whose people were freed from a dragon living in a cave under the Wawel hill.

Kraków was the capital of Poland from the 11th century until King Sigismund III moved the court to Warsaw at the end of the 16th century. The kings of Poland were crowned in the Wawel Cathedral, beside the royal castle on the hill. In the Middle Ages the city grew rich on the trade in salt from the mines of Wieliczka and Bochnia. Casimir the Great founded the university in 1364, and Nicolaus Copernicus studied there in the 1490s. Kazimierz, a separate town south of the center, was for centuries the home of a Jewish community whose synagogues still stand. Karol Wojtyła was archbishop of Kraków before he became Pope John Paul II.

Comarch, a software company based in Kraków, makes business and telecom systems. Wawel, a chocolate maker of the city, sells sweets and chocolates across Poland. Can-Pack, also headquartered in Kraków, makes aluminum cans for beverage companies in many countries.

The Main Market Square, laid out in the 13th century, is surrounded by town houses, with the Renaissance Cloth Hall in its center. The obwarzanek, a ring-shaped bread sprinkled with poppy or sesame seeds, is sold from street carts across the city. Saint Mary's Basilica, on the square, holds a carved wooden altarpiece by Veit Stoss, and a trumpeter plays a short call from its tower every hour.