5 October 2023 Jewish District Blog
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| Jewish Sector |
Today we are going to walk through what was once the vibrant
Jewish district of Krakow –Kazimierz. It
is located to the south of Krakow’s Old Town and bordered on its southern edge
by the Vistula River. The Kazimierz
district has been the home of the Jewish population of Krakow for over 450
years, starting in the 12th century.
Between then and WWII, their numbers and activity had been
expanding. Before WWII there were
approximately 64,000 Jews living and working in Krakow as store and restaurant
owners, merchants, bankers, and craftsmen, one of the biggest and most active
Jewish communities in Europe with their 6 synagogues.
WWII was a time of tragedy and heartbreak for the Jewish
community. They were forcible removed
from their homes and relocated to a ghetto (called Podgórze) on the other side
of the river that was completely closed to the rest of the world. Many died in these miserable conditions, and
those that did not were eventually removed to concentration camps, where even
harsher conditions and death awaited them.
Only about 10% (3,000-4.000) of the Krakow Jews survived the war. Not only were many lives lost, but their
culture was lost also. Sadly, most of
the Jews that did survive never returned to Poland. Since the war, though, those few that did
return have turned Kazimierz into not only a popular tourist site but also a Jewish
cultural center, with an energetic night life and ethnic and European
restaurants and cafes – the Soho of Krakow.
Today Kazimierz is considered one of the best-preserved Jewish areas in
Europe.
To begin our
exploration of the Jewish district, we took a tram across the river from
Kazimierz a place called Bohaterow Getta (Ghetto Heroes Square) located in the
Podgorze district. This was the location
from which the Jews were taken to the train station for deportation to the
concentration camps. In the center of
the square are empty steel chairs, each chair representing 1000 Jewish
victims. It was in this district that
the Jewish people were forced to live during WWII. The area was surrounded by a 10-foot high
fence (looking much like Jewish gravestones).
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| Ghetto Heroes Square |
We then traveled back across the Vistula River into the
Kazimierz district. Thank goodness for
the trams – Bill would have never made it across the bridge (fear of heights)
if we had walked. Walking up Szeroka
Street (although it is more of a square than a street), we saw some of the
oldest buildings in Krakow. This area
used to be a small village called Bawdt, but it merged with Kazimierz in 1340
AD. Here we visited the Old Synagogue.
As its name implies, the Old Synagogue is the oldest
synagogue in Poland (built in the 14th -15th century),
but today houses a museum. It was
totally destroyed by a fire in 1557, but was rebuilt in the Renaissance style,
but still retaining its Gothic shape and interior. Until 1939, it was the religious, political,
and social center of the Jewish district of Kazimierz. After being destroyed by the Germans in WWII,
it sat abandoned until 1961 when it became the property of the Historical
Museum of Krakow, and today houses a museum of Jewish history and traditions,
with relics and photos depicting pre-WWII life in Kazimierz.
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| Old Synagogue |
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| Old Synagogue |
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| Old Synagogue |
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| Old Synagogue |
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| Old Synagogue |
One event in the history of this synagogue occurred in the
late 1700s, when Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a Polish national hero who also help the
American colonists during our Revolutionary War, gave a fiery speech to urge
the Jewish community to fight for freedom of their common homeland.
As we continued our walk through the Jewish Quarter, we came
across Duffy’s Irish Pub. Unfortunately,
it was not yet open. We eventually came
to Plac Nowy, the main square of Kazimierz.
During the day it is filled with farmers’ markets, but at night it has a
noisy party atmosphere with bars and loud music. And like most European cities, it has its fair
share of pigeons! We stopped here at one
of the little cafes for a coffee and pastry.
This area is the heart of Kazimierz. Although it was named for King Casimir the
Great, it was actually King Jan Olbracht who convinced the Jewish people to
live in Kazimierz. It has only been a
part of Krakow since the early 19th century when it merged with the
city.
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| Old Building with a Mural |
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| Duffy's Irish Pub |
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| Plac Nowy |
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| Old Jewish Neighborhood |
Just inside the Kazimierz district is the Church of St. Catherine of
Alexandria, Augustinian Monastery, the best example of Gothic architecture in
Poland, but a church beset by mother nature’s wrath. Founded by Casimir III the Great in the
mid-14 century, it was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1443 while still
under construction. This catastrophe was
followed by both a devastating flood in 1534 and a fire in 1556. Following another earthquake in 1786, the
Austrian Empire closed the church for good.
Doomed to be demolished, efforts were made to save the church and it has
been under restoration since the mid 19th century. It is now a functioning church and open to
the public. On the 22nd of
each month, members of the congregation can be seen entering the church
carrying a rose that they put down by the sculpture of St. Rita. She is the patron saint of hopeless cases,
for whom a rose would always blossom (even during the winter months) in the
garden of the Convent of the Augustinian Nuns in Cascia.
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| Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria |
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| Inside Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria |
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| Inside Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria |
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| Inside Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria |
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| Inside Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria |
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The last stop on
our tour was the Skalka Sanctuary, first settled in 2000 BCE on a hill overlooking
the Vistula River. It is one of Poland’s holiest
sanctuaries. All toll, there were four
churches built on this spot. The first
church was built in the 10th century to mark the arrival of
Christianity. In 1079, this was the
location of the execution of Krakow’s Bishop Stanislav by King Boleslav
II. The church that now stands on this
hill – the Basilica of St.
Michael the Archangel and St. Stanislaus– was built in the 18th
century in the Gothic style. It still
has the church wall that contains three dark spots of St. Stanislav’s blood. Adjoining the church is a 17th
century monastery modeled after a Renaissance castle.
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| Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Stanislaus |
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| Inside the Basilica |
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| Inside the Basilica |
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| Inside the Basilica |
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| Where the Blood of St. Stanislaus is on the Wall |
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| Inside the Basilica |
From here we walked back up to one of the main commercial
streets in Krakow and caught a tram back to our apartment. Along the way we passed a small fenced in area on the grass along the street where the neighbors feed the pigeons. And there were a lot of pigeons. Tomorrow, we leave Poland and fly to
Switzerland to start our Rhine and Mosel River Cruise. Poland has been interesting, but I wish we
could have had better timing in Warsaw.
We did enjoy Krakow as it is a very vibrant, friendly and walkable city
with a very good public transportation system.
Although our apartment was small it was more than adequate and located
close to the Old Town of Krakow with its historical sites and wonderful little
cafes and restaurants.
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| Feeding the Pigeons |
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