Krakow, Pt. 2

Okay, so we left off in the Cathedral. I just noticed that the photos don't end up on their own line but simply displace the text, so I'll put all photos at the bottom from now on. If any subscribers got two notices about part one, it's because I edited it.. Jadwiga did marry a Lithanian prince, thus starting the Jagellonian dynasty, but they countries were not united until the 16th century. Also, do let me know how you're doing and if you like the blog with comments if you can! Thanks to Linda for commenting already!

Okay, anyway. So, Krakow has a lot of beautiful things and adorable legends. After the Cathedral, we toured the royal palace. I've done the palace thing a lot, so I'm kind of talked out on the subject. It was nice. A lot of things were not original, apparently-- too many different groups had occupied the city. But there were some original things, and some replicas, and some things that never belonged to the castle but had been donated.

After that, we went down to the old town square again, and visited the church (officially, as opposed to the first evening when a couple of us just wandered in through the prayer-door (as opposed to the tourist door). It was absolutely beautiful. In many ways, it reminded me of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris- the ceiling was a deep blue with golden stars, and the stained glass was similar. However, the altarpiece I had never seen the like of. I have a picture of the inside of the church from when I wandered, but not the altarpiece, so try click here to see it. The pic isn't that big, but the piece itself it huge and detailed beautifully. All the faces are different and it's very active. It's three scenes in the middle, the Dormition of Mary, with the apostles catching her, then above the Assumption, and at the top the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven. The doors are scenes from the Gospels, and when they close there are more scenes. It's pretty incredible. My family will appreciate that the frame is a stronger wood, but the figures themselves are carved in Linden wood.

The tour guide told us a legend about the pigeons in the square, of which there are many. There was a king who wanted to go to Rome for greater prestige, but he did not have the money. So he went to a local witch and asked her for her help. She said she would if he would leave his army behind. He agreed, and she turned them all into pidgeons. Then the pidgeons took pebbles and dropped them from the sky, and when they dropped, they were gold. So he had enough money to go to Rome. But he was wasteful and he squandered it on the way, so he had no way to get back, and his knights have been waiting for him as pidgeons ever since. The people in Krakow really like this story-- they feed their pidgeons, unlike in Warsaw where they are generally viewed as a nuisance.

The next day, we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I knew it was more than a salt mine (no offense to salt miners, but I kind of don't think we'd take a bus ride to go see... just salt). It started in the 13th century and only closed as a salt mine in 1996, when salt prices dropped and lower levels flooded. They have, however, turned it into a great tourist attraction. You walk down 380 steps (it was a seemingly endless trail of six or seven step flights one after another) to I want to say 100m below the surface. They have a lot of salt sculptures and also original gears and models of what things looked like back then. The figures of miners burning up gas or doing x-y-z mining jobs is a bit kitchy, but it's definitely interesting and worth the trip. The best thing of all, however, was St. Kinga's Chapel.

St. Kinga was a Hungarian princess who married a Polish king. The legend says that she wanted to have something to bring to her husband as a wedding gift, so she asked her father for a salt mine, which he gave her. She threw her engagement ring down into the mine, went to Poland and was married to the king. Soon afterwards, salt was found in Wieliczka (or another nearby mine) and they began to mine it. There, among the salt, was found her wedding ring. One of the pictures I have below is a salt sculpture of this legend, with a miner returning the ring.

Three miners, two of whom were brothers, carved a chapel to St. Kinga in the mine. They worked after hours, and it took seventy years, but it is absolutely magnificent. It is no surprise they offer to host weddings in that mine, let me say, as it is absolutely beautiful. Right before we went in, though, they said we had to have a photo pass that would cost $5, so I stopped taking pictures, but I did find someone else's online photo album so have a look. It's beautiful.

Okay, that's it for Krakow. I will be back there at the end of my trip and taking daytrips to Auschwitz, Zakopane and Czestochowa, so back to Krakow later.

bye!
~N~

Photos:

in order:
Outside of St. Mary's
Inside of St. Mary's
Statue Man (brilliantly some folks dress up in costume and stand still- you have to pay to make them move- this fellow was near St. Mary's)
The Legend of St. Kinga

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