Countdown to Krakow

WYD 2016 Preview

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In the buildup to World Youth Day, I will be chronicling all things great and small about Krakow. Much of the city’s history and the sites close to the heart of Pope St. John Paul II are chronicled in the book City of Saints that I co-authored with George Weigel, but there is so much more that we simply couldn’t fit in the book: day trips, cultural highlights, eating, praying and people.

There is much to know about Poland and the city that is at its heart, Krakow. An overview of the city’s history is the best place to start, in order to give context.

Poland, referred to by many as the “heart of Europe,” is truly a crossroads. Few countries can attest more to the notion that geography matters. Its unique character has been honed through millennia of trade, where East meets West. Even the language reflects this blending: a Slavic language from the East written in the Latin alphabet from the West.  

Poland’s easy trade routes, however, also made the country highly susceptible to invaders and marauding armies, who pillaged Poland, usually on their way to bigger prizes beyond its borders.

The many invasions, the country’s ever-expanding and contracting borders and deep devotion to the cross of Christ (which Poles have experienced keenly) have marked the Polish character. It is reflected in the music, literature and art.

Krakow is the former capital and second-largest city in Poland, although it is really the heart and soul of the country. The earliest settlements date back to the fourth century on the banks of the Vistula River. As one legend has it (there are many legends in Polish history), the town’s name comes from the brave and clever knight Krakus, who was able to vanquish the menacing dragon that lived in the cave that one can still visit today at the base of Wawel Hill. The grateful townsfolk immediately made Krakus the king and named the city after him.

It has been said that history is to Poland what food is to the French, and Krakow as a city is no different. It is dripping with memories, imprinted in the very stones, from the footprint in concrete attributed to St. Jadwiga (1384-1399) to the remaining barbican that once defended the city against frequent invasions and Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest in the world and attended by John Paul II, which maintains the city’s collective wisdom.

Even in small ways, the city remembers. Every hour on the hour, a reminder of the 1241 invasion by Tartar raiders rings out: A trumpeter plays the Hejnal Mariacki, a warning tune of impending attack, from the bell tower of St. Mary’s Church. The song, however, abruptly ends mid-melody, never to finish, a reminder, according to legend, of the Tartar arrow that pierced the medieval trumpeter as the city came under siege.

For all of the focus on the past, Krakow has seen tremendous change since the fall of communism, steadily recovering from its gray, hungry days under the domination of the Soviet Union.

The city itself is a jewel of architecture, history, piety and culture. The old town is ringed with what is called the planty, a walking path around the city on the site of the old ramparts that protected it from invaders for centuries. Inside the ring are Wawel Castle and Cathedral, Jagiellonian University, dozens of churches and homes to religious orders, the archdiocese — which John Paul once headed — and the main square, one of the largest in Europe. Few cars are allowed, making it a pedestrian haven.

Today, the city gleams after massive efforts to repair the damage from both World War II and the Soviets. Soon, it will welcome pilgrims.

St. John Paul would be pleased.

Carrie Gress, a Register blogger,

has a doctorate from The Catholic University of America.

 She is the co-author, with George Weigel,

of City of Saints: A Pilgrimage to John Paul II’s Kraków.

Follow her World Youth Day previews at NCRegister.com.

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