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History of the city of Cracow

history of the town of Krak

Until the 13th century

200 000 years B.C. - the oldest traces of man found in the neighbourhood of Cracow (in the grottos in the neighbourhood of Ojcow).
50 000 years B.C. - the age of the oldest Palaeolithic settlement centres on Wawel.
9th century - a fortified town and a subtown were established on Wawel. In the second half of that century, the tribal state of Vislans appeared, and then Cracow was its centre. However, at the end of the 9th century the state of Vislans lost its independence to the Great Moravia Reich reigned by prince Swietopelk. The Vislans recovered independence in 907. A loose relation of dependence of Vislans from the Czech was established then.
965 - the first written document in which the local name of Cracow is mentioned three times. This is an account of a merchant and traveller from the then Arabic Spain, Ibrahim ibn Jacob.
1000 - the diocese of Cracow is established.
1020 - Boleslaw Chrobry started to build the Wawel cathedral.
1038 - Prince Kazimierz Odnowiciel made the town of Cracow his seat, therefore Cracow became the capital of the country.
1090 - 1098 - King Wladyslaw Herman continued the construction of the Wawel cathedral started by Chrobry

13th - 14th century

1241 - nearly total destruction of the town as a result of Tatar invasions lasting two years.
1257, 5 June - Prince of Cracow Boleslaw Wstydliwy issued the privilege of location of the town of Cracow on the Magdeburg law. According to this law all the streets should branch off radially and orthogonally. Some characteristics from before the location and important functions can be seen today in some city buildings. Those buildings are churches: St. Mary's, St. John's and St. Adalbert's standing obliquely to any axis. Inconsistent with the principles of the location law are also the curvatures of the streets: Mikolajska, Bracka, Kanonicza and leaving Grodzka St. branching off the Market Square not to the right angle.
1286 - Cracow received the permit for enclosing the town in defensive walls issued by Leszek Czarny.
1291 - Czech troops invade Cracow and take the city for 15 years.
1300 - the Florianska Gate was built.
1306 - Wladyslaw Lokietek gave trade and tax privileges to the bourgeoisie of Cracow.
1333 - on 24 April The coronation of Kazimierz III called the Great as the king of Poland took place in the Wawel Cathedral. The period of his reign marked the beginning of a great heyday of the city as an important commercial centre, the capital of the state and the centre of culture and science.
1335 - on 27 February Kazimierz III granted the location document to a new town - Kazimierz that was located on the other side of the Vistula river running at that time at the place of the present Dietla Street.
1364 -under the erection act issued on 12 May by king Kazimierz III, the Cracovian Academy was established.
1366 - King Kazimierz III exalted Kleparz settlement to the dignity of a town.
1380 -1400 - Construction of the Gothic Cloth Hall lasted 20 years.
1383 - Construction of the Town Hall Tower was completed on the Market Square of Cracow.
1386 - The coronation of prince Wladyslaw Jagiello for the king of Poland takes place on Wawel. Before the coronation, the future king was baptized in the church of the Franciscans. Wladyslaw Jagiello began the 200-year-long reign of a new dynasty of Jagiellons on the Polish throne.

15th - 16th - 17th century

1438 - A new bell was hanged on the tower of St. Mary's church, later called the "Polzygmunt".
1477-1489 - Wit Stwosz made the altar in St. Mary's Church.
1478 - Gothic lead cupola was put on top of the higher tower of St. Mary's church, previously covered with wood.
1498 - The construction of Barbakan was completed.
1500 - The construction of the Renaissance castle started on Wawel.
1520, July 9 - In the presence of the king, the largest Polish bell known as "Zygmunt" was hanged on the Wawel cathedral's bell tower, heightened by one floor.
1525 - Prussian prince Albrecht Hohenzollern payed homage to the Polish king Zygmunt I Stary on the Market Square of Cracow.
1537 - Under the polonization of the bourgeoisie, king Zygmunt I transferred the German services and sermons from St. Mary's church to little St. Barbara's church.
1555 - Fire of the Cloth Hall. Reconstruction lasted from 1556 to 1559. The attic designed by Giovanni Maria Padovano comes from that period.
1588 - The first secular high school was opened.
1592 - The lower tower of St. Mary's church received the cupola located on it until the present day.
1596 - Construction of St. Peter’s and Paul’s church started by the Jesuit Order, who had arrived to Cracow eight years before.
1609, May 25 - King Zygmunt III left Wawel along with his family. Thus the capital city of the country was moved to Warsaw (without any formal act). The cathedral on Wawel still remained the place of coronation of the kings of Poland.
1655 - The first robbery of the town by foreign troops. The collapse of the Republic was accompanied by the collapse of Cracow.
1680, 23 May - As a result of a thunder, the Town Hall Tower burst into flames. The reconstruction took place in 1683-1686.

18th century

1722 - Statues of twelve apostles by Dawid Hell were placed in front of St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s church.
1734, January 17 - The coronation of August III Sas took place on Wawel and this was the last royal coronation in Cracow.
1745 - The Academy of Fine Arts was established. The University took the artists in Cracow under protection by establishing the school of drawing and sculpture. The school was turned into a department in 1818 and in 1877 into an independent School of Fine Arts. In 1910 it already gained the status of Academy. Its first chancellor was Jan Matejko.
1750 - The western late Baroque vestibule of St. Mary's church was built, designed by Francisco Placidi. The door decorated with the sculpted heads of the apostles and Polish saints was installed in 1929.
1791 - The administrative division was removed. Cracow, Kleparz, Kazimierz and other nearby towns were connected into one city.
1792 - Cracow was divided into four districts: City Centre, Kazimierz, Garbary and Kleparz with Krowodrza.
1792 - Russian troops invade the town as a result of lost Targowica agreement.
1793 - As a result of the second partition of Poland, Cracow got under Russian occupation lasting until 1794.
1794 - The Kosciuszko's Insurrection outbroke on the Cracow Market Square on 24 March. The Civil and Military Order Commission started its activities. The task of the Commission is to mobilize the troops and develop fortifications.
1784, June 15 - Capitulation of the city being the beginning of the one-and-a-half year long Prussian occupation.
1795 - The coronation insignia of the Polish kings, robbed from the Wawel Treasury, are brought out from the country to Prussia.
1796 - Third partition of Poland and the beginning of the 13-year-long occupation of Cracow by the Austrians.
1798 - The Old Theatre of Cracow is opened.

19th century

1804 - Cracow was proclaimed an open city, what implied pulling down of the medieval walls, towers and gates, and it took place in 1807-1815.
1809 - Cracow was annexed to the Principality of Warsaw and until 1815 it was the capital of the department.
1811 - In the place of several pulled down town houses and St. Szczepan's church, the Szczepanski Square was created.
1815 - On the Vienna Congress the Free City of Cracow was established being until 1846 the capital of a little, formally independent Republic of Cracow
1820 - Under the decision of the Senate of the Free City of Cracow in the place of the filled former municipal fortifications and demolished medieval defensive walls, the Planty were created.
1820 - 1823 - Construction of Kosciuszko's Mound.
1841 - The double wall connecting Barbakan with Florianska Gate, the so-called neck, was pulled down.
1844 - The Senate signed the agreement for construction of the railway, connecting Cracow with Myslowice. The corner stone for construction of the railway station was also placed.
1846 - The National Government was established the night from 22 to 23 February. Austrian troops marched into the Free City of Cracow.
1850 - Great fire lasting 10 days, during which 160 houses, 4 churches and two cloisters burned.
1856 - Fortification works were completed in the city. Along the present Aleje Trzech Wieszczow, an embankment was built, and Cracow was declared the Fortress.
1883 - Electrical lighting was used for the first time in the city.
1866 - The chancellor of the Jagiellonian University Prof. Dr. Jozef Konrad Dietl became the first president of Cracow, who initiated the construction of water supply and sewage system in the city.
1879 - The National Museum was established in Cracow as the first museum on the Polish land.
1890 - The remains of Adam Mickiewicz were brought from Paris to Cracow and buried in the royal crypt on Wawel.
1893 - The Juliusz Slowacki Theatre was opened.
1895 - The monument of Adam Mickiewicz was unveiled on the Main Market Square.

20th - 21st century

1914 - The 1st Cadre Company set off from Oleandry in Cracow. In the period of World War I Cracow played the role of a major political centre of Poland in which the Chief National Committee was residing.
1918 - Cracow is present in the independent Polish state.
1919 - Opening of the Mining Academy.
1927 - The remains of Juliusz Slowacki were brought to Cracow from Paris.
1939-1945 - World War II, 6 November 1939 the "Sonderaktion Krakau" action was conducted in Cracow during which 183 outstanding Polish scientists were arrested. In 1941 the Jewish ghetto was established in Podgorze. Cracow was liberated on 20 January 1945, Soviet troops marched into the city, and the government in Poland was taken over by communists.
1950 - The Museum of Saltworks of Cracow was established from the oldest part of the salt mine in Wieliczka.
1951 - Nowa Huta was annexed to Cracow.
1956 - "Piwnica pod Baranami" was founded, being the place gathering the artists of Cracow. Its first director was Piotr Skrzynecki. The most famous surnames associated with "Piwnica pod Baranami" are: Krzysztof Penderecki, Ewa Demarczyk, Marek Grechuta, Grzegorz Turnau, Jacek Wojcicki, Jan Nowicki, Jan Kanty Pawluskiewicz and many others.
1957 - The first festival of students "JUWENALIA" took place in May. Students cultivate this tradition up to this day seizing the power in the city for several May days.
1978 - The Old Town in Cracow was entered on the UNESCO list of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, in the same year the historic salt mine in Wieliczka was also entered on that list.
1978 - The previous Metropolitan Archbishop of Cracow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla is chosen the pope.
2004 - Czeslaw Milosz dies.
2004 - Works started on the Main Market Square to replace the whole pavement. The corner stone for the construction of a musical comedy building was built in.
2005 - Pope John Paul II dies.
2007 - Celebrations of the 750th anniversary of the city location on the Magdeburg law.

Bibliography

Dobrowolski T., Sztuka Krakowa, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1959r.
Francic M., Kalendarz dziejów Krakowa, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1964r., 1998r.

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kinga2008-01-11
Krakow bardzo piekne miasto druga Florencja

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