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| EXCURSIONS & SIGHTSEEING | |||||||||||||
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Wednesday 24th August is the day of the mid-symposium excursion. There are three options: prices include bus transportation, tickets for rafting, entrance to the museums and National Park areas, lunch and an English-speaking guide. Good shoes, comfortable and warm clothes will be needed.
If you plan to depart from Warszawa rather than from Krakow, we recommend a post-symposium visit to Warszawa's Old Town, Lazienki Palace and the Museum of the Warszawa Rising 1944. The expected cost is EURO 80, not including train passage to Warszawa. Evening sightseeing in Krakow will be available on Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th August, to places of historical and cultural significance. Symposium excursions will be organised on the condition that enough of us will participate. If there are insufficient numbers, some may be cancelled. Mid-Symposium Excursions Pieniny & Tatra National Parks
The Pieniny National Park on the Northern, Polish shore of Dunajec River, and the Slovak National Natural Reserve on its southern bank, was the first area in Europe to be established as an International Landscape Park (founded in August 1932). This area has a rich treasure of historical and folk artistic heritage as well as distinctive folklore and architecture. It is also exceptional in its memorable scenery, rocky ridges and rich flora and fauna. A truly unique natural feature of the Park is the Dunajec Gorge, not one of the largest but one of the most beautiful in Europe. Rafting down the Gorge is a major tourist attraction. The trip starts at the raft wharf in Sromowce-Katy and ends in Szczawnica. There are 250 rafts in operation, each taking 10 passengers and steered by two local raftmen. A silent 2-3 hours run reveals many wonders of this undisturbed habitat and offers a chance to see many mammals and birds, including such rarities as the black stork. Two picturesque castles at Czorsztyn (ruins) and Niedzica, embedded into a mosaics of woods and fields, add to the charm of the area. Auschwitz Death Camp and Ojcow National Park
KL Auschwitz Death Camp in Oswiecim, merely an hour's drive from Krakow, was the Nazi Second World War installation where about one million men, women and children perished between June 1941 and January 1945. From 1979, Auschwitz concentration camp and the Birkenau Death Camp were entered on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.
Sightseeing in Krakow
1. The Old Town: Main Market Square, Mariacki (St. Mary's) Church, Jagiellonian University - the Collegium Maius: The Main Market Square - The City's Heart - is the largest medieval town square in Europe. The centrally positioned Cloth Hall, a construction from the turn of the 12th century, was originally designed as a centre for the cloth trade. Today, the ground floor continues to be a trading centre for crafts and souvenirs, while the upper floor is a Gallery of 19th Century Polish Painting. Mariacki (St. Mary's) Church is a Gothic building with six interior chapels, an octagonal presbytery and two towers, and with a beautiful wooden altar made by Wit Stwosz in the second half of the 15th century - one of the biggest altars in Europe. Every hour, the hejnał (bugle-call) is played from the higher tower in order to commemorate the destruction of the city during the 13th century Tatar raids. After listening to the hejnał melody breaking off abruptly in midbar, one can never forget the town's special ambience.
2. Royal Castle Wawel: Many years ago, this was the abode of Polish Princes and Kings. During the reign of Sigismund the Old, the Wawel had its "Golden Age". In this time there were outstanding Italian sculptors, painters and decorators who left their best works of art here. At present in the former King's palace there is a museum called: "The State Collection of Arts in the Wawel". It is one of the most beautiful museums in Poland.
3. Kazimierz - a Jewish quarter: Dotted with old buildings which give a special ambience to the area, Kazimierz was the home of the larger part of the Jewish population of Kraków until 1939. Here, we find the famous Remuh Synagogue and the Alte Schule, Poland's oldest synagogue, today an important museum of the district. In the labyrinth of the narrow streets of Kazimierz, you can travel into the distant world of the fascinating culture that once-existed there. Visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine
Wieliczka Salt Mine, though not as old, is no less magnificent than the tombs in the Valley of Kings in Egypt. Every year thousands of visitors come here to explore the subterranean world of labyrinthine passages, giant caverns, underground lakes and chapels with sculptures in crystalline salt and rich ornamentation carved in the salt rock. The Wieliczka Salt Mine has been worked for 900 years. The oldest known shaft, which was begun to mine rock-salt, was built in the second half of the 13th century. Since the mid-18th century Wieliczka salt mine has become a tourist attraction. The tourist route starts at a depth of 64 m, and ends 135 m below the earth surface, where the world's biggest museum of mining is located with unique centuries-old equipment among its exhibits. Still further below, some 210 m deep, there is a sanatorium for those suffering from asthma and allergies. In 1978 the Wieliczka Salt Mine was entered by UNESCO onto the first list of World Heritage sites. The cost of this visit is included in the registration fee. A visit to Warszawa You might consider an option to book a return flight to Warszawa, arriving in Warszawa early on Sunday 21 August, taking an Intercity to Krakow, returning from Krakow back to Warszawa on Saturday 27 August and to stay overnight to return home on Sunday 28 August. If you wish to do this, the SEFS4 secretariat will be pleased to help you make the necessary reservations. Warszawa, Poland's capital, is the biggest city and principal business centre. Mushrooming corporate towers make Warszawa nowadays the second busiest construction site in Central Europe, after Berlin. Since the Nazis razed it methodically after the fall of the 1944 Rising, downtown Warsaw lacks historical monuments and its landmarks are of either postwar construction or reconstruction. The Old Town and the Royal Castle were reconstructed in 1949-1963 with the aim of restoring the best architecture from the 17th and 18th centuries, and most visitors find the result enchanting. The historical district surrounds an atmospheric central square with open-air cafés and art stalls. The Royal Castle on the perimeter of the Old Town was rebuilt from its foundations in the years 1971-1980. The massive edifice has taken the shape of the former residence of both Poland's elected monarchs and its powerful parliaments acquired in the late 18th-century refurbishment. The state halls and royal apartments have been meticulously redone and, filled with period furniture and art, opened to the public. The Royal Route, running from the Royal Castle south to the last Polish monarch's summer residence in Lazienki Palace, is lined with churches, palaces, museums, galleries and government buildings. Farther south, on an island in the vast Lazienki Park, is the 18th-century exquisite Classic Palace on the Water. Still further south is another and older royal summer residence amid fine parkland - the 17th-century Versailles-like Baroque Wilanow Palace. |
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The Collegium Maius of Jagiellonian University is the Oldest Gothic edifice of the University. It came into being through the connection of a few buildings bought from Queen Jadwiga's foundation, appropriate for teaching and as a residence. At present, Collegium Maius is a Museum of the History of the Jagiellonian University with a very interesting collection, and the representative room of the University. Noteworthy also is a student's book from the University with an inscription by Mikołaj Kopernik from 1491.
