Cracow [antikvár]

CRACOW'S OLD CITY WALLS GIVE TESTIMONY TO THE THOUSAND YEARS OF POLISH HISTORY From time immemorial human settlements have existed on the Cracow hills and at their foot among fhe forests and marshland of fhe Vistula valley. Their vestiges remain In fhe many relics and excavations, caves and mounds, pre-hisforic pofier's kilns and roffing outlines of earthworks, fortified settlements and houses. Folklore and age-old tradition handed down by chroniclers have preserved fhe ancient legends abouf the mounds of Krakus and Wanda, fhe Wawel dragon and the baffles wifh invaders. As early as fhe lOfh cenfury and even perhaps the 9fh, the history of Cracow and Poland can be traced in fhe many lasting monuments of architecture and sculpture which have been preserved for over a thousand years. These ancienf walls of old Cracow are fhe mosf reliable document from bygone ages and a visible evidence of fhe nation's thousand years of hisfory «nd culfure. They nof only give mufe testimony to fhe hisfory of arf and archifecfure in Poland, but also to fhe changes in the social and political life of fhe country which occurred, cenfury by cenfury, over this great span of time — from fhe firsf rulers of fhe Piasr dynasty to today. The material development of fhe people of the Cracow area, of their economy, crafts and arts, has left numerous traces in fhe form of excavations and findings as well as the products of folk arf carefully preserved in museums and scientific collecfions. We learn Photographs: Page 5 — Gothic rosette in western façade of Wawel Cafhedral. Page 6 and 7: Panorama o( Old Cracow. Page 8; Romanesque vaulf of St. Leonard's crypt (about 1100 A. D.) in Wawel Cathedral