Many nicknames have been given to the city of Kraków: the "Little Rome," the "Slavic Rome," the "Florence of the North," the "Little Vienna," the "Little Paris," the "Polish Athens," and even, the "Polish Jerusalem...."

All these comparisons are very flattering, and not all that inaccurate. Yet the Cracovians, who very much want their city to be cosmopolitan and like to consider themselves citizens of the world, will tell you that Kraków - more than anything else - is Kraków... with its unique genius loci, an ambience and soul you will find nowhere else on the planet.

Kraków (or Cracow) is the most famous and arguably the most beautiful city in Poland. It is among those rare cities of Europe where the mediaeval town is still the vital centre of the modern metropolis. Kraków’s business, social and cultural lives are still centred in and around the Rynek - the largest mediaeval market square in Europe.

As they say in Poland: "Kraków wasn’t built in a day". Century after century was "deposited" upon it. A stroll along the streets of Kraków is a journey in time and through the ages - you see a city made up of many layers: Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicist, Modernist.... Rich in treasures of art and architecture, happily preserved to this day, the city contains an impressive 6000 historic buildings and monuments, and over 2.3 million works of art! In 1978, Kraków’s Old Town was placed on UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list.

Kraków has always been a meeting place of many cultures. Throughout the ages, people of many different nationalities and religions have enriched the spirit and substance of the city, and have left their mark in Kraków’s stones, its libraries, and even its menus....

Situated in the south of the country, Kraków is 300 kilometres south of Warsaw (the capital), in the Jurassic upland, 80 kilometres from the Tatra mountains, in the region known as Malopolska ("Little Poland"). The longest river in Poland, the Wisla (Vistula), flows through Kraków, a city of around 900,000 - the third largest in the country.

Kraków has 90,000 students, 10% of its population! It is therefore a friendly and dynamic town, full of vitality, fun, and imagination. Cracovians and visitors alike will tell you that it is a great city for nightlife and entertainment.

Among the cities of Central Europe, no place swings like Kraków. Catering to a variety of tastes, there are hundreds of bars, restaurants, cafes, pubs, and clubs to choose from. It is a local tradition that pubs stay open as long as there are customers.... Alongside those that have been here for a century or longer, there are hundreds of new places, most of them open over the last decade. New cafes, pubs, and restaurants appear every month, if not every week.

For centuries, Kraków has been one of the main cultural capitals of Central and Eastern Europe. Recently, along with Avignon, Bergen, Brussels, Cologne, Helsinki, Praha, Reykjavik, and Santiago de Compostela, Kraków has been elected one of the European Cities of Culture to celebrate the year 2000. When it comes to cultural events, Kraków is not just a European city, but a World City, where Spanish flamenco, Japanese kabuki theatre, and Russian orthodox choirs get an equally enthusiastic reception.

Daily, you can choose from numerous events, concerts, theatres, cinemas (films are generally in English and subtitled in Polish), art galleries... The city hosts numerous festivals ranging from jazz to classical music, student song, film, theatre, and many more. Among the most popular with the university population are: Shanties - or the Sea Song Festival, the Students’ Song Festival, the Underground Film Festival, and, above all, the May Juvenalia, when the mayor hands over the keys to the city to students, thus, symbolically, ceding all his powers to them for a few memorable spring days. The city not only has survived succeeding generations of students and their reigns, but it has flourished, fuelled by their energy.

Why not experience it?

Please visit:http://www.fetc.ac.krakow.pl

Author: Edited by - Dorota Wasik, MA, Cracow University

This article first appeared in Studying Abroad magazine