Kraków at New Year

The day starts with a visit to the Wawel Hill, historically the most important area in Poland, where we discover the fascinating history the Kingdom of Poland and the Jagiellonian Dynasty. We visit Wawel Castle, the fortified monumental castle first built in the 14^th century and for centuries the residence of Polish kings, and the Cathedral, the burial place of the Polish Kings. In the afternoon we stroll through Kazimierz, the historic Jewish district of the city before the population was forcibly relocated to the ghetto during the German occupation, to discover the multicultural history of the city.

We drive to Wieliczka to visit the historical Salt Mines. One of the world’s oldest salt mines flourished in Wieliczka already during the 13^th century when the first shafts were dug to extract the rock salt. During our visit to the mine we will admire the magnificent Chapel of Saint Kinga of Poland, completely excavated underground in the rock salt. On the way back to Kraków we will stop to visit the Benedictine abbey in Tyniec dating back to 1044 and subsequently rebuilt in the Gothic style after the Tartar raids in the 14^th century.

During the day we visit the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. Site of the extermination of more than one million Jews, Poles, Russians and Roma and poignantly commemorating the 75^th anniversary of its liberation, it remains the most potent symbol of the Holocaust of the Second World War. As we are shown around the camp by local guides, we will pay our respects to those who lost their lives in this inferno. After our return to Kraków we will prepare ourselves for a traditional Polish New Year’s Eve dinner complete with festive fireworks.

Starting late in the morning we will discover the historical centre of Kraków, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tour includes St Mary’s Basilica, the 14^th century church which is one of the most important examples of Polish Gothic architecture, the Main Square which dates back to the 13^th century and is one of the largest medieval town squares in Europe, as well as artistic treasures hidden along the narrow streets. During our stroll we will talk about the history of the city and its commercial contacts with the rest of Europe, which enriched the local culture and made Kraków a multicultural melting pot.

In the morning we will visit the two most important art collections in Kraków. We start with the Czartoryski Museum, which houses the priceless Dame with the Ermine, one of the few completed paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, as well as Crivelli’s Saints Anthony and Lucy and Bouts’ Annunciation. We continue to the Sukiennice Museum, part of the Krakow Cloth Hall, once a bustling trading center and today the home of the most important collection of Polish painting from the 18^th and the 19^th centuries. Afterwards, our tour comes to an end.