Kraków Old Town

Kraków Old Town is the historic central district of Kraków, Poland. It is one of the most famous old districts in Poland today and was the center of Poland's political life from 1038 until King Sigismund III Vasa relocated his court to Warsaw in 1596.

The entire medieval old town is among the first sites chosen for the UNESCO's original World Heritage List, inscribed as Cracow's Historic Centre. The old town is also one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments (Pomnik historii) chosen in the first round, as designated September 16, 1994, and tracked by the National Heritage Board of Poland.

The Old Town is known in Polish as Stare Miasto. It is part of the city's first administrative district which is also named "Stare Miasto," although it covers a wider area than the Old Town itself.

Medieval Kraków was surrounded by a 1.9 mile (3 km) defensive wall complete with 46 towers and seven main entrances leading through them. The fortifications around the Old Town were erected over the course of two centuries. The current architectural plan of Stare Miasto – the 13th-century merchants' town – was drawn up in 1257 after the destruction of the city during the Tatar invasions of 1241 followed by raids of 1259 and repelled in 1287. The district features the centrally located Rynek Główny, or Main Square, the largest medieval town square of any European city. There is a number of historic landmarks in its vicinity, such as St. Mary's Basilica (Kościół Mariacki), Church of St. Wojciech (St. Adalbert's), Church of St. Barbara, as well as other national treasures. At the center of the plaza, surrounded by kamienice (row houses) and noble residences, stands the Renaissance cloth hall Sukiennice (currently housing gift shops, restaurants and merchant stalls) with the National Gallery of Art upstairs. It is flanked by the Town Hall Tower (Wieża ratuszowa).

Old town

The old town of a city or town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are many places throughout the world named old town (and this is sometimes construed as a proper noun and capitalized). This is a list of some famous old towns:

Africa

Algeria

Egypt

Kenya

Morocco

Tanzania/Zanzibar

Tunisia

Asia

Bangladesh

China

Old Town (song)

"Old Town" is a song released by Thin Lizzy frontman Philip Lynott from his 1982 self-titled solo album, The Philip Lynott Album. The song was written about the breakup of two lovers, and contains piano by Darren Wharton. In the music video, Lynott can be seen on the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin.

"Old Town" was the first record to be officially played on Irish legal Independent Radio. It was the first song played by Dublin's Capital Radio 104.4 on its launch on 20 July 1989.

Chart performance

Track listings

The Corrs version

The Corrs covered "Old Town" on their 1999 appearance on MTV's Unplugged series, and again with a studio recording for their 2005 album Home.

The live version was released as a single, titled "Old Town (This Boy Is Cracking Up)" in 2000 in Singapore, Belgium and the Netherlands. In 2005 the studio recording was released as a double A-side with "Heart Like a Wheel", and was included on the 2006 compilation Dreams: The Ultimate Corrs Collection. They also performed this song in their In Blue Tour.

Old Town (Lviv)

Lviv's Old Town (Ukrainian: Старе Місто Львова, Stare Misto L’vova; Polish: Stare Miasto we Lwowie) is the historic centre of the city of Lviv, within the Lviv Oblast (province) in Ukraine, recognized as the State Historic-Architectural Sanctuary in 1975.

UNESCO

Since 1998, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) lists Lviv's historic center as part of "World Heritage". On 5 December 1998, during the 22nd Session of the World Heritage Committee in Kyoto (Japan), Lviv was included to the UNESCO World Heritage List. UNESCO gave the following reasons for its selection:

The territory of the Lviv Historic Centre Ensemble covers 120 hectares (300 acres) of the Old Russ and Medieval part of the city, as well as the territory of the St. George’s Cathedral on St. George’s Hill. The buffer area of the Historic Centre, which is defined by the historic area bounds, is approximately 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres).

List of featured landmarks

Beside the listed items of three major areas there are some 2,007 other historical landmarks within the Old City's area, 214 of which are considered national landmarks.

Kraków

Kraków (Polish pronunciation: [ˈkrakuf]  listen ), also Cracow or Krakow (US English /ˈkrɑːkaʊ/, UK English /ˈkrækɒv/), is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River (Polish: Wisła) in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic hubs. It was the capital of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1038 to 1569; the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569 to 1596; the Free City of Kraków from 1815 to 1846; the Grand Duchy of Cracow from 1846 to 1918; and Kraków Voivodeship from the 14th century to 1998. It has been the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999.

The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second most important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was already being reported as a busy trading centre of Slavonic Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. The city has a population of approximately 760,000, with approximately 8 million additional people living within a 100 km (62 mi) radius of its main square.

Kraków (parliamentary constituency)

Kraków is a Polish parliamentary constituency that is coterminous with the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It elects thirteen members of the Sejm and four members of the Senate. It is the only constituency that covers different areas for elections to the Sejm to elections to the Senate, as it includes the Sejm constituency of Chrzanów for elections to the Senate.

The district has the number '13' for elections to the Sejm and '12' for elections to the Senate, and is named after the city of Kraków. For elections to the Sejm, it includes the counties of Brzeg, Kraków, Miechów, and Olkusz and the city county of Kraków. For elections to the Senate, it also includes the counties of Chrzanów, Myślenice, Oświęcim, Sucha, and Wadowice.

List of members

Senate

Sejm

Footnotes

Coordinates: 50°03′41″N 19°56′18″E / 50.061389°N 19.938333°E / 50.061389; 19.938333

Krakow (disambiguation)

Kraków is a city in southern Poland.

Krakow may also refer to:

See also