Kazimierz Audio Guide

Kazimierz: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Kazimierz

   Welcome to Kazimierz, one of the most layered districts in all of Kraków. A quick note on what you are about to hear. This guide tells the story of the whole district rather than a single building. It follows the history that shaped the streets, squares and courtyards around you. Here is the big picture. From the fourteenth century to the early nineteenth century, Kazimierz was not a neighborhood at all. It was an independent royal city of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom, lying south of Kraków's Old Town and separated from it by a branch of the Vistula river. For many centuries, Polish and Jewish cultures coexisted and intermingled here, and that mixture is what gives the district its unmistakable atmosphere. Over the next few stops we will look at how Kazimierz was founded, how it became the Jewish City, and how it fell silent and then found its voice again. Today it is one of Kraków's major attractions and an important center of the city's cultural life. Take your time, look up at the facades, and let the district tell you its story.

2. 02

   A Town Named for a King

   Let us start at the beginning, with a king who liked to put his name on things. On the twenty-seventh of March, 1335, King Casimir the Third of Poland declared this area to be named Kazimierz, after himself. Defensive walls were built around it, and the new city was given special privileges. The king's act of foundation was meant to create a strong economic center next to Kraków. The geography mattered. The new town sat south of the main city on an island, defined by a branch of the Vistula. That old river arm formed a natural barrier and a border between Kazimierz and Kraków. Three early medieval settlements are known to have existed on that island before the town was formally founded, so the king was building on ground that already had a past. Here is a detail you can still read in the landscape today. The old riverbed was filled in at the end of the nineteenth century and turned into a green avenue called Józef Dietl Street. So when you see a tree-lined boulevard separating Kazimierz from the Old Town, you are looking at a vanished river. For centuries, Kazimierz was a rival and neighbor of Kraków, a separate royal city with its own identity, until the end of the eighteenth century changed everything.

3. 03

   The Jewish City

   Now to the story that defines Kazimierz for most visitors. Jews had long played an important role in Kraków's cultural and economic life. After devastating fires in 1494, many in the Jewish community moved out of the damaged Old Town and into Kazimierz. From 1495, the northeastern part of the district was the Jewish quarter. It became known as the Oppidum Judaeorum, the Jewish City. The numbers are striking. The area between its walls made up only about one-fifth of the geographical area of Kazimierz, yet it held nearly half of the district's inhabitants. It grew into the main spiritual and cultural center of Polish Jewry, welcoming some of Poland's finest scholars, artists and craftsmen. Among its famous residents were the Talmudist Moses Isserles, the Court Jew Abraham of Bohemia, the Kabbalist Natan Szpiro, and the royal physician Shmuel bar Meshulam. Then came a period of political change. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Kraków came under Austrian rule. Kazimierz lost its independence and was joined to Kraków in 1800. After the Free City of Kraków was created, the walls of the Jewish part were pulled down in 1822. That let the Jewish population spread across the whole of Kazimierz, and the two communities became even more interwoven. The Old Synagogue and the Remuh Synagogue, the best known of the district's synagogues, remain among its landmarks today.

4. 04

   Silence and Revival

   The twentieth century brought the darkest chapter. During the Second World War, the Nazis forced the Jews of Kraków into a ghetto in Podgórze, across the river from Kazimierz. The remaining Jewish community, then close to 17,000 people, was moved there. The ghetto was liquidated in 1942 and 1943. Most of its inhabitants were sent to extermination, slave-labor and concentration camps, including nearby Auschwitz, and the Jewish community of Kazimierz was largely destroyed. In the years that followed, Jewish places of worship were repeatedly devastated, and for a long time the district was associated with ruins and abandoned houses. The turning point came in 1988, when the annual Jewish Culture Festival began. It brought Cracovians back to the heart of the old Jewish quarter and introduced Jewish culture to a generation of Poles who had grown up without Poland's historic Jewish community. It is held each year at the end of June, and it grew into the largest festival of Jewish culture and music in Europe. Then, in 1993, Steven Spielberg filmed Schindler's List largely in Kazimierz, even though very little of the story's action actually took place here. The film drew international attention to the district. Today a small Jewish community lives in and around Kazimierz, and the Remah Synagogue still serves a congregation. The district has been recognized too: its monuments, together with the Old Town and Wawel, were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1978.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Kazimierz is a place best understood on foot, one courtyard and one corner at a time. Behind its facades you will find a royal foundation from 1335, a vanished river, a Jewish City that was once the spiritual heart of Polish Jewry, and a revival that began only a few decades ago. As you wander, notice how much the district offers today: cafes, restaurants, markets and a lively arts scene alongside the synagogues and museums, including the Galicia Jewish Museum. Ask yourself which of those layers you are standing in at any moment. Is it the king's town, the Jewish quarter, or the reborn neighborhood of today? Walk to the tree-lined avenue that marks the old river, then turn back toward the narrow streets and see how the mood changes. Every corner here is an invitation to look a little longer, and Kazimierz tends to reward the curious.