RYNEK GLÓWNY - Main Market Square
The Main Market Square is Europe's largest medieval marketplace and in many ways is comparable to St. Mark's Square in Venice. This grand square didn't always have so much open space. It used to contain a Gothic town hall, a foundry, a granary, a weighing house and scores of traders' stalls. A handful of flower sellers and some souvenir stands are all that remain of the lively commercial activities of old. Essentially, Rynek is the largest outdoor café in Kraków, with more than 20 cafés dotted around the edge of the square.
The square has been witness to a lot of history down through the years. From 1320 onwards, Polish kings would come here following their coronation to meet with the city's dignitaries and receive tributes from all over Poland. The grand master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert Hohenzollern, came here in 1525 to pay homage to Sigismund the Old, and in 1794, Tadeusz Kosciuszko made a solemn promise to overthrow czarist Russian rule.
At the southwest corner of the square, the 16th-century Wieza Ratuszowa - or Town Hall Tower - houses a branch of the Kraków History Museum and is an excellent place from which to take in a panoramic view of the city. The museum and tower are closed during the winter, but group visits can be arranged during the winter.
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