Kraków Governorate

The Basilica of Holy Trinity (Polish: Bazylika Świętej Trójcy) in Kraków, Poland, is a Catholic basilica. Built in a gothic style, it also houses a monastery of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). Its history dates from the year 1223.Hyacinth, a Catholic saint, is buried in the church, as well as Polish monarch Leszek II the Black and Renaissance humanist Filippo Buonaccorsi.

Church of St. Giles in Kraków (Polish: Kościół św. Idziego w Krakowie) is a Roman Catholic church of the Dominican Order located on Grodzka Street in Kraków. Its history dates to 11th century; it has been rebuilt many times since. This is the only Roman Catholic church in Krakow with Holy Mass in English every Sunday. Thus, it caters to foreigners living in Krakow and tourists visiting the city.

The Main Post Office in Kraków (Polish: Poczta Główna w Krakowie) is a building of the Polish Post located at the corner of Wielopole 2 and Westerplatte 20 streets in Kraków. The building was designed by the Viennese architect F. Setz. Joseph Sareg adapted the project and it was built between 1887-1889 by Charles Knaus and Tadeusz Stryjeński. Since 1899 it was the headquarters of mail in Kraków. In 1909, it was the location of what is now the Polish automatic telephone exchange with a capacity of 3600 numbers. Due to growing needs for office surface, between 1930 and 1931 it was rebuilt by Frederick Tadaniera. The interiors and furnishings were updated and in 1933 the intercity telephone exchange was installed. Another reconstruction took place during the German occupation. The Polish Post Office reopened on January 22, 1945. After the war, the post office has repeatedly being modernized and repaired. Since 1991 it has housed the Polish Post and Telecommunications.

The Church of St. Andrew in the Old Town district of Kraków, Poland (Polish: Kościół św. Andrzeja) located at Grodzka Street, is a historical Romanesque church built between 1079 and 1098 by a medieval Polish statesman Palatine Sieciech. It is a rare surviving example of the European fortress church used for defensive purposes. Built in Romanesque style, it is one of the oldest buildings in Kraków and one of the best-preserved Romanesque buildings in Poland. It was the only church in Kraków to withstand the Mongol attack of 1241. Along the lower part of the broader section of its façade are small openings that served as defensive windows at a time when the church was a place of refuge from military assaults. From 1320 it was used by the Religious Order of Poor Clares. The building has been renovated many times. The present Baroque interiors have decorations by Baltazar Fontana, paintings by Karol Dankwart and gilded altars. The Baroque domes atop the octagonal towers were added in 1639.

Italian House (also known as the Italian Kamienica, Montelupi House or Montelupi Kamienica, Polish: Dom Włoski w Krakowie, Włoska Kamienica, Kamienica Montelupich) is a kamienica building in Main Square, Kraków, Poland. It was built in the 16th century by Sebastian Montelupi, and served as a headquarters of the Polish Post, and one of the centers of Italian culture in Kraków. When it was operating as a postal centre stagecoaches to Venice departed from here.The building is classified as a monument.

Aquarium and Natural History Museum in Kraków (formerly the Museum of Natural Science Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals PAS) is a public aquarium and museum at St. Sebastian 9th in Kraków, Poland. There is a crafted, perfectly preserved, prehistoric woolly rhino, the only completely preserved specimen of this animal that went extinct more than 12 thousand years ago.

Saint Mary’s Basilica (Polish: Kościół Mariacki) is a Brick Gothic church adjacent to the Main Market Square in Kraków, Poland. Built in the 14th century, its foundations date back to the early 13th century and serve as one of the best examples of Polish Gothic architecture. Standing 80 m (262 ft) tall, it is particularly famous for its wooden altarpiece carved by Veit Stoss (Wit Stwosz). Some of its monumental polychrome murals were designed by Poland's leading history painter, Jan Matejko (1898-1891). In 1978 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Historic Centre of Kraków. On every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, a trumpet signal—called the Hejnał mariacki—is played from the top of the taller of Saint Mary's two towers. The plaintive tune breaks off in mid-stream, to commemorate a famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the alarm before a Mongol attack on the city. The noon-time hejnał is heard across Poland and abroad broadcast live by the Polish national Radio 1 Station.Saint Mary's Basilica also served as an architectural model for many of the churches that were built by the Polish diaspora abroad, particularly those like Saint Michael's and Saint John Cantius in Chicago, designed in the Polish Cathedral style. The church is familiar to many English-speaking readers from the 1929 book The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly.

The Altarpiece by Veit Stoss (Polish: Ołtarz Wita Stwosza), also St. Mary's Altar (Ołtarz Mariacki), is a large Gothic altarpiece and a national treasure of Poland. It is located behind the high altar of St. Mary's Basilica in the city of Kraków. The altarpiece was carved between 1477 and 1489 by the German-born sculptor Veit Stoss (known in Polish as Wit Stwosz) who lived and worked in the city for over 20 years. In 1941, during the German occupation, the dismantled altarpiece was shipped to the Third Reich on the order of Hans Frank – the Governor-General of that part of occupied Poland. It was recovered in 1946 in Bavaria, hidden in the basement of the heavily bombed Nuremberg Castle. The High Altar underwent major restoration work in Poland and was put back in its place at the Basilica 10 years later.

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul (Polish: Kościół ŚŚ Piotra i Pawła) is a Roman Catholic Polish Baroque church located at 54 Grodzka Street in the Old Town district of Kraków, Poland. It was built between 1597–1619 by Giovanni Maria Bernardoni who perfected the original design of Józef Britius. It is the biggest of the historic Churches of Kraków in terms of seating capacity. Since 1842 it serves the Catholic All Saints parish.

The Academy of Music in Kraków (Polish: Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie) is a conservatory located in central Kraków, Poland. It is the alma mater of the renowned Polish contemporary composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who was also its Rector for 15 years. The Academy is the only one in Poland to have two winners of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (Halina Czerny-Stefańska and Adam Harasiewicz) as well as a few further prize-winners among its alumni.

Kraków County (Polish: powiat krakowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the city of Kraków, although the city is not part of the county (it constitutes a separate city with powiat rights). The county contains five towns: Skawina, 12 km (7 mi) south-west of Kraków, Krzeszowice, 24 km (15 mi) west of Kraków, Słomniki, 24 km (15 mi) north-east of Kraków, Skała, 20 km (12 mi) north of Kraków, and Świątniki Górne, 15 km (9 mi) south of Kraków. The county covers an area of 1,229.62 square kilometres (474.8 sq mi). As of 2019 its total population is 278,219, out of which the population of Skawina is 24,340, that of Krzeszowice is 10,014, that of Słomniki is 4,343, that of Skała is 3,798, that of Świątniki Górne is 2,431, and the rural population is 233,293.

Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in Polish: województwo małopolskie [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ mawɔˈpɔlskʲɛ]), also known as Małopolska, is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of 15,108 square kilometres (5,833 sq mi), and a population of 3,404,863 (2019).It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Kraków, Tarnów, Nowy Sącz and parts of Bielsko-Biała, Katowice, Kielce and Krosno Voivodeships, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The province's name recalls the traditional name of a historic Polish region, Lesser Poland, or in Polish: Małopolska. Current Lesser Poland Voivodeship, however, covers only a small part of the broader ancient Małopolska region which, together with Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) and Silesia (Śląsk), formed the early medieval Polish state. Historic Lesser Poland is much larger than the current province. It stretches far north, to Radom, and Siedlce, also including such cities, as Stalowa Wola, Lublin, Kielce, Częstochowa, and Sosnowiec. The province is bounded on the north by the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Góry Świętokrzyskie), on the west by Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska (a broad range of hills stretching from Kraków to Częstochowa), and on the south by the Tatra, Pieniny and Beskidy Mountains. Politically it is bordered by Silesian Voivodeship to the west, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship to the north, Subcarpathian Voivodeship to the east, and Slovakia (Prešov Region and Žilina Regions) to the south. Almost all of Lesser Poland lies in the Vistula River catchment area. The city of Kraków was one of the European Cities of Culture in 2000. Kraków has railway and road connections with Katowice (expressway), Warsaw, Wrocław and Rzeszów. It lies at the crossroads of major international routes linking Dresden with Kyiv, and Gdańsk with Budapest. Located here is the second largest international airport in Poland (after Warsaw's), the John Paul II International Airport.