Krakow Local Custom Tips by gosiaPL Top 5 Page for this destination

Sit down if you're tired

I just thought it would be nice to post this close-up here (only the picture was taken in winter). In the warm season you'll find lots of young people sitting on the steps of the monument, waiting for their dates or friends.

If you'd like to sit down at Mickiewicz's feet for some poetic inspiration (hehe!) or just to have a picture taken of you, feel free to do it. People do that all the time, nobody's gonna tell you off :-)

Most popular meeting place

Adam Mickiewicz monument is probably the most popular meeting place in Krakow's vast Market Square. The statue stands with the poet's back to the Cloth Hall so that's how you can tell the "in front of" and the "behind" the monument, hehe! That should make your directions easier, otherwise you may be walking in circles ;-)

By the way, Adam Mickiewicz was one of our greatest poets of the Romanticism era. Some say he was the greatest but I tend to disagree [but shhh!... this may not be a politically correct view ;-))]

Sculpture exhibition in the Market Square

While I was in Krakow in October 2003, the square was the exposition arena for the monumental sculptures of the Polish artist Igor Mitoraj. And there were 14 of them!

I had actually seen that exhibition a few weeks earlier in the Poznan market square. And I was so sorry not to find in Krakow the one that I liked most back in Poznan! - a huge, beautiful female face, really stunning... Later I found out that it had been bought by one of the richest businessmen in Poland. Oh well, I couldn't afford it anyway ;-)

The Krakow square is a place where a lot of interesting events take place throughout the year - it's the centre of the city's life! I hope to write more tips about this here in due course.