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Kraków & Silesia - Art, architecture & history in southern Poland
8
days
from
A$8,180
Book today with a deposit from
A$1,227
8th - 15th June 2027
Tour highlights
- Kraków, Poland’s ancient royal capital, home to Wawel Castle, the vast Rynek Główny, and Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine.
- Silesia, passed between Bohemia, Prussia and Poland, has first-rank architecture – not least Świdnica’s astonishing timber-built Peace Church.
- Wrocław’s old town, one of the grandest in Central Europe, fully restored since the end of Communism.
Kraków is one of the great treasures of Europe, its medieval cityscape remarkably intact and of the highest architectural importance. Seat of the royal court and one of the major kingdoms of Europe for centuries, it retains an outstanding legacy of that status: a vast market square, a hilltop royal castle and cathedral, a historic university, and art collections of international calibre.
Partition at the end of the eighteenth century cost the city its political power – it became a provincial town within the Austrian Habsburg Empire – but its intellectual and cultural life was undimmed. Following the restoration of Polish independence in 1918, and through the upheavals of the twentieth century, Kraków became the country’s cultural capital, a status its literary and artistic life maintains today. Spared the wartime destruction inflicted elsewhere in Poland, though left to decline under Communism, the city has since undergone decades of painstaking restoration: church interiors, palace apartments and civic buildings returned to something like their former splendour, and its historic core once again alive with the intellectual energy for which Kraków has long been known.
Silesia, the region to the west, tells a different story. Passed between Bohemian, Austrian, Prussian and (until 1945) German rule, its capital Wrocław – known for most of its history as the German city of Breslau – became a byword for cultural interchange between the Slavic east and German west, and between Protestant north and Catholic south.
The population exchange that followed the Second World War, when German Breslau became Polish Wrocław, left a legacy the city took decades to fully confront; only since the end of Communism has it engaged openly with the entirety of its layered past, restoring in the process a superb architectural inheritance – Gothic churches, Baroque sculpture, and an old town centre among the grandest in Central Europe. Beyond Wrocław, the wider region preserves some of Europe’s most singular ecclesiastical architecture, from the timber-built Lutheran churches permitted under the Peace of Westphalia to the Baroque splendour of the Cistercian abbey at Krzeszów.
Itinerary
Fly in the morning from London Heathrow to Kraków (British Airways) and drive to Wrocław, arriving in the late afternoon. There is an introductory lecture before dinner. First of three nights in Wrocław.
Slav by origin, for centuries Wrocław was predominantly German (Breslau). The main square is dominated by the elaborate Gothic town hall and lined by a colourful assortment of Renaissance and Baroque mansions. In the academic quarter, and inside the 171m-long Collegium Maximum, the Aula Leopoldina is an ornate Baroque hall with illusionistic ceiling frescoes. In the afternoon visit the National Museum; among the highlights are Jan Matejko’s The Vows of Jan Kazimierz and an important collection of medieval sculpture.
The huge ‘Peace Church’ at Świdnica is an extraordinary building, constructed of timber and brilliantly exploiting the tight constraints of the terms under which Lutherans were permitted to build their churches in Catholic Silesia. The magnificent Baroque abbey at Krzeszów, with imposing interiors, sculpture and paintings, is remarkably well-preserved. Polish nuns expelled from Ukraine settled here after the War.
In the morning visit the Racławice Panorama, a vast panoramic painting commemorating the Polish victory over Russian forces at the Battle of Racławice in 1794. Transfer to Kraków with lunch en route in Katowice. On the outskirts of Kraków, Tyniec Abbey, a Benedictine monastery founded in the eleventh century, is spectacularly sited on a limestone bluff above the Vistula. First of four nights in Kraków.
In the heart of the old town, the enormous medieval market square (Rynek Główny) – the largest in Europe – has fine façades of many styles. Continue to Wawel Hill and Wawel Castle, which was rebuilt by Italian designers in the sixteenth century to become one of the earliest and greatest of Renaissance palaces north of the Alps, with arcaded courtyards and splendid interiors. Works of art include an excellent tapestry collection. The cathedral is also situated on Wawel Hill; essentially a Gothic structure, it is a Polish pantheon, with tombs of 41 monarchs and national heroes.
Today is dedicated to some of Kraków’s finest art collections beginning with a morning visit to the Jan Matejko House Museum, the atmospheric former home of Poland’s foremost history painter, followed by the Cloth Hall, still a covered market below and with a gallery of magnificent nineteenth-century Polish art above. In the afternoon visit also the Czartoryski Museum, whose collection includes Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine.
Adjacent to Kraków but historically distinct, and separated from it by a branch of the Vistula, Kazimierz was an independent town until the nineteenth century and the centre of the city’s Jewish life for hundreds of years. Fine churches stand alongside synagogues and the streets of the former ghetto. In the afternoon return to the old town; the soaring Gothic church of St Mary contains the greatest of all late-medieval German sculpted altarpieces, by Veit Stoss. A walking tour of the old town includes the St Florian Gate and the Furrier’s Tower above it, constructed (1300–07) as part of the city’s fortifications.
In the morning visit the fifteenth-century university complex including the cloister, Collegium Maius and St Anne’s Church, a major work of Polish Baroque. Drive to Kraków airport and fly to London Heathrow, arriving mid-afternoon.
Expert speaker
Dr Zoe Opacic
Reader in the History and Theory of Architecture at Birkbeck College, specialising in medieval art, architecture and urbanism. She received her BA, MA and PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, she edited the Journal of British Archaeological Association(2015–18) and has authored and edited a number of publications in English, German, Czech and Italian including recent contributions to the Oxford Handbook of Medieval Central Europe and the Brill Companion to Medieval Vienna. Zoë has longstanding family connections in Dalmatia and is a regular lecturer on MRT tours to Dalmatia, Italy and the Czech Republic.
More tours led by Dr Zoe Opacic
Practicalities
Price, per person. Two sharing: A$8,520 or A$8,180 without flights. Single occupancy: A$10,010 or A$9,670 without flights.
Included: Coach travel for transfers and excursions; accommodation as described below; breakfasts, 2 lunches and 5 dinners with wine; admission charges; all tips for restaurant staff, drivers and guides; all airport and state taxes; the services of the lecturer, tour manager and Polish local guide.
Accommodation. Wyndham Old Town, Wrocław: a modern 4-star business hotel located in Wrocław’s old town. Hotel Pod Różą, Kraków: a 5-star hotel in a restored 17th-century townhouse on Floriańska Street. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
This tour involves a lot of walking in the city centres, often on uneven or cobbled ground, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Standing around in museums and galleries is also a feature. Average distance by coach per day: 61 miles.
Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.
Before booking, please refer to Smartraveller to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting. As a British company we follow the advice of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
8th - 15th June 2027
Speaker:
Dr Zoe Opacic
Price:
from A$8,180
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