The legend of king Krak and the Dragon of Wawel Hill

Why is Cracow called Cracow?

Panorama of Cracow from the Nuremberg Chronicles (1493)

The latin name is Cracovia, but in Polish, we call it Kraków, which means 'City of Krak'. I pause here to let you have a giggle at how that sounds… now here's the story.

Krak, or Krakus (Grakhus in the earliest chronicles), was a prince from the 7th century, a tribal leader whose people settled in the area some six thousand years ago. Late 13th century accounts speak of a terrible dragon living in a cavern under Wawel hill.  (the word 'wawel' is said to derive from 'wąwel', meaning 'a rise in the marshes') As is in a dragon's habit, the beast demanded to be fed cattle every week, and would devour people if he was unsatisfied.

In the 13th century work Chronica Polonorum, historian Wincenty Kadłubek wrote that was Krak himself who slew the dragon and built his castle on top of the rock. The 15th century chronicler Jan Długosz attributed the deed to Krak's sons. In the 16th century, poet Marcin Bielski introduced a young tailor called Skuba or Dratewka into the legend.

That is the story I was told as a young child, and it goes something like this:

In the royal city of Kraków, King Krak lived in a castle on top of Wawel Hill. His city was built by the river, on fertile lands, and would have been rich and prosperous if not for the fierce dragon which lived in a cavern below the castle. The dragon would roam the countryside, stealing sheep, cattle, and people, and he delighted in the taste of virgin flesh.

The beast devoured virgin after virgin, until only the king's own daughter, Wanda, was left. It was then that King Krak declared that the brave hero who would slay the dragon would receive half the kingdom and his daughter's hand in marriage.

Knight after knight tried to kill the dragon; all were devoured. One day, a poor young cobbler's apprentice by the name of Dratewka announced that he would try his luck. The boy was no warrior; he had no armour, no  sword. What he did have, however, was his wits.

Dratewka knew he could not destroy the dragon by force, so he tried cunning instead. He took a sheepskin and stuffed it with sulfur, then sewed it back together and left it at the mouth of the cave. As expected, the dragon swallowed the stuffed animal whole. Soon, a dreadful ache started up in its belly. The suffering dragon crept down to the river, and began to drink...and drink...and drink...

...until it had drunk half the river, and burst into a million pieces.

An illustration of the legend from German cartographer Sebastian Munster's
1544 Cosmographia Universalis

It is sometimes said that the name 'Kraków' was derived from the cawing of ravens (in Polish: krakanie kruków) which flocked to eat the remains of the dragons.


So, did the dragon really exist? Well…

The cave under the castle hill is quite real. You can visit it in the warmer months, climbing down a long spiral staircase in a narrow turret. The turret was once a well, drawing water from the flooded caverns.

In the 16th and 17th century, part of the cave was used as a storage room and banquet hall for a tavern and public house built by the river. In 1843, the space was opened up for sightseeing.

Though the cave is no longer home to a dragon, another rare species can be found in its depths: a troglobitic crustacean called Niphargus tatrensis, seen only in underground karst reservoirs. It was discovered in 1887 by Polish biologist August Wrześniowski, and named after the Tatra mountains in which it was found.

After you have passed through all three limestone chambers, you will emerge at the foot of the hill, by the river, where, since 1972 a large statue of the dragon stands guard. Every five minutes or so, the dragon spits fire!

Nearby, the outer walls of the castle bear a plaque which states:

Krakus, Prince of Poland

Ruled between the years 730-750

(Peters, Royal Registers 2nd fascicle page 40)

This is the site of the cavern 

in which having slewn a wild dragon

then settling on the Wawel he founded the city of

Kraków

When you enter the Cathedral on Wawel Hill, you should look up at the arch. Three large bones hang over the doorway, suspended on chains. For centuries, these were believed to be the remains of the dragon.

In reality, they belong to a mammoth, a rhinoceros, and a whale.




That should put the silly legend to rest, shouldn't it?

Not quite. In 2007, the jawbone of an unspecified dinosaur was discovered near the village of Lisowice in the South-West of Poland. Dating back to the late Triassic, it was classified as a rather large, predatory Archosaur, and given the species name of wawelski in the genus Smok. A.k.a: the Dragon of Wawel!

And in 1965, author Stanisław Pagaczewski wrote a hilarious series of books for children called "The abduction of Balthasar Sponge" , depicting an alternative reality in which medieval Cracow blends seamlessly with  then modern-day Poland. King Krak is now friends with the sophisticated Dragon, and regularly goes down to visit the cave and play chess or discuss the most recent football match between the two local teams- Wisła and Cracovia. When famous professor Balthasar Sponge is kidnapped, the Dragon and his friends set out to retrieve him... The books featured dramatic adventures, international spies, mythical creatures, and ingenious inventions.

The work was later turned into a very popular and equally amusing animated series:

So...is the dragon real?

You'll have to go to Cracow and find out for yourself.

Meta information:

Location of the Wawel Castle on google maps:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Zamek+++Wawel,+Krak%C3%B3w,+Polska&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=50.053949,19.935438&spn=0.002807,0.008256&sll=50.053956,19.935985&sspn=0.002807,0.008256&oq=zamek+&hnear=Zamek+Wawel,+Krak%C3%B3w,+ma%C5%82opolskie,+Poland&t=m&z=18

Official Website for Wawel Castle:

http://www.wawel.krakow.pl/en/

Article on the discovery of the Smok Wawelski fossils:

http://www.academia.pan.pl/pdfen/system_en_34-35_sulej.pdf

Cosmographia Universalis print on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:M%C3%BCnster_wawelski.jpg

Nuremberg Chronicle print on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nuremberg_chronicles_-_CRACOVIA.png

Deep Underground: The Wieliczka Salt Mine

Where does salt come from?

Legend says that when the Hungarian princess Kinga, daughter of Bela the IVth, was married to Bolesław the Chaste, Duke of Polish towns Cracow and Sandomierz, instead of gold or silver, she brought salt as her dowry.

She did not have it brought in barrels or ox-drawn carts, however. In her homeland, she threw her engagement ring down one of the shafts of a salt mine. As she rode back to Poland to meet her new husband, she ordered the party to stop near Cracow.

"Dig here," she commanded. Can you guess what was found in the excavation?

Salt rock, and Kinga's engagement ring, glittering within the savoury crystal.

A salt carving depicting the legendary finding of the ring.

This is the legend of the great Wieliczka Salt Mine, which, indeed, dates back to the the 13th century, and the reign of Bolesław the Chaste and princess Kinga. To fully appreciate the significance of the story, one has to understand that in the middle ages, salt was an incredibly valuable mineral. We think nothing of it today, but it used to be the privilege of kings. You could buy whole townships with the proper amount of the stuff! By the 14th century, the gains from the salt sources around Cracow formed one third of the whole country's income.

Excavation of rock salt may have begun in the 13th century, but the site of Wieliczka had been giving up salt since the Middle Neolithic period (3500- 2500 B.C.) And the source itself is fifteen million years old! Water sources in the area were not potable, flowing with a salty brine, but when evaporated, they left behind the tasty mineral. This was known to the local peoples well over five thousand years ago.

The briny springs were a good enough source until the middle of the 13th century, when men had to delve deeper, and began to build the first shafts. When you visit the town of Wieliczka, you will see many signposts marking the sites of historical shafts, long ago exhausted and filled up.

But the larger part of the mine remains active and open to the public. And it is a stunning place to visit.

The Daniłowicz Shaft, one of many in Wieliczka. This is how you enter and exit the museum.

The tour begins with a walk down exactly 380 wooden steps. This is what you see if you look over the railing.

First, it's huge. At present, the combined length of the underground corridors is over 300 km. There are  almost two and a half thousand excavated chambers (!!), spread out on three levels, the deepest lying 327 metres below the surface of the earth.

Second, it's the only mine in the entire world which has been continuously active since the Middle Ages.


All right, you might say. It's still just a mine. A dark hole in the ground. What's there to see?


Oh, I don't know...how about the huge chapel of St. Kinga, at 101 metres below the surface, carved entirely out of salt?

You see, once a large lode of salt is found underground, it can only be mined to a point before becoming unsafe. The miners would scrape out the centre of the salt block, leaving a hollow cavern and then moving on down the next corridor. And because mining was hard and risky work, the presence of God was very much welcome down below.

To this day, the customary greeting in the mine is 'Szczęść Boże': God bless. This is what you say when the lift starts going down. This is what you say whenever you meet someone on your way through the underground maze. It's a ritual, a sacred and unbroken custom, dating back to a time when the mine was a much darker and dangerous place.

Chamber after chamber was created by excavation, and over the years, miners would carve out sacred figures, crosses, and chapels in the salt rock, hoping for celestial protection.

The chapel of St. John, built in 1859. In 2009 it was moved from the first level to the third,
and is now a part of the tourist route.

St. Kinga's chapel is one such work of piety, the deed of miners and self-taught sculptors from the late 19th and early 20th century. They were the brothers Józef and Tomasz Markowski, and Antoni Wyrodek. Today, Mass is still celebrated in the chapel on special occasions.

You can even rent it out for a magical underground wedding, and have the reception catered in one of the salt ballrooms.

Yes, that chandelier is made of salt. All of them are. Every single little crystal.

And those are only some of the stops on the three hour tour. Other chambers hold exhibits showing how men worked to extract salt over the years of the mine's existence. You will see an authentic horse-powered mill from the 18th century, a chamber burned out by an explosion, and amazing feats of underground architecture.

 For instance, the Michałowice Chamber:

This huge, 35-metre-deep cavern is filled with a complex wooden scaffolding, erected in the 19th century with no help from any machinery, piece by piece as the vertical lode was excavated. This deposit was so huge, it was exploited for almost a hundred years!

Salt covers the walls of the mine corridors. The floor tiles are also carved out of salt, by the way.

What other mysteries does Wieliczka hold?


If you're very lucky, you might meet Skarbnik, the legendary spirit of the mine. 'Skarbnik' means 'Treasure Keeper', and salt, of course, is the treasure in question. Skarbnik is a good spirit, but he always comes bearing a warning. If he should appear, that means there is dangerous gas, or a cave-in up ahead.  Turn back!

The Weimar chamber, named after the prince of Weimar who visited it in 1790 in the company of Goethe.

Besides legends, there are many, many true stories that Wieliczka keeps in her memory. An often overlooked, yet important symbol is a Star of David carved deep into the face of the Staszic Chamber. Why is it there?

In 1944, the Nazis decided to use the chambers of Wieliczka as a war factory. In the Staszic Chamber, they set up an assembly line for aircraft machinery. The forced labourers, as you can probably guess, were Polish Jews.

In secret, they carved out the Star of David, a symbol of their people and religion, not only as a spiritual mark, but as a proof of their imprisonment and slavery. They wanted to make certain that whatever happened, in the future people would know they had been held there.

Another interesting tale will lead you to the Piłsudski Chamber, where a 19th century statue of St. John of Nepomuk stands guard by a disused ferry. This was once part of the Austrian tourist route, until 1915 when it was witness to a rather gruesome accident. Several Prussian soldiers tipped over the ferry, and fell into the brine.

Now, as you probably know, bodies of water with a high density of salt are practically impossible to drown in. The salt keeps you afloat, pushing you up and out of the water.

And yet, the soldiers died. They could not drown, but the raft tipped over and trapped them underneath it. They could neither lift it, nor dive into the salty water to swim out. They suffocated under the overturned ferry.

Hmm, all that salt in the air...is that healthy?

Yes, yes it is!

The mine actually has an underground spa, where people come to cure respiratory ailments and allergies. They have been doing so since the 19th century. The microclimate in the mine is very special- bacteriologically pure, allergen-free, rich in microelements such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium.

Good breathing!

The Wessel underground lake. Therapy sessions take place alongside it.

These stables, built in 1913, have been converted to a dormitory for the spa patients.

Patients ride down to the third level of the mine, 135 metres underground, and spend the day beside a brine lake. There is a library, a gym, a brine fountain; patients participate in breathing exercises, musical  therapy (underground sing-alongs!) and other activities, all under medical supervision.

Light physical exercise at 135 metres under the surface of the Earth.

Wow! But that's got to be all, right? That's all we can see?


Nope. 


If you book a couple weeks in advance,  you can also take a special tour which will take you off the regular tourist path, and deep into the abandoned parts of the mine.

You get to wear a stylish hat.

You will ride down with the miners, in a hard hat and with a flashlight as your only source of light.  The corridors are much grungier here than on the tourist route, with beautiful salt crystals forming everywhere. There are lost chambers, forgotten monuments, deep, salt-covered mineshafts that seem to have no bottom. Geology enthusiasts will be delighted as the structure of the mineral deposit is revealed to them. History buffs will find traces of Austrian and German invasions where corridors were named and renamed again according to whichever force held the mine.

On this Austrian sign, you can see ink graffiti from 1898(sic!),  disputing the renaming of the corridor
after a foreign nobleman, when it was originally named after general Tadeusz Kościuszko.

And those among you who simply want to feel the thrill of adventure will love the mysterious corridors, the narrow spaces, the sudden drops, the old wooden ladders and unbelievable darkness of the mine.

A few extra facts about the mine:

-The Wieliczka trademark is the first in Poland, and one of the oldest in the world. Very early on in the mine's history, special white, so-called 'royal' salt transports meant only for royal consumption were stamped with the mark.

-The mining of salt in Wieliczka ended in 1996, but conservation works yield rock salt that is used to manufacture memorabilia, and the mineral is still drawn from the brine water. You can buy Wieliczka salt for your table in any Polish supermarket. :) Just look for the trademark!

-There are no bugs or vermin in the mines- they couldn't survive! Any insects which get carried in on people's clothing quickly dry up in the salt-rich atmosphere. However, rats and mice did once live in the mines, back when its permanent residents were...

-Horses. Horses were kept in the underground stables and used to pull large loads and set heavy machinery in motion. The last horse, a mare called Basia (short for Barbara- st. Barbara being the patron saint of all miners) was removed from the mine in 2002, at sixteen, in good health. She is living out her retirement in a quiet pasture.

-Tourism is not a modern attraction in the mine. In the years 1772- 1918, when this part of Poland was under Austrian rule, visitors were first admitted underground.

-A new form of the behind the scenes tour called The Miner's Route will be opening this July. It involves lots of activities which will teach visitors about the realities of working in a salt mine. Personally, I can't wait!

-All tours are available in English and many other languages. You won't miss a thing.

-You'll have to find out the rest for yourself. Come visit! And if you do, let me know. I might just come with you. :)


I would like to thank the staff of Wieliczka, from the offices dealing with my requests to the miners, tour guides, geologists, therapists, cooks, everyone who was so kind and helpful during my visits. The Salt Mine is one of my favourite places in Poland, not just because it's a spectacular sight, but because of how unwaveringly friendly its people are.

Dziękuję!


Meta info:


Wieliczka official website: 


http://www.kopalnia.pl/

Palm Sunday in a country with no palms

I thought about posting a tutorial, but it would take all year.

In the Christian tradition, Palm Sunday is the last Sunday before Easter. It commemorates the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, and people greeted him by waving palm fronds and crying out 'Hosanna!'. A remembrance of that day is still practiced in most Christian faiths by bringing palm fronds to houses of worship.

But there is a slight problem. We do not have palm trees in Poland.

We do, however, have extremely rich folk traditions which date back to pre-Christian times, and which have largely survived in the Catholic custom. Such a tradition has evolved from the colourful Slavic decoration of twigs and branches in anticipation of Spring to the Christian weaving of palms.

Łyse, in the Kurpie region.

Two places are particularly well worth visiting in Poland for Palm Sunday: the village of Łyse in the Northeastern region of Kurpie, and the village of Lipnica Murowana, just Southwest of Cracow.

Only there will you find such elaborate palms made out of crepe paper and dried flowers, so tall that they cannot be carried upright.


Łyse, in the Green Kurpie

The village of Łyse holds a contest for the tallest and most beautiful palm. People from all over the region work hard for the fourty days of Lent to make their entries.

Contest-winning palms set up around the old church in Łyse.

The day begins with a mass and a procession and is then occasion for a market where the locals sell their handmade wares- palms, painted eggs, lacework, pottery, carvings, as well as regional food such as honey, bread, meats and beer.

You can buy handmade palms and little dough goats and deer. For luck.

Łyse is in the Green Kurpie Forest, a lovely area.

But be not mistaken. These palms are not only a testament to the rich folklore of Kurpie, but also a sign of religious devotion. Palm Sunday does not mark the beginning of a feast, nor is it a festival, but is the first day of the week in which the Christian God was killed by the very people who first greeted him with such joy. These amazing palms are first and foremost an offering to Jesus and a hope that believers may be strong enough not to betray him again and again as his first followers did, and modern Christians have no doubt done many times in their lives.

Lipnica Murowana, Lesser Poland

A slightly different type of palm can be found in Lipnica Murowana, a small village in the southern mountains. They are less stocky than Kurpian palms, with different patterns, and show more green twigs, boxwood and dried flowers than their northern counterparts. And most of all, they are much, much taller.

These are the short ones.

This is the tall one.

Like Łyse, Lipnica Murowana has its procession, market, and festivities. And like Łyse, it holds its own contest for the best Palm Sunday palm.

There are several categories, but the one that has everyone biting their nails is the Contest for the Tallest Palm.

This gets VERY competitive. And there are rules that make it all extremely exciting. For starters, no nails or other metal elements can be used in making the palms- only wood, willow, reeds, green branches and paper flowers are allowed.

In the photo above, the second-tallest palm of 2011 is raised, with great care and caution.

Wires, ropes and lines from synthetic materials are also forbidden. In order to qualify in the contest, the palm has to stand upright without breaking, it has to be raised with no help from machines (hence the men in the trees guiding the lines, and those on the ground, pushing with special long forks), and the author must be able to wrap his hands around the trunk.

The palm in the photo above is the first prize winner of 2011, at 36.4 metres- that's almost 120 feet! I heard someone say the whole thing weighed about 600 lbs. It took about a dozen men half an hour to get it upright.

Here are some of the shorter palms, arranged around the statue of St. Szymon:

And for a height comparison, this is me with the palms I bought. They were made by local schoolchildren:

As an aside and a link to pre-Christian Poland, to which we owe a great deal of these colourful customes, it's worth taking note of the little wooden gothic church of St. Leonard which stands in Lipnica by the Uszwica river. If you go inside and walk around behind the altar, you will find that it is suspended on a worn, wooden pillar.

This pillar is supposedly a Slavic Pagan totem which once represented Svetovid, a four-faced god. Though the building as we see it now was built in the 15th century, the first church on this site was originally built in the early 12th century, in a Pagan holy grove. Instead of being destroyed, the sacred statue was used as a support for the altar. Poland had only been Christian for a few hundred years, and the old Slavic faith was still very much present. But here as everywhere, the new religion replaced the old one- albeit with an unusual amount of respect.

The old religion and the new.

Meta information:

Location of Łyse:

http://maps.google.pl/maps?q=%C5%81yse,+Mazowieckie&hl=pl&ie=UTF8&sll=52.322433,20.761276&sspn=0.171024,0.528374&oq=%C5%82yse,+mazowi&hnear=%C5%81yse,+ostro%C5%82%C4%99cki,+Mazowieckie&t=m&z=13

Location of Lipnica Murowana:

http://maps.google.pl/maps?q=Lipnica+Murowana&hl=pl&ie=UTF8&ll=49.858349,20.524864&spn=0.090193,0.264187&sll=53.364151,21.564928&sspn=0.083484,0.264187&hnear=Lipnica+Murowana,+boche%C5%84ski,+ma%C5%82opolskie&t=m&z=13