Krakow’s oldest known city charter dates back to year 1257.
Krakow was an important town and a bustling trading center
as early as the 9th century at least. And archeologists date
the oldest material evidence of human settlements excavated
in the city to circa 200,000 BC. In year 1038 Krakow became
the capital of Poland.
Another crucial date in the municipal history is June 5,
1257 when Boleslaw the Shy, Prince of Krakow, his mother
Grzymislawa, and wife Kunegunda – a.k.a. Blessed Kinga –
signed a foundation charter for the city of Krakow. Therein
they granted the municipality self-government with a wide
range of autonomy – based the Magdeburg Law, ius
municipale magdeburgense – plus tax benefits for its
citizens, trade privileges, and new territory.
Poland’s parliament, namely the Senate, has voted 2007 the
Year of Krakow. The city government has decided to
commemorate the 750th anniversary of the medieval
incorporation of Krakow with ten-day celebrations from June
1 to June 10, 2007.
Program of celebrations commemorating the 750th anniversary
of the 1257 city charter of
Krakow, Poland.
June 1st through June 10th, 2007
Note: things keep changing, so take into account, please,
that the following program is liable to alterations.
Spectacular events
Friday, June 1st
From 4 p.m.
to 11 p.m.
Hot-air balloon extravaganza, ‘Europe’s Open Air – the UE
Cup’, features among others balloon parade, parachuting, and
laser show.
Venue:
Blonia common (free
admission).
From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Opening of the ceremonies
commemorating the 750th anniversary of Krakow’s founding
charter followed by an open-air concert featuring the Krakow
Philharmonic Orchestra and Pro Musica Mundi choir performing
Piotr Rubik’s long cantata ‘In Love with Krakow’ inspired by
Krakow’s history. Venue: the
Rynek Glowny central square (free
admission, open-air).
Saturday, June 2nd
From 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Dragons' Family Picnic,
a festival whose attractions include musical performances,
competitions for kids, and re-enactments of medieval duels.
Venue: riverbank beneath the
Wawel Royal Castle (free admission).
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ‘Great Parade of
Dragons’ – a procession of dragons and knights marches
down Grodzka street to the central Rynek Glowny square.
From 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Cabaret show featuring
an array of Poland’s comedy acts. Venue: the
Rynek Glowny central square (free
admission, open-air).
From 10 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. ‘Great Parade of
Dragons’ – a show featuring giant representations of
dragons plus music, light and sound effects, and water
curtains. Venue: riverbanks near the Wawel Royal Castle (free
admission).
Sunday, June 3rd
From 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dragons’ Family Picnic,
a festival whose attractions include musical performances,
competitions for kids, and re-enactments of medieval duels.
Venue: riverbank beneath the Wawel Royal Castle (free
admission).
4:30 p.m. ‘The Lute of Shakespeare’, a
concert of early music features UK’s soprano Jeni Melia and
lute-playing baritone Christopher Goodwin who perform the
old English songs and duets. Venue: Tyniec Abbey.
From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Krakow’s Cracovia Danza
Court Ballet produces its show, ‘La Fortuna – Lady with
an Ermine’, an re-enactment of the Renaissance’s famed
Italian court ballet, Il Paradiso, with costumes designed by
Leonardo da Vinci. Venue: Plac Szczepanski square
(free admission, open-air).
From 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Poland’s top jazz
trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and his guests perform music that
would bridge the past with our times. Venue: Rynek Glowny
central square (free
admission, open-air).
Monday, June 4th
From 9
p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Concert ‘Krakow Artists for Krakow’ features the best
and most popular songs ever authored by the city’s composers
and/or lyricists. Venue: Rynek Glowny central square (free
admission, open-air).
Tuesday, June 5th
5:30 p.m. Historical parade commemorating the
1257 founding charter proceeds from the
Teatr Slowackiego theatre, 1 Plac Sw. Ducha square at
Szpitalna street, to the Old Town’s
central Rynek Glowny square.
7:30 p.m. ‘The Lute of King David’, a
concert of early music features counter-tenor Francisco
Orozco and lute-players performing medieval Europe’s songs.
Venue: Kosciol Sw. Katarzyny church (St. Catherine),
Augustianska street at Skaleczna street.
From 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. The world premiere of
oratorio ‘Cracovia Est’ by Poland’s contemporary
composer Dariusz Regucki features the Krakow Opera Company’s
soloists, orchestra, and choir. Venue: Rynek Glowny central
square (free admission, open-air).
Wednesday, June 6th
From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Krakow’s Cracovia Danza Court Ballet produces its historical
show, ‘Queen Bona’s Masquerade’, inspired by the
Polish royal court’s customs of the Renaissance and
including such once popular ballroom dances as pavan, volte,
gavotte, and courante. Venue: Plac Szczepanski square (free
admission, open-air).
From 8 p.m. to 9:40 p.m. Opening concert of the ‘Wyspianski
2007’ Festival, ‘Wyspianski by Konieczny”
features Polish National Radio Orchestra, Krakow Philharmonic
Choir, and an array of Krakow’s pop vocalist performing
theater music by Krakow’s contemporary composer Zygmunt
Konieczny written to productions of Stanislaw Wyspinaski’s
various plays. Venue: Kosciol Sw. Katarzyny church (St.
Catherine), Augustianska street at Skaleczna street.
From 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Krakow’s Sinfonietta
Cracovia chamber orchestra and the Pro Musica Mundi choir
render Gustav Holst’s seven-part suite ‘Planets’ with
pop singers Dorota Miskiewicz and Grzegorz Turnau filling in
interludes, plus a multimedia show of the solar system.
Venue: Rynek Glowny central square (free admission,
open-air).
Thursday, June 7th (Corpus Christi feast day)
5 p.m.
Delegations of European marksmen’s fraternities parade from
the Plac Szczepanski square to the central Rynek Glowny
square and next through streets Mikolajska, Kopernika, and
Strzelecka to Park Strzelecki.
From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Italy’s accomplished
baritone Roberto Abbondanza
soprano Susanna Rigacci plus enlarged philharmonic orchestra
and choir with famous composer Ennio
Morricone as conductor perform his oratorio ‘Song
about the Hidden God’ written to poems of
Pope John Paul II. Venue: Rynek Glowny central square (free
admission, open-air).
Friday, June 8th
From 10
a.m. to 10 p.m.
Festival of Krakow’s Bractwo Kurkowe, the city’s historic
marksmen fraternity, with shooting competition, musical
performances, and other attractions. Venue: the Blonia
common (free admission).
From 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Krakow’s ensemble,
Galicyjska Orkiestra Straussowska ‘Obligato”, plays The
Strausses’ waltzes and polkas. Venue: Rynek Glowny central
square (free admission, open-air).
From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Poland’s championship of
DJs. Venue: Multikino multiplex, 128 Dobrego Pasterza
street.
From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Krakow’s Cracovia Danza
Court Ballet produces its show, ‘Sobieski and Marysienka’,
of the Baroque’s dances and the period music by the Polish
and the French composers as well as the Turkish traditional
tunes. Venue: Plac Szczepanski square (free
admission, open-air).
From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ‘Krakow-Vienna Ball’,
a concert of ballroom dance music features Krakow’s and
Vienna’s ensembles playing The Strausses’ waltzes and polkas
plus dancers from both cities performing the steps. Venue:
Rynek Glowny central square (free admission,
open-air).
Saturday, June 9th
From noon
to 2 p.m.
‘The
Enthronement of the Cock King’, Krakow’s traditional
colorful pageant of the city’s historical marksmen’s
fraternity followed by its parade through streets
Florianska, Basztowa, and Lubicz. Venue: Rynek Glowny
central square and the Old Town’s streets (free admission,
open-air).
From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Krakow’s Cracovia Danza
Court Ballet produces its show, ‘Krakow through the
Centuries’ in the form of the parade of historical
fashions from medieval to contemporary, Venue: Rynek Glowny
central square (free admission, open-air).
Sunday, June 10th
From 3 p.m.
to 5 p.m.
Concert of pop
songs about Krakow and its residents. Venue: Plac
Szczepanski square (free admission, open air).
From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Krakow’s Cracovia Danza
Court Ballet produces its show, ‘The Chess’, based on
the 16th-century poem by Jan Kochanowski, the Polish
greatest poet of the Renaissance, with the period music.
Venue: Plac Szczepanski square (free admission, open
air).
7:30 p.m. ‘The Lute of the Renaissance’, a
concert of early music features Switzerland’s Hopkinson
Smith playing music for lute by Francesco da Milano and John
Dowland. Venue: Kosciol Sw. Katarzyny church (St.
Catherine), Augustianska street at Skaleczna street.
From 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Concert of classical music
features Poland’s top contemporary composer Henryk Mikolaj
Gorecki conducting the performance of his piece, ‘Beatus
Vir’, commissioned for the 900th anniversary of
St. Stanislaw’s martyrdom by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, then
Krakow’s archbishop soon to become Pope John Paul II. Venue:
Rynek Glowny central square (free admission,
open-air).
From 10 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. Twenty five bells of
the Old Town’s various churches play symphony ‘Campanae
Cracovienses’ by Marek Stachowski, Krakow’s late composer of
contemporary classical music. Venue: Old Town (free
admission, open-air).
Other anniversary events
Friday, June 1st
At noon.
Laying of the foundation stone for the Tourism Center at
Powisle street near the Wawel Hill.
2 p.m. Opening
ceremony of the ‘Kolna’ Center for Sport and
Recreation with a swimming pool and a sports hall at 2 Kolna
street.
Saturday, June 2nd
From noon
to 9 p.m.
‘Krakow Feast’ on the Plac Szczepanski square.
From 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Hot-air balloon festival ‘Europe’s
Open Air – the UE Cup’ with competitions for children.
Venue: the Blonia common.
2 p.m. Opening ceremony of the ‘Wyspianski
2000’ Exhibition and Information Center at Plac
Wszystkich Swietych square.
Sunday, June 3rd
At noon.
Unveiling of a commemorative plaque in the
Cloth Hall amid Krakow’s central Rynek Glowny square.
From noon to 9 p.m. ‘Krakow Feast’ on the
Plac Szczepanski square.
Monday, June 4th
At noon.
Unveiling of a plaque commemorating the planting of the
Anniversary Tree (namely oak) at the Plac Sw. Idziego square
near the Wawel Hill.
2 p.m. Opening ceremony of a culture center in
the reconstructed Dwor Czeczow (The Czeczs Manor) at 36 Ks.
Popieluszki styreet.
Tuesday, June 5th
11 a.m.
Laying of flowers in the National Pantheon in the crypt of the
Skalka Sanctuary’s church at
Skaleczna street.
From noon to 1:30 p.m. High Mass for the city of
Krakow in the Wawel Cathedral.
From 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ceremonial session of
the City Council in the Teatr Slowackiego theatre, 1 Plac
Swietego Ducha square at Szpitalna street.
From 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Opening of the exhibition ‘Krakow
– the European City of the Magdeburg Law 1257-1791’ in
the City of Krakow Historical Museum
at 35 Rynek Glowny (Grand Square).
From 10:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. Free admission for the
exhibition ‘Krakow – the European City of the Magdeburg
Law 1257-1791’ in the City of Krakow Historical Museum
at 35 Rynek Glowny (Grand Square).
Wednesday, June 6th
At noon.
Opening ceremony of
the refurbished Maly Rynek square.
Thursday, June 7th (Corpus Christi feast day)
3:30 p.m.
Opening ceremony of the Jubilee Congress of Marksmen’s
Fraternities takes place on the Plac Szczepanski square.
5:30 p.m. Unveiling of the obelisk commemorating
the 750th anniversaries of Krakow’s founding charter and the
city’s Bractwo Kurkowe marksmen’s fraternity in the Park
Strzelecki at 16 Lubicz street.
Friday, June 8th
10:30 a.m.
Opening
ceremony of reconstructed Zajazd Kosciuszkowski (Kosciuszko
Inn) at 3 Bialopradnicka street.
At noon. Opening ceremony of a new tourist tour
of the
city walls by the
barbican.
From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Presentation of Europe’s
biggest graffiti, i.e. the ‘Silva Rerum’ mural
showing the history of Krakow.
2 p.m. Opening of exhibition ‘In the Nest of
Printing and Book Loving’ in the Municipal Engineering
Museum at 15 Sw. Wawrzynca street.
Saturday, June 9th
11 a.m.
High
Mass for Krakow’s historical marksmen’s fraternity, Bractwo
Kurkowe, in the Kosciol Mariacki
church (basilica of the Virgin Mary).
2:30 p.m. Laying of the foundation stone for a
shooting range in the Park Strzelecki at 16 Lubicz street.
5 p.m. Opening of an open-air exhibition of
Krakow’s accomplished photographer Adam Bujak’s showing
places and memorabilia connected with St. Stanislaw, the
11th-century Krakow bishop. Venue: the Skalka Sanctuary.
7 p.m. Opening of ‘The Krakow Theater Night’,
a presentation of the city’s theater
productions coupled with tours of its playhouses.
9:30 p.m. Unveiling of the reconstructed
19th-century monument to Tadeusz Rejtan, a Polish hero, at
the junction of streets Basztowa, Asnyka, and
Dunajewskiego.
Sunday, June 10th
10:30 a.m.
High
Mass for Krakow’s historical marksmen’s fraternity, Bractwo
Kurkowe, in the Wawel Cathedral.
3:30 p.m. Closing ceremony of the Jubilee Congress of
Marksmen’s Fraternities takes place on the central Rynek
Glowny square.
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