2010 Archive News Stories from Krakow Info
Year 2010
A Reincarnation: John Paul II Papal University in Krakow.
Pope Benedict XVI has turned Krakow’s Papal Academy of Theology into
John Paul II Papal University. Thus it becomes the seventh university
among 25 institutions of
higher learning in Krakow. Currently its 300-plus faculty
members teach over 3,000 students. The university has five departments –
theology, philosophy, history and cultural heritage, social sciences,
and a theology department in Tarnow. Krakow’s John Paul II Papal
University (Uniwersytet Papieski Jana Pawla II) is the fifth incarnation
of the institution of higher learning whose tradition dates back to 1397
when the faculty of theology was established at the
Krakow University by decree of Pope Boniface IX. In 1954 the
communist rulers of Poland chased the theologians from the state
university. Since then the faculty has continued as a church institution
of higher education, first as Department of Theology, renamed Papal
Department of Theology in 1974, and made Papal Academy of Theology in
1981 by Pope John Paul II.
The new university’s headquarters takes up the historical building at 25
Kanonicza street, next to houses at 21 and 19 Kanonicza where
Father Karol Wojtyla, future John Paul II, lived in the years 1951 to
1963.
Man Behind the Auschwitz Theft Awaits Extradition to
Krakow.
A Swede implicated in the theft of the
Auschwitz infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei"
have been finally extradited from Sweden to Krakow
on the 9th of April, 2010. 34-year-old Anders
Hoegstroem was taken into custody in Stockholm on
February 11th. Krakow’s public prosecutor had issued
a European warrant for his arrest a couple of weeks
earlier. Mr. Hoegstroem is thought to have
masterminded the larceny carried out on December
18th, 2009 by five rogues from northern Poland he
had hired. Stockholm’s prosecutor Agnetha Hilding
Qvarnstrom had said that Mr. Hoegstroem could
be transferred to Krakow before the end of February
but he then challenged the extradition in the
Swedish court. Nevertheless he didn't appeal against
the court decision to send him to Poland for
investigation and likely subsequent trial in
Krakow. The Polish perpetrators, five men ages 25 to
39, have been arrested last December. On March 18th,
2010 three of them were sentenced to 30, 28,
and 18 months in prison respectively plus 10,000
zloties of compensatory damages each after they had
pleaded guilty to the theft. The other two Poles are
accused of complicity. Polish police recovered the
iconic Auschwitz sign on the third day after the
theft but it wasn't possible to it put back into
place before the solemn celebrations of the 65th
anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz death camp on January 27, 2010.
An exact replica has temporarily replaced the stolen
the 5-meter steel inscription over the main gate to
the Auschwitz site turned into a museum
commemorating victims of the Nazi atrocities. The
original, cut into three pieces by the thieves,
underwent forensic test and has been returned to the
Auschwitz museum on January 21. The museum's
management promises to do its best to renovate the "Arbeit
Macht Frei" sign both thoroughly and quickly yet
it will take months anyway. Auschwitz site is
situated in the town of Oswiecim 70 kilometers west
of Krakow. The theft sent shock waves through the
world and in Poland the case continues to
reverberate to this day.
World Leaders Did Not Come to Krakow for President Kaczynski’s Funeral.
U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French
President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Prince Charles of the UK are just four
VIPs among many heads of state and government who failed to turn up at
President Kaczynski’s funeral in
Krakow
on Sunday, April 18th. They cited the cloud of volcanic ash that halted
air traffic in Europe, including Poland, as the reason. President
Kaczynski and his wife died in the presidential plane crash near
Russia’s city of Smolensk on April 10th, 2010 when all passengers and
the crew were killed – 96 in total including many of Poland’s political
and military elite. The late presidential couple have been entombed in a
hallway of the
crypt of the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow where Marshal Jozef
Pilsudski has been laid to rest since 1936. The decision to bury
President Kaczynski and his spouse in one of the
Wawel crypts resulted in a firestorm of controversy in Poland
because the place is considered a national mausoleum meant for the
burial of kings and the nation’s greatest war heroes only. Besides the
Polish royalty and Marshal Pilsudski just three other famous Polish
military leaders have been interred here – Prince Jozef Poniatowski in
1817, Tadeusz Kosciuszko in 1818, and General Wladyslaw Sikorski in
1993. Plus the separate "Bards' Crypt" contains tombs of two
19th-century genius poets Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Slowacki buried in
1890 and 1927 respectively. The prospect of President Kaczynski’s
funeral at the Wawel
Cathedral
perplexed the residents of Krakow in the first place. Hundreds of them
staged street rallies in front of the Archbishop Palace at
Franciszkanska street to protest the decision of Cardinal Stanislaw
Dziwisz.
Car Theft Is Up, Back.
After five years in a row of decline the number of
stolen cars rose in Krakow last year. Recently published police
statistics reveal 1,039 motor vehicle thefts in 2009 compared to 818 in
2008. Areas worst hit by the scourge are high-rise housing developments
of Pradnik Bialy, Pradnik Czerwony, Prokocim, and Podgorze. German-built
cars, notably Volkswagens and Audis, remain the most popular makes with
car thieves in Krakow. Even more alarming is the sharp increase in the
number of muggings that rose in Krakow almost by half in 2009 compared
with year 2008.
Rain, Floods, And Disruptions
A few days of heavy rain all over southern Poland
played havoc with transportation in Krakow and the
entire
Malopolska province starting on Sunday,
May 16th. Enormous traffic jams paralyzed Krakow. At
the same time travel to the city was hindered due to
closed roads and bridges, gigantic tailbacks, train
delays and cancellations. As many rivers and streams
overflowed a number of towns as well as some rural
areas in the Krakow region suffered serious damage
from floods. Also such popular tourist destinations
as the former nazi death camp
Auschwitz
and
Wadowice, the birthplace of Pope John
Paul II, were affected.
Krakow’s Pizza Beats Italy’s
World's biggest pizza
ever has been baked and eaten in Krakow. Krakow's
450 cooks prepared the monster on August 29, 2010
with the Guinness Book of Records in mind. The
record pizza was 1.1 kilometer long and about one
meter wide. It consisted of 4,000
kilograms of flour, 1,500 liters of tomato sauce,
and 1.6 ton of mozzarella.
New Attraction in the City
An underground archeological museum beneath
Krakow’s Rynek Glowny central square
combines excavations of medieval buildings,
exhibitions of ancient artifacts, and multimedia
presentations including holographic reconstruction
of historical architecture. It opened in September
2010 and has become an instant sell-out with
would-be visitors queuing at the box office every
day. The museum cost about 14 million euro to
launch.
Local Government, the
Elections Outcome
In the wake of recent
local government elections on November
21st, 2010 Poland’s governing center-right party
Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska - PO), won the
majority of 24 seats in Krakow’s 43-strong city
council. It’s got 42 percent of votes while its
arch-rival, the right-wing Law and Justice party (Prawo
i Sprawiedliwosc – PiS) came second with 27 percent
which gave it 12 councilors. In the concurrent
mayoral race no candidate won the outright majority
of the votes. In the run-off on December 5th, 2010
the incumbent, Professor Jacek Majchrowski who stood
as an independent, has secured himself the third
consecutive term in office. |
