Legendary Show
If ever there was a city of folklore then it is Cracow. Maiden-chomping dragons, enchanted pigeons, sorcerers who fly about on giant cockerels - they're all there, not forgetting a panoply of saints to match.
A lavish exhibition has just opened at the Cracow History Museum, drawing back the curtain on this lively galaxy. The show opens the festivities that will commemorate the 750th Anniversary of the Act of Location of Cracow. The exhibition is being hosted in the museum's main branch right on the square (Rynek Glowny 35) . Priceless old woodcuts, oil-paintings and relics bring to life the magic of the old capital, with everyone from legendary founder of the city Prince Krak to the Trumpeter of Cracow getting their dues.
If you hurry you'll catch the enchanted mirror of Renaissance alchemist Master Twardowski (he of the cockerel). The relic has been transported all the way here from a parish church near the Polish-Belarusian border. The magical mirror was used to conjure the ghost of King Sigismund Augustus's beloved wife, Barbara Radziwillowna.
If you already live here you'll be familiar with most of the tales that are represented in the show. If
not, then there's the downside - unfortunately all the labels are in Polish. But never fear, Hetmanska Bookshop (also the on square at No. 17) stocks a little green pocket book in which all the best legends are recounted.