Podgórze, Kraków

Podgórze
Former city
Former XXII quarter of Kraków
Podgórski Market Square
former Main Market Square of the city of Pogórze
Podgórze
Podgórze on the map of the district XIII Podgórze
Coordinates: 50°02′39″N 19°56′56″E / 50.04417°N 19.94889°E / 50.04417; 19.94889
CityKraków
Designated1994-09-08
Part ofKraków historical city complex
Reference no.M.P. 1994 nr 50 poz. 418[1]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Podgórze.

Podgórze (officially: Royal, Free City of Podgórze, Polish: Królewskie, Wolne Miasto Podgórze) former, from 26 February 1784 independent city, since 1915 connected (as the XXII quarter) with Kraków, Poland, situated on the right (southern) bank of the Vistula River, at the foot of Lasota Hill[2].

It is now part of the district XIII Podgórze.

History

The oldest man-made structure in Podgórze is the Krakus Mound (Polish: Kopiec Krakusa) on Lasota Hill, believed to be the grave of the legendary prince Krakus. It is the largest prehistoric mound in Poland and one of the best view points in the city[3][4].

The name Podgórze roughly translates as the base of a hill. Initially a small settlement, in the years following the First Partition of Poland the town's development was promoted by the Austria-Hungary Emperor Joseph II who in 1784 granted it the city status, as the Royal Free City of Podgórze. In the following years it was a self-governing administrative unit. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 and the takeover of the entire city by the Empire, Podgórze lost its political role of an independent suburb across the river from the Old Town.[5]

The Austrian bridge named Carl's Bridge (German: Karls Brücke), linking Podgórze with the Kraków proper across the Vistula was built in 1802. This wooden structure located between today's Gazowa and Brodzińskiego streets, survived only until 1813 when it was destroyed in a flood.

The administrative reform of 1810 which followed the expansion of the Duchy of Warsaw brought Podgórze together with the rest of the historic city. However, after the Congress of Vienna made Kraków a free city in 1815, Podgórze fell back under the Austrian rule and remained there for the rest of the 19th century. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, in 1910 it was the 13th largest town in the Austrian-ruled Galicia (population 18,142 in 1900).[6] In the years leading to the return of Polish independence, the city council discussions from July 1915 made Podgórze again a part of the Greater Kraków (Wielki Kraków); its president, the vice president of a single administrative unit.[5]

Towards the end of the Austrian rule, in 1915 the size of Podgórze reached 1⁄5 of the size of Kraków. Since the return of Poland's independence, it remained integrated into the city. It includes the historic part of Podgórze with the triangular market square and impressive St. Joseph Church as well as the green hills of Krzemionki with the World War II quarry called Liban attached to the infamous Plaszow concentration camp. It also includes the site of the Nazi Kraków Ghetto and a factory of Oskar Schindler who saved nearly 1,200 Jews from the camps, as well as the old villages (now suburbs) of Płaszów, Rybitwy and Przewóz.

Jews from Kraków and the nearby villages were ordered to move into the created ghetto, an area of about 20 hectares, until 20 March 1941. Once the so-called 'Special Resettlement Commission' identified 2 square meters of living space for each inhabitant as suitable, about 18,000 people, several families in an apartment, were now cramped into a small area inside Podgorze district.[7] Initially, the area was surrounded with barbed wire under security, and as early as April 1941, a three-meter-high wall was erected around the perimeter, the upper part of which replicated the shape of the Jewish gravestones.[8][9]

Landmarks

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ Zarządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 8 września 1994 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii., M.P., 1994, vol. 50, No. 418
  2. ^ Praca zbiorowa Encyklopedia Krakowa, wydawca Biblioteka Kraków i Muzeum Krakowa, Kraków 2023, ISBN 978-83-66253-46-9 volume II pp 222-226
  3. ^ Praca zbiorowa Encyklopedia Krakowa, wydawca Biblioteka Kraków i Muzeum Krakowa, Kraków 2023, ISBN 978-83-66253-46-9 volume I pp 704-705
  4. ^ Praca zbiorowa Encyklopedia Krakowa, wydawca Biblioteka Kraków i Muzeum Krakowa, Kraków 2023, ISBN 978-83-66253-46-9 volume II pp 222-226
  5. ^ a b Adam Marczewski, Podgórze history and its Jewish Community Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine on Virtual Shtetl. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  6. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cracow" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  7. ^ Chornyi, Maxim (1 December 2018). "Krakow ghetto today: Jewish ghetto in Krakow". War-Documentary. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  8. ^ Hilberg, Raul (1985). The destruction of the European Jews (Student ed.). New York. ISBN 0-8419-0910-5. OCLC 12421088.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Crowe, David (2004). Oskar Schindler: the untold account of his life, wartime activities, and the true story behind the list. Cambridge, Mass.: Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-3375-X. OCLC 55679121.

Bibliography

  • (in Polish) * Praca zbiorowa Encyklopedia Krakowa, wydawca Biblioteka Kraków i Muzeum Krakowa, Kraków 2023, ISBN 978-83-66253-46-9 volume II pp 222-226 (Encyclopedia of Krakow)
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for South Kraków.
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