Kraków

Kraków (pronounced: ; in full Royal Capital City of Krakow, ) is one of the oldest and largest cities in Poland. In 2014, 759,800 people lived in Kraków. It is on the Vistula river. Krakow is the capital of Lesser Poland Voivodeship (województwo małopolskie); before that it was the capital of Kraków Voivodship (since 14th century).

During the mid-early 19th century, Krakow became an independent city-state, under the name of "The Free, Independent and Strictly Neutral City of Krakow". However, it was annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1846.

Pope John Paul II was raised in Krakow and was its archbishop from 1964 until he was elected as Pope in 1978. When it was later announced that the city will host World Youth Day in 2016, it will be a tribute to the late Pope who became a saint in 2014.

From 2002 to 2024, the mayor of the city was Jacek Majchrowski. His successor was Aleksander Miszalski.

During World War II, there was once a ghetto in the city which held mostly the Jews of Kraków. The ghetto was liquidated for the final time in March 1943, with most of its inhabitants sent to the Treblinka extermination camp.

Sister cities
Kraków is twinned, or maintains close relations with:
 Bordeaux, France
 Bratislava, Slovakia
 Budapest, Hungary
 Cambridge, Mass., USA
 Curitiba, Brazil
 Cusco, Peru
 Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
 Fes, Morocco
 Florence, Italy
 Frankfurt, Germany
 Göteborg, Sweden Grozny, Russia
 Innsbruck, Austria
 Kyiv, Ukraine
 Lahore, Pakistan
 La Serena, Chile
 Leipzig, Germany
 Leuven, Belgium
 Lviv, Ukraine
 Milan, Italy
 Nuremberg, Germany
 Orléans, France Pécs, Hungary
 Rochester, NY, USA
 Quito, Ecuador
 St Petersburg, Russia
 San Francisco, CA, USA
 Seville, Spain
 Solothurn, Switzerland
 Tbilisi, Georgia
 Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria
 Vilnius, Lithuania
 Zagreb, Croatia

 Related pages 
Trams in Kraków

 Other websites 

 Official website of the city