Cracow, the royal capital of ancient Poland: its history and antiquities/The Origins of Cracow
THE ORIGINS OF CRACOW
CRACOW, the towering capital and coronation town of ancient Poland's kings, the royal burial-place of famous monarchs and renowned poets, is situated on the left bank of the Vistula river, which flows right across the territory of the sometime kingdom, to fall into the Baltic.
At present, Cracow is the centre of a grand-duchy of the same name within the province of Galicia, and is among the most notable cities of Austria.
1. CENTRAL SQUARE.
The part which Cracow was to play in the history of Poland was not determined at once; on the contrary, many stormy ages, with ever-changing events in political history and civilization, passed over its head.
In prehistoric times, the caves in a range of hills extending to the north of Cracow were the oldest dwellings for the men of the Jura limestone period. The country all round the present site of the town is traversed by charming glens, overshadowed with woods and enlivened by rippling rivulets: such are the Czerna Valley near Krzeszowice, the Pradnik Valley with its ruins of Ojców Castle and "Dog's Rock" (Pieskowa Skala), the Mników Valley extending to the south. Within the precincts of the town, several hills arise: the Castle Hill called Wawel, the Skalka, the Krzemionki, and St. Bronislawa's Hill, which gives a wide view of the plains bordered by the distant chain of the Carpathian Mountains. The water has eaten deep caves into the solid rock of all those hills, and these numerous caves now are valued as the oldest repositories of remains of human civilization in the Stone Age. The interesting results of diggings for objects of this and later periods are to be found in the collections of the Cracow Academy of Sciences, the Archæological Cabinet, and the National Museum.
The first seat of Polish princes and the original centre of State organization was not Cracow, but Gniezno (now Gnesen in Prussian Poland); there, in the later province of Great Poland, on the banks of the Warta and the border of the picturesque lake of Goplo, we must look for the oldest documents of Poland's political existence. Soon, however, a cycle of very old legends centres in Cracow, surrounding its site with a web of poetical stories, and assigning an early date—within the pagan period—to the two extant monuments of this epoch, the grave-mounds or tumuli attributed to Krakus and Wanda. The struggle for independence is the leading feature of these popular legends; the story dealing with the mythical founder of the town tells us how the brave Krakus delivered the people from a haunting terror by killing a dragon that dwelt in a cave of Wawel Hill still to be seen there and exacted a tribute of human victims for its food. Whether owing to the early reception of Christianity, which was introduced to these parts by the two apostles of the Slavonic nations, St. Cyril and St. Methodius, or merely to its own progress in civilization at all events, we find this district on the banks of the Vistula rising into historical importance towards the end of the ninth century. At that time already it was chosen for the bishop's seat. About the middle of the tenth century we meet with the first historical records of a place called Krakw, described as a commercial town belonging to Bohemia, and distant a threedays' journey from Prague. After thirty years of subjection to Bohemia, this province of Little Poland again passes under the sovereignty of Great Poland. Boleslaus the Brave (Chrobry, 992-1025) won a victory, in 999, over the Bohemian troops and drove their garrison from the town, in which, according to old tradition, St. Adalbert (called Wojciech in Polish), before he went to win the palm of martyrdom at the hands of the heathen Prussians, is said to have preached in the market-place (now Central Square), where a small church in Romanesque style, erected to his memory, is still standing. The news of the Saint's death produced a great impression over all Europe; the Emperor Otto III, who had been his personal friend, undertook, A.D. 1000, the famous pilgrimage to the martyr's tomb at Gniezno and visited the Polish monarch Boleslaus, on whose royal head he set, on that occasion, a golden crown, presenting him also thelance said to have been St. Maurice's and preserved to the present time in the treasury of the Cathedral—both as insignia of recognised royal power. It would appear that this warlike prince, Boleslaus Chrobry, the heroic founder of Poland's independence, fortified the river-castle on the Wawel. At this time also the archbishopric of Gniezno was founded, whose sphere included the diocese of Cracow. The Bishop of Cracow occupied the first rank, under the Metropolite of Gniezno, in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Poland. His residence was on the fortified Skalka (nowadays St. Michael's Church of the Pauline Fathers), where a deep pond at the foot of the rocky mound became the first natural baptismal font of Cracow; here the common people washed off their heathendom. The temporal monarchs resided on Wawel Hill, opposite this seat of the spiritual power.
In the early Middle Ages both Wawel and Skalka, with its church of St. Michael, were probably made water-fortresses. Skalka, much smaller than Wawel, was embraced fork-wise by the waters of the Vistula, and it was probably here that the first cathedral stood, with the bishop's residence, fortified by walls and ramparts. The old river-bed, separating the two castle-mounds, was filled up with earth in the nineteenth century, when it became the broad street now called after President Dietl. The Wawel Hill was on most sides surrounded by waters either stagnant or running. To the north-west, where nowadays we find the fine municipal garden plots and "Canons' Street" (ulica Kanonicza), nothing was to be seen then but stretches of deep swamps and ponds. Access to the castle was possible only by one narrow path, now represented by Castle Street (ulica Grodzka), and defended, in the Romanesque period, by a stone belfry and wooden fortifications. The Dragon's Cave (Smocza jama) was probably, as in German castles, an integral part of the fortress.
During the wars with Conrad II and the domestic troubles, occasioned by a revival of paganism, under the government of Mieszko II (1025-1034), a son of Boleslaus, order and Christian institutions were maintained in Cracow alone. This fact, together with the fortified site of the castles, definitely gave to Cracow its importance for the whole empire. From this time forth the monarchs choose Cracow for their place of residence and promote its prosperity. The town gains in ascendency; it assumes, even at this time, the leading part, as an important centre of civilization, among the cities of the vast Polish Empire. Casimir I (1034-1058) was aided by the Emperor Henry III to win back his throne which had been shaken by a relapse of the people into paganism. Casimir found Poland devastated by the internal troubles under Mieszko II, and saw its waning importance in politics and for civilization; he therefore endeavoured to raise the general standard of culture by means of settling foreign monks all over the country, which procured him the surname of the Monk. On the Wawel, next to his royal residence, he settled a colony of Benedictines called from Liège. The abbot of this convent, Aaron by name, became at the same time Bishop of Cracow, and bore the title of archbishop. Hence the Benedictine Order spread its beneficial, civilizing influence over the whole country; wherever its monks came, they implanted the fear of God and the culture of the Occident. To this Order Boleslaus the Bold and Judith his wife had already ceded the royal possessions and castle of Tyniec, situated at about five miles' distance from Cracow: this became a large abbey, with one hundred villages under its administration. Even to-day the majestic ruins of the convent-buildings look proudly down, from a powerful rock, into the reflecting waters of the Vistula. Boleslaus the Bold (1058-1079) has a particular preference for Cracow. After victorious campaigns in the neighbouring countries, which either served to acquire new tracts of land or to maintain the sovereignty of Poland over those conquered before, he always returns to his royal castle of Cracow. Against the Emperor Henry IV he assumes an attitude of provocation; he allies himself to the insurgent princes of Saxony; when the great historical contest between Pope Gregory VII and the Emperor begins, he enters into close relations with the Pope, and during Henry's journey to Canossa he takes the royal crown.
Now there happens an episode unknown to Polish history before. For reasons not yet explained, a fateful feud kindles between the king and the bishop of Cracow, Stanislas—which ends, for the bishop, in a martyr's death, for the king, in the loss of his throne. The murdered prelate was canonized—like Thomas à Becket in England—the monarch's power, and with it Poland's political position and authority, sank far below what they had been. The dreadful catastrophe had happened in the centre of the oldest fortified settlement at Cracow, viz., on the Skalka, and the place became henceforth the aim of devout pilgrimages. The solemn celebration of the 8th of May as the day sacred to the Saint's memory developed into a Church festival of world-wide renown, attracting people from all countries and much frequented by traders.
The government of Ladislaus Hermann (1079-1102), successor to the deposed king, is of an entirely different stamp: its importance lies not in any political achievements as for these it is rather a period of decline, of complete submission of Poland to the Imperial sovereignty, and degradation from its independent and consolidate position—but in the care Ladislaus Hermann bestowed on raising the general standard of culture. The wooden structures standing till then, this prince replaces by stone architecture, of which some monuments have survived till our times to bear express witness to his exertions for civilization. Through his two wives he entered into close connections with the Bohemian and Imperial court. His first wife, Judith, daughter of King Vratislav II., in pursuance of a vow, presented to the cathedrals of Gniezno and Plock MSS. of the Gospels richly illuminated by the Benedictine Abbot Bozytech of Sazawa—one of which, the so-called Codex aureus pultoviensis, is now in the Museum of the Czartoryski family at Cracow. The second wife, whom he -married in 1088, and who died after 1092—also a Judith, daughter of Henry III—brought as a present another MS. of the Gospels, richly ornamented with miniatures, and containing on the dedication page pictures of the Emperor Henry IV, of the abbots and bishops of Regensburg, and below, three representations of St. Emmeram, for which reason it is usually called the Emmeram Gospels. It is probable that the Regensburg influence, through Judith and her Suabian chaplain Otto (afterwards Bishop of Bamberg), asserted itself also in the building of the new basilica in Romanesque style; the more so as the architectural activity of the prelate just mentioned was further manifested in the building of Speyer Cathedral. The building of this Romanesque cathedral extends over a long period of time. Boleslaus III (1102-1138), under whose reign the church was consecrated (in ino), added two towers to it in 1126. In its principal foundation, it was a basilica with one choir, three naves, and two apses. On the western side, as in St. Emmeram's church at Regensburg, there is a subterranean crypt. The church was dedicated, it seems, first to St. Salvator, then—in the thirteenth century—to St. Wenceslaus, which points to connections with Bohemia; such, in fact, are manifest in the political events of Ladislaus Hermann's reign, Vratislav of Bohemia assuming the title of King of Poland. Of the upper part of the Romanesque church scanty fragments only have been preserved, viz., a cube-shaped capital, a piece of channelled stone, and the lower part of the southern tower; but the crypt is preserved in its entirety. St. Leonard, to whom it was dedicated, was the Patron Saint of Liège, which is of importance as showing the probable connection of his cult in Poland with the Benedictine abbey mentioned above; besides, he was also particularly worshipped at Regensburg. The interior of the crypt (illustration 2) is partitioned by rows of columns into three naves of equal height and breadth, surmounted by a cross-vault divided by means of binding-arches into twelve compartments without ribs; to the east, the crypt is bounded by a transverse partition, to the west, the whole of the three naves is rounded off by a semicircular apse common to all, but this has lost much of its original structure by the foundations of the Gothic columns in the upper church being
2. ROMANESQUE CRYPT, WITH TOMBS OF THE KINGS, WAWEL CATHEDRAL.
built into it in the fourteenth, and those of the choir in the eighteenth century. The monolithic shafts of the columns and their cube-shaped capitals are of simple construction, with the lower corners rounded off in the usual way; the Attic bases in the apse show by their lower tori, adorned by four knobs corresponding to the corners of the plinth, that we are in the very golden age of Romanesque style. The pilasters have capitals with square billets. The most important relic of architectonic decoration to be mentioned is a fragment of a door-lintel, built into the wall, with a basilisk sculptured upon it in bas-relief.
One and the same mason's guild at Cracow, superintended by the Benedictines and acting in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, seems to have completed all the other Romanesque buildings, which fell into line, along Castle Street, with the original settlers' dwellings, built of wood. During this period, there were built: the old parish church of St. Andrew's, the church of the Holy Trinity, probably in the first City Square, and St. John's Church; besides, the foundation was laid for St. Giles's Church, then probably of wood; it owed its origin to Ladislaus Hermann's first wife. By his second wife, who had been married before to King Solomon of Hungary, and there had become used to the worship of St. Andrew, the cult of this Saint seems to have been introduced into Poland. In walking down Grodzka ulica (Castle Street), we see from afar two slender towers pointing heavenward: they belong to St. Andrew's Church, built by the Benedictine monks of Sieciechów (illustration 3). It was a court church of three naves, forming part of the gateway buildings of the Castle, and containing a princely dwelling in its interior; one great loft above the low side-aisle served for the prince's retinue and could hold some 150 persons. This gallery divides the side-walls into two stories; it extends also along the third wall between the two towers, where a hall, lit by one window, was constructed; this was entered by a door from the northern tower. The middle aisle was covered with a flat wooden ceiling. Later restorations have completely changed the interior of the church, only the front and the towers preserve the old Romanesque forms. The front is quite plain, built of ashlars arranged in layers; it is only varied by some thin pilaster-strips and a semicircular bowwindow. On this substructure are set the two octagonal towers; besides the staircase loopholes they have, in the upper story, a double window on each side, divided by a column with an impost jutting out on its top. The spires, of beautifully curved outlines, are of the seventeenth century. In 1320 the church was ceded to the sisterhood of St. Clare; this was about the time when King Ladislaus Lokietek, by his additions to the Wawel buildings, opened the Gothic period in the architectural history of the castle. The solid structure and fortified situation
3. ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH.
of St. Andrew's Church made it fit to serve as a fortress, defying the enemy and offering sure refuge in times of war. The Gothic parts of the building, which are likewise very interesting, belong to the fourteenth century.
Of the parish church in Romanesque style, given, in the thirteenth century, to the Dominican Order, scarcely any traces remain worth recording—the crypt was only destroyed in recent times, the cellars and the walls of both refectory and dormitory are still Romanesque.
Beyond the original city walls, in the Central Square of to-day, just opposite Castle Street (Grodzka ulica) there was built, toward the close of the twelfth century, for the then suburb, on a plot of rising ground not discernible now, the little church of St. Adalbert (illustration 4). The walls, made of limestone and sandstone ashlars, have been whitewashed, so the bond of their masonry is only partly to be seen. The church was pierced by a bow-window on each side; to the south, it had a portal, of which the traces are yet visible on the wall. There is but one nave, with a cross-vault over the choir and a wooden ceiling over the body of the church. According to historical traditions, St. Adalbert preached here to the people of Cracow on his way to Prussia for a martyr's death; later on, St. Hyacinth (1223) and St. John Capistran (1453) are also reported to have preached in this church. In 1611 the building was renovated and thoroughly transformed by the Academician Valentine Fontana. Traces of originally Romanesque structure are also distinguishable in the churches of St. John, St. Florian, St. Nicholas, likewise in the convent church of the Premonstratensian nuns in Zwierzyniec (now an outlying suburb of Cracow), which has a Romanesque portal; but in all these the vestiges are so faint as hardly to deserve specifying.
An example of later Romanesque architecture, where use is made of brick besides ashlars, is extant in the convent church of the Cistercian monks, in the village of Mogila, east of Cracow. With these Cistercians, who came over to Poland from France in the twelfth century and built their abbeys in the course of the fourteenth, the use of the pointed arch makes its appearance in architecture, which marks the transition to Gothic style.
The bishops' residences and the Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys were, besides the princes' courts, the main channels through which the civilization of Western Europe spread in Poland. The illuminated liturgical MSS. for the use of Polish churches were at first all imported from abroad, e.g. the eleventh century homilies now in the archives of the Cathedral. But very early—in all probability as soon as the eleventh century—the art of illuminating began to be practised in the convent cells of Poland by the foreign monks. And as the codices carried away from Polish collections, and now kept in the Public Library at St. Petersburg, clearly show, the work of this kind done in Poland
4. CLOISTERS OF DRAPERS' HALL AND CHURCH OF ST. ADALBERT.
followed the principles of the Rhenish school, but with some admixture of Eastern elements.
With the removal of the Ducal Court to Plock (now in Russian Poland) the city of Cracow temporarily loses some of its importance. Plock, the capital of Masovia, becomes, in the twelfth century, the centre of all Polish civilization and art. The episcopal see of Plock was then occupied by Alexander of Szrensko (1129-1156), a pupil of the Belgian Benedictines of Malonne, and accordingly a great promoter of Western civilization. He built the Cathedral at Plock, and by his order the famous Korsun brass portal, which now adorns St. Sophia's church at Great Novgorod, was made. At the same time, there was living in the court of Plock, as the Duke's chaplain, one Leopard (ab. 1130), whom the medieval chroniclers call "sculptor and goldsmith." It is not impossible that he took part in the execution of the magnificent miniatures in a MS. of the Genesis now at St. Petersburg. This is a masterpiece of twelfth-century art; it exhibits in particular a highly developed sense for the formal beauties of the human body,—just what might be accounted for by a sculptor sharing in the work;—for models, it shows the influence of the Celto-Carolingian patterns. In connection with this it may be mentioned that one of the bishops of Plock, Werner, went in 1165 as ambassador to the court of Frederick Barbarossa.
In this period, most of the Cathedral and Convent Libraries were founded. The Cathedral Archives of Cracow, in spite of the many domestic wars of the time, even now preserve a considerable number of medieval MSS., part of them illuminated. A library of world-wide fame was the very copious one of the Benedictine monks at Tyniec; this, however, in later times,, during the Swedish invasion, was plundered by the enemy, and what remained was destroyed by a fire at Lemberg, where it had been deposited. A magnificent missal from this collection, written in golden letters on purple ground, was sold at Cracow by one of the Swedish soldiers: it is now at Warsaw. It had been illuminated by a master of the Cologne school, and was most probably brought to Cracow by the Benedictine abbot Aaron, who, in 1046, had been consecrated Bishop of Cracow at Cologne. Another library of equal importance was that of the Cistercians in the village of Mogila, and that of the Dominican Convent at Cracow. The other convent libraries of Cracow mostly belong to a later period.
The foundation of libraries was not immediately followed by the rising of vernacular literature. Domestic feuds and the incessant foreign wars impeded its growth; it was not till the thirteenth century that an important chronicle was written in Polish by the Cracow bishop Vincent Kadlubek, who ended his days as a Cistercian monk at Mogila (1223). He was followed by the Posen chroniclers Boguchwal and Baszko; a Polish Dominican living in Rome, Martinus Polonus, compiled a Chronicle of,the Popes and Emperors. In Rome also there lived, about 1230, in the court of Pope Innocent V, an eminent Polish man of science, called Vitellio; his work De Perspectiva was based on observations made in Poland. A careful study of the Greek and Arabian authors led him toward formulating in a system the laws of optics, and by these fundamental principles he made an important contribution to the theory of perspective landscape painting, for which he opened entirely new horizons.
Besides the illuminated MSS., pictures began early to be imported both from East and West. The worship of the Virgin Mary having been awakened among the Polish people, the merchants brought Madonna pictures from abroad, richly decorated with gold and jewels; mosaics also were introduced: of these, a Byzantine one, of the twelfth century, showing a deeper sense of the beauties of colour, is preserved in St. Andrew's Church. Of the state of applied art in this Romanesque period, evidence is given by the coins and seals produced at Cracow, which are most vivid illustrations of our medieval civilization. The oldest inventories of the Cathedral Church, dated 1101 and 1110, bear witness to the use of numerous costly implements and liturgical apparel. Among the oldest of those still preserved in the Cathedral treasury is the mitre of St. Stanislas, made of white silk, in lozenge pattern and adorned by a cross made of two blue bars. The profusion of gold, jewels, and gems, with which it is beset besides, is contrary to tradition and points to a later date (thirteenth century). Oriental origin is probable for a silver reliquary of Saracen workmanship; it dates from the twelfth century and was probably presented to the Cathedral by Henry Duke of Sandomir, a son of Boleslaus III, who had taken part in a crusade. He brought to the treasury of Cracow Cathedral this reliquary, filled with earth from the Holy Sepulchre; on its outward side the triumphs of the prince were represented in Oriental symbols by an Arabian sculptor. Of the same origin and date is another relic, preserved in the same treasury under the name of "St. Hedwig's chalice." The cup of it is made of dim greenish glass, and, on its outward circumference, shows, in broad polished outlines, the conventionalized image of a spread eagle between two lions rampant. The silver base is later work, of the fourteenth century; there are engraved on it the figures of St. Hedwig, John the Baptist, Samson rending the lion, the sudarium of St. Veronica, and the pelican ripping up its breast to feed its young. Tradition assigns this chalice to St. Hedwig (1243); most probably she got it as a present from a crusader returning from the Holy Land. The bindings of the Gospel MSS. tradition reports to have been adorned with precious bosses and buckles, and clothed with enamel, gems, and costly reliefs of ivory and silver; even nowadays, such as are preserved, form the treasures of some collections outside Cracow. The coronation sword of Poland's kings, called Szczerbiec, a magnificent piece of German work of the early thirteenth century, is now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. Of the altar ornaments of other churches in those times, Corpus Christi Church still possesses an enamelled altar cross of the thirteenth century. Besides the image of the crucified Saviour, there are enamelled on this cross figures of angels, the symbols of the Evangelists, and Adam: the master who did this work seems to have learned his art at Limoges.
Now let us abandon the history of art for a moment, to cast a glance on the political situation of Cracow. The warlike Boleslaus III (1102-1138) showed his energy by strengthening the position of Christianity, enlarging his territory, and re-establishing the authority of Poland as a political power. But the order of succession as settled by his will became fatal to the monarchy, which now was divided into several separate dukedoms. True, the Grand Duke of Cracow was to be supreme over the rest, and thus the town was appointed the capital of Poland, but soon it happened that the Grand Duke Ladislaus failed in his struggles to assert this authority over the others; nor did his successors fare any better. A whole century passed in these continuous contests for primacy. Finally, the Piasts of Silesia established a predominance which was a serious danger for the national development of Poland. At Cracow we hear, as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, of a municipal organisation under the guidance of the mayors. The existence of numerous churches and religious houses seems to show that the town had a large number of inhabitants. General culture is increasing: Polish students attend foreign universities, particularly that of Bologna; schools connected with monasteries and parishes are growing in number. But these germs of an independent civilization were soon to be destroyed, A terrible tempest of Mongolian invasion broke from the East; it swept like an avalanche over the country, changing it into a desert; Cracow, in that unfortunate year 1241, was turned into a heap of ruins; only the castle on the Wawel and the gateway buildings with the fortified church of St. Andrew remained intact. The bloody battle of Lignica (Liegnitz), where Henry the Pious, Duke of Silesia, was slain, marks the end of the Romanesque period.
5. THE OLDEST MUNICIPAL SEAL.