Rakowicki Cemetery
Kraków's civic dead have been laid here since January 15, 1803 — the first was an 18-year-old named Apolonia — and the grounds were deliberately laid out as a city park.
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A 42-hectare cultural heritage monument that grew from a 5.6-hectare plot purchased from Carmelite monks. In the 1830s, city architect Karol R. Kremer redesigned the expanded grounds to read as a park, not a churchyard. Many notable Cracovians are buried here.
What to look for
- The perimeter wall, built from bricks and stones salvaged from the demolished Church of All Saints
- The large cross erected in 1812, funded entirely by public contributions
- The first chapel, built in 1862 — six years after the Austrian authorities issued the permit to build it
At 26 Rakowicka Street in the Warszawskie district; the cemetery was founded to replace burials inside the city, so it sits just outside the historic centre.
Rakowicki Cemetery is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Krakow, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Krakow pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Krakow
- Wieliczka Salt MineSeven centuries of miners carved chapels and statues out of grey rock salt — 327 metres underground.
- Wawel CathedralPolish kings were crowned here for centuries, and a young priest named Karol Wojtyła said his first Mass in its crypt on 2 November 1946 — thirty-two years before becoming Pope.
- Wawel Royal CastlePolish monarchs were crowned and buried here — the limestone hill above the Vistula is where a nation kept its memory.
- St. Mary's BasilicaEvery hour, a trumpeter plays from the taller tower and stops dead mid-note — commemorating a 13th-century trumpeter who was shot in the throat mid-signal before a Mongol attack on the city.
- Wawel CastlePolish monarchs were crowned and buried here — and their palace now holds Europe's largest collection of Ottoman tents.
- National Museum in KrakówPoland's largest museum holds 780,000 objects — and a Bruegel the Nazis stole in 1939 that never came back.