Zinar Castle

First, a small settlement on the right bank of the Vistula, then a proud imperial city, and finally a district of Krakow. Get to know Podgórze!

Podgórze has been a district of Krakow only since 1915. However, the settlement on the right bank of the Vistula already existed in the Middle Ages, and its history is closely related to the royal city - after all, it is here that the Krakus Mound, the tomb of the legendary prince, the founder of Krakow, is located.

Podgórze also played an important role in the economy. Krakow: from the Middle Ages there was a salt road leading to Wieliczka and Bochnia, as well as a trade route to Hungary and Ruthenia. In the limestone hills of Krzemionki, quarries were dug, numerous mills for grinding plaster and brickyards were built.

At the end of the 18th century, after the first partition of Poland, the Vistula line became the border of the country - Krakow, located on its left bank, remained Polish, and Podgórze fell to Austria. In 1784 the Austrian Archduke Józef II granted Podgórze civic rights and the name Josefstadt to commemorate its founder. Entrepreneurs, merchants and craftsmen from all over the Austrian Empire came to the new city, whose inhabitants enjoyed very favorable tax privileges. They gave the city a commercial and later industrial character (Podgórze had its own municipal power plant, opened five years before the Krakow one; today this building is part of the Cricoteka complex - Tadeusz Kantor's Art Documentation Center). The Austrian times are a period of dynamic development for Podgórze. The young city could not only be a competitor, but also a partner for Krakow. More or less from the first decades, Josefstadt comes from the center of the former city - Rynek Podgórski - and the first cemetery in Podgórze (the so-called old cemetery).

In the 20th century, when old Krakow began to suffocate within its former borders, the city authorities started efforts to extend them. In 1915, after painstaking negotiations, Podgórze became part of Krakow.