1928 Tourism City Plan or Map of Krakow, Poland

A colorful 1928 German-Polish bilingual city map of Krakow by the Association for the Promotion of Tourism in Poland. Often considered Poland's cultural capital, the map presents the city's landscape in the Interwar Period (1918 - 1939).

A Closer Look

The map was first prepared in Polish, with German-language overprint, a legend, and text around the coat of arms at top-left. The city's various districts (dzielnica) are noted, and the Vistula River cuts across at bottom, with parks and cemeteries shaded green and important public buildings shaded red. The historic city center (śródmieście, also known as Stare Miasto), easily distinguishable at center, was formerly surrounded by walls, which were replaced by Planty Park in the 1820s and 1830s. Just to its south, Wawel Hill, with its magnificent cathedral and castle, is recognizable. In addition to streets, churches, public squares (plac), markets (rynek), barracks (koszary), hospitals (szpital), rail lines, and streetcar lines (traced in red) are indicated throughout. The map is surrounded by a grid corresponding to an index on the verso.

Polish Athens

Krakow has a long history of settlement dating from the Stone Age (on Wawel Hill). It emerged as a trading center in the Medieval period and reached a golden age in the 15 - 16th centuries when it was a center of the Polish Renaissance. The city also served as the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but the capital was later moved to Warsaw, and Krakow suffered some difficulties, including the Swedish Siege in 1655. When Poland was partitioned between Austria, Prussia, and Russia in the late 18th century, Krakow was placed in the Austrian zone, which increased the German cultural presence in the city (an important antecedent for the production of this map). The city's Jewish population, already significant, also increased, though none of the dozens of synagogues that existed c. 1928 are noted here. Sensitive to opposition against partition, the Austrians generally ruled Krakow with a light hand, and the city became a magnet for Polish nationalists from the Prussian and Russian-occupied areas. It also emerged as Poland's cultural capital, generating writers, artists, and scientists in profusion, earning it the nickname 'Polish Athens' (Polskie Ateny) by the end of the 19th century.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by the Association for the Promotion of Tourism in Poland (Verbandes zur Förderung der Turistik in Polen) and appeared in the 1928 guidebook Kleiner führer durch Krakau und umgebung, self-published by the association. The map is independently cataloged in the collections of the National Library of Poland, the Herder-Institut für historische Ostmitteleuropaforschung, and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's American Geographical Society Library, while about fifteen institutions hold the entire guidebook, nearly all of which are in Europe.