Cracow (Pol. Krakow, Ger. Krakau), a city of the Austrian crown-land of Galicia, 259 miles NE. of Vienna by rail. It stands 672 feet above sea-level, in a wide, hill-girt plain on the left bank of the Vistula, which here becomes navigable, and is spanned by a bridge (1850) leading to Podgorze. The old walls have been converted into promenades, and a line of detached forts now defends the city. Its older portion is a labyrinth of narrow, dark, and deserted streets, but contains many fine specimens of Gothic architecture in its churches and other edifices; and some handsome buildings are also to be seen in the more modern suburbs. On the Wawel rock, in the midst of the houses, rises the old castle of the Polish kings, degraded now to a barrack. The neighbouring cathedral (1320-59) is a splendid pile, containing the graves of John Sobieski, Poniatowski, Kosciusko, and many more heroes, with Thorwaldsen's statue of Christ. The university was founded in 1364, by Casimir the Great, and reconstituted under the Jagellons in 1394. Long the centre of light for Poland, it had decayed under Jesuit influence, but was reorganised and reopened in 1817, and now is attended by more than 800 students. It possesses a library of 150,000 volumes, and many MSS. of great value in connection with Polish history. Cracow has important fairs, and its trade and manufactures (chemicals, tobacco, beer, agricultural implements, &c.) have of late years greatly revived. Three miles west of the city is a grassy mound, 150 feet high, reared in 1820-23 to the memory of Kosciusko. It is composed of earth taken from all the patriotic battle-fields of Poland. The population has varied much at different periods, from 80,000 in the 16th century to 10,000 at the end of the 18th, 49,835 in 1869, 66,095 in 1880, and in 1890, 74,593 (nearly half Jews), or with suburbs, 94,696.
Cracow was founded by Krak, Prince of Poland, from whom it derives its name, about the year 700, became the capital of Poland in 1320, and continued such till 1609, when that honour was transferred to Warsaw. It was taken by the Bohemians in 1039, by the Tartars in 1241, by the Swedes in 1655 and 1702, and by the Russians in 1768. On the third partition of Poland, in 1795, it was assigned to Austria. From 1809 to 1815 it formed part of the duchy of Warsaw. The congress of Vienna established it as a republic, with a territory of 425 sq. m., and containing about 140,000 inhabitants, under the protectorate of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Internal dissensions between the nobles and the common people afforded a pretence for interference, and the sympathy shown for the cause of Polish independence was made the ground of the annexation of Cracow to the Austrian dominions (1846). See POLAND.