Rynek Główny and the Cloth Hall

You're on the Rynek Główny, Kraków's market square: about 200 metres on each side, one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. It was laid out under the founding charter of 1257, which gave the city Magdeburg law and a grid of streets you can still follow.

1A square of grand gestures

On 10 April 1525, right here, Albrecht of Hohenzollern, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, knelt before King Sigismund I the Old and paid him homage as Duke of Prussia. Centuries later, Jan Matejko painted the scene in one of his most famous works. On 24 March 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko swore an oath on this square to lead the uprising against Russia and Prussia; a plaque in the paving marks it.

2What still stands

In the middle is the Sukiennice, the hall of the cloth trade, with its Renaissance parapet; from 1879 its upper floor was the first home of the National Museum. The lone Gothic tower is all that's left of the town hall, demolished in 1820, and it leans slightly. The bronze poet is Adam Mickiewicz: his 1898 monument by Teodor Rygier was destroyed by the Germans in 1940 and rebuilt in 1955. And the little church of St Adalbert, in one corner, is older than the square itself.

At the carts on the square, try an obwarzanek, the seeded bread ring sold in Kraków for centuries.

3What to look for

• St Adalbert's Church: its floor lies below the square, whose level has risen over the centuries.
• The town hall tower, with its slight lean.
• The Mickiewicz monument, the city's favourite meeting point.