Podgórze Wartime Memories

This walk crosses the Vistula River to trace the tragic history of Kraków's wartime Jewish Ghetto in Podgórze, ending at Oskar Schindler’s former enamel factory.

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1. Father Bernatek’s Bridge

Father Bernatek’s Bridge stands out because of the nine bronze acrobats suspended by cables above the walking path. Designed by Jerzy Kedziora, these life-sized figures appear to be balancing, hanging, or performing gymnastic feats over…

2. Rynek Podgórski

The Rynek Podgórski is defined by the twin neo-Gothic spires of Saint Joseph’s Church that loom over the square. Before eighteen ninety-eight, this was the central marketplace of a separate, independent city called Podgórze. Mayor Edward…

3. Ghetto Heroes Square

The seventy oversized metal chairs scattered across Ghetto Heroes Square mark the location of the main transit point for Kraków’s Jewish population during the German occupation. Each chair represents a thousand human lives lost during the…

4. Apteka pod Orłem

The Apteka pod Orłem, or Pharmacy under the Eagle, features a distinct corner entrance topped by a prominent stone eagle emblem. Between nineteen forty-one and nineteen forty-three, this was the only pharmacy operating within the walls of…

5. Remains of the Ghetto wall

The curved stone segment standing here is a fragment of the wall that enclosed the Kraków Ghetto during the German occupation. Unlike the traditional rectangular layout of city walls, the barriers built here were shaped like Jewish…

6. Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory

The building features a distinctive, rounded corner facade decorated with vertical bands of stone, a design typical of the functionalist industrial architecture from the late nineteen thirties. Oskar Schindler moved his enamelware…

The audio tour continues in the Mira app →