Krakow’s lost river
Every city has it’s half-remembered legends of the way things used to be. Disappeared districts, demolished factories, buried rivers. As the decades pass a folk memory lives on, becoming vaguer with each generation. Spend some time in Krakow and sooner or later you will hear about the lost river. Everybody tells it differently and nobody is really sure, but there was another river, or the river was in a different place, or something happened to the river sometime long ago somehow.
Teased by these rumors one too many times I decided to get to the bottom of the affair. Early illustrations of Krakow clearly indicate that there were more rivers around than the modern inhabitant might expect.
Far too many rivers in evidence in this 15th-century portrayal of Krakow.
There was another river, or it would be more accurate to say there was another branch of the Vistula. Called the Stara Wisła (Old Vistula) this branch diverged from the main course of the river just downstream of Wawel castle and rejoined it about a kilometer later. This loop was filled in during the latter half of the 19th century but its course remains visible in the street plan of modern Krakow.
The course of the Stara Wisła in 1866
Modern Krakow with the course of the Stara Wisła in orange
1. Grunwaldzki Bridge
The point at which the Old Vistula diverged from the main course of the Vistula is marked today by a bridge, of all things. The modern Grunwaldzki Bridge is possibly one of the most boring-looking bridges in Europe, but you can’t deny it has an interesting history.
2. Ulica Józefa Dietla
This broad tree-lined street was created between 1878 and 1881 after the city authorities decided to backfill the Old Vistula. During the first half of the century the Old Vistula had become a sluggish sewage-filled channel and was implicated in cholera epidemics occurring in 1849, 1855, 1866, and 1873. For almost a hundred years the center of the new street featured a tree-lined park, until tram lines were installed in the 1970s. Now it features tree-lined tram tracks and numerous benches occupied by Krakow’s numerous gentlemen of leisure.
3. The Grzegórzecka Viaduct
The viaduct that carries the main southbound railway line over Grzegórzecka street was built between 1861 and 1863 and originally carried the tracks over the muddy channel of the Old Vistula. The current viaduct replaced a timber bridge built between 1854 and 1856.
The Grzegórzecka Viaduct today (2009)
The Grzegórzecka Viaduct in 1866, complete with cholera-infested river
4. Aleja Daszyńskiego
The eastern half of the course of the Old Vistula is today’s Aleja Daszyńskiego. Another broad tree-lined street leading down to the river.
Aleja Daszyńskiego today (2009)
5. Galeria Kazimierz
The point where the Old Vistula rejoined the Vistula proper is the present-day site of the Galeria Kazimierz shopping center. The backfilled space seems to have been underutilized for decades until the tide of modern consumerism swept into Poland in the 1990s.
Galeria Kazimierz in its full glory
—————————————————————————————————————————
A lot of old maps of Krakow
Some other Krakow history posts you might be interested in:
Ten Krakow buildings 100 years later
Podgórze Ghetto: Krakow – Off the beaten track
Krakow past and present
Schindler’s List Death Camp: Krakow – Off the beaten track
This is totally new for me: I have never imagine a river could get lost! Thanks for enlightening me. ;)
¡Saludos!
I can bet there is many people in kraków who have no idea there used to be a river there!
Very inteersting post!
Interesting.
What about this ‘planty’ thing that goes around the old town? Did that used to be a moat, city walls, or something more interesting than just a walkway? It looks like it has an ‘archaeologically interesting’ shape.
Yes, quite right! The Old City used to be surrounded by a city wall in the medieval times. The wall would run along the inner line of the Planty, while the outer line would be a bit of flat land, a moat and then a hill (looking at a section).
The wall was taken down in the C19th and the moat filled by order of the tsar (Franz I). The bricks were then used to build tennant houses and other buildings (the fortresses around Kraków?).
Only some parts and the north wall remain. Story has it, that during a council meeting/debate on the future of the wall and the order to tear it down, one of the ‘politicians’ (then or later mayor?) argued that the north wall must remain to avoid prostitutes from catching ilnesses……….
Gabriela: Happens all the time in Europe :) London is full of lost rivers, if you see what I mean.
Ansien: Krakow is full of people who have no idea there still is a river.
scatts: Walls certainly. You can see the outline of their foundations on the path around the planty. I’ve always assumed there must have been a moat too, but I’m not sure. There isn’t one in the 15th-century illustration.
I need to follow this trail when I’m in Krakow next time.
Planty replaced city walls demolished in the 19th century. What’s left of them is the immediate viccinity of Brama Floriańska. I don’t know about a moat though.
[...] writes about “Krakow's lost river.” Cancel this [...]
Another discover of America!
island1,
good you changed Grzegórzkich na Grzegórzecka (street) Viaduct, though Viaduct in polish is “he”, so it should be Grzegórzecki Viaduct. Really the best is Viaduct na Grzegórzkach, because Grzegórzki is a Cracow’s district.
If you learn harder polish you will find that ulica Starowiślna street means exactly ulica made from Stara Wisła / Old Vistula.
So your “losted” river isn’t another one, different river. It’s only the (second) arm of the river, which to often poured/spilled/ ran out of the river bed, so Dietl (Cracow’s XIX c. mayor) decided to change the run of the Vistula among other things by filling with the soil the second arm of Vistula.
Losted cracovian river is Młynówka Królewska/ King’s Mill river
http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C5%82yn%C3%B3wka_Kr%C3%B3lewska
(though it’s also said Młynówka is a part of Rudawa river). It’s interesting so many, that you can see it near to Wawel’s hill where you can go feed swans (winter) and seagulls (summer). At the bank the restaurant-ship is anchoring, before the Dębnicki bridge and down to Sheraton hotel, it comes through some bars. hahaha
This is part of hidden river, so sometimes you can find there dead bodies of too many curious people. Though I haven’t heard yet about some English drowned man there. :-(
Scatts,
as you can see in above mentioned www there were moats/fosy in the place of todays Planty. Those moats were powered by water of Młynówka river.
Almost every of the Middleaged towns and cities had got it’s moats before the defensive walls.
Another time I’m confessing without hitting: this Anonymus it’s me.
Probably that stupid ufoludek/alien made me so absent-minded that I forgot signature!
Don’t you show me as real Material Girl (suggest, lot of pink, blond and diamonds)? :-)
Geeee Anonymous, lose your patronising tone. Even more so, when you are not right. The fact that one part of a name is of masculine gender (Wiadukt) doesn’t mean that the second part has to be masculine as well. There are all sorts of causes for which it can be otherwise. For instance: second part of the name originating from yet another name (“Rondo Wiatraczna” not “Rondo Wiatraczne”); or local custom (as in “Rondo Babka” not “Rondo Babki”; “Wiadukt Franowo” not “Wiadukt Franowski”), or some other reason.
other examples: ul. Leszno, ul. Nowolipie
As we see even when Polish is someone’s first language, it doesn’t mean they know everything. Have some understanding for newcomers, who might get shivers seeing things like grzógrzkgrzchgż.
Paweł,
I’ve just talked about Cracow specification, not your Toruń or whatever! Read with understanding! (Go to some foreign language school, they are making test from reading understandig). I said: “Viaduct na Grzegórzkach” is the best.
Doesn’t exist Grzegórzecka Viaduct in Cracow!
I love it when Polish people argue about Polish, it’s a quintessentially Polish pastime.
Anonymous: In my defense I would say that this post is written in English and therefore follows the English style of referring to non-English place names. “Viaduct na Grzegórzkach” doesn’t make any sense to an English-speaking reader, “Grzegórzecka Viaduct” implies there is a viaduct on a street or in an area called “Grzegórzecka.”
Interesting information about the moats and the other lost river. I had certainly seen some other rivers on old maps that I’m interested in finding out more about. And yes, I did know that “ulica Starowiślna” means “Old Vistula street.” Many people believe it is called that because this street was the course of the Old Vistula, when you and I know it is because it was the route down to one of the bridges that crossed the Old Vistula.
island1,
you read this
http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:gx6GL_ETN_UJ:www.jakikazimierz.com/index.php%3Fs%3D2%26u%3D9+%22Starowi%C5%9Blna%22&cd=4&hl=pl&ct=clnk
but didn’t read this
http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:TjDqNgorp84J:polskalokalna.pl/wiadomosci/malopolskie/krakow/news/tajemnicza-starowislna,1185414+%22starowi%C5%9Blna%22&cd=18&hl=pl&ct=clnk
but the best: go to library, not everything in internet is true.
Anonymous, maybe you should “write with understanding” of what you’re writing about?
Let me quote you “Viaduct in polish is “he”, so it should be Grzegórzecki Viaduct.”
Were you or were not making a point about language?
PS. The place names I used here are in Warsaw and Poznań.
island1, I was defending you:P and you put me in one box with this rude person.. oh dear:) now i’m keeping my mouth shut:P
…Pawel replies with a startlingly unconventional move, a variation on the Poznan-Warsaw defense first used by Spassky ’63, and the young challenger is looking worried, his king in very real peril…
:P lol
Material Girl.
You are just annoying. Even more annoying than my “guest-liks”.
You are one of these girls who can talk all night long about nonsense, who know everything better and laugh about their own jokes, while all the other people are just pi$$ed or bored to death…
If Island, for example says “In the Polish alphabet there is the letter A” ,then you will say “NO Island !, in the Polsih alphabet there is also the letter B, C, D, E …and so on.”
(I hope you understand what i mean)
ps: (guest-liNks)
Traditionally, this is the point where someone calls for a moderator, and the Freedom of Speech vs. Good Manners flamewar ensues.
Anonymous was MaterialGirl. Okay, I’m a bit mentally slow today.
I call for a moderately large gin and tonic.
And MaterialGirl is island1 as once Scatts said. :-)
guest,
you are also annoying. You said that you quit Polandian. And you still here! :-)
Awesome. This blog entry would go great with a number of well-placed Geocaches highlighting the “lost” sections of river.
It doesn’t surprise me in the least that this has happened though: rivers are chaotic and it is typical for cities to “straighten them out” when and where necessary.
Brad: In fact I believe the Old Vistula was a man-made branch of the river dug centuries ago as a defensive measure. Obviously it was no longer useful in this respect by the 19th century.
I read this post about a year ago, and thought it was interesting at the time, but it slipped from my mind.
Now, of course, I find that I am living 30 seconds from the viaduct and that my wife and I walk our dog quite often in the park area on Aleja Daszynskiego, it takes on more relevance!
iaUtmi http://fnYwlOpd2n9t4Vx6A3lbk.com