Kazimierz 604593 224144984 2008-07-07T14:57:25Z Elan26 7035225 /* Jewish part */ :''This article is about a district of Kraków. For other meanings of "Kazimierz" see [[Kazimierz (disambiguation)]]'' {{seealso|Casimir}} [[Image:Kazimierz 07797.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Jewish children in front of Corpus Christi church sometime before [[1939]].]] '''Kazimierz''' ([[Latin]]: '''Casimiria'''; [[Yiddish]] '''Kuzmir''') is a historical district of [[Kraków]] ([[Poland]]), best known for being home to a [[Jew]]ish community from the [[14th century]] until the [[Second World War]]. ==Early History== [[Image:Krakow Synagoga Wysoka 20071010 1659.jpg|thumb|right|High Synagogue]] [[Image:Corpus Cristi Church Cracow.JPG|thumb|Corpus Christi Church]] The district of Kazimierz in Krakow is defined by the old shores of an island in the [[Vistula]] river. The northern branch of the river (Stara Wisła - Old Vistula) was filled in at the end of the 19th century, connecting Kazimierz with Krakow proper. Three early medieval settlements are known to have existed on the island. The most important of these was the [[Slavic mythology|pre-Christian Slavic]] shrine at [[Skałka]] (“the rock”) at the western, upstream tip of the island. This site, with its sacred pool, was later Christianised as the Church of St. [[Michael (archangel)|Michael the Archangel]] in the 11th century and was the legendary site of the martyrdom of [[Stanislaus of Szczepanów|St. Stanisław]]. There was a nearby noble manor complex to the southeast and an important cattle-market town of Bawół, possibly based on an old tribal Slavic [[gord (Slavic settlement)|gród]], at the edges of the habitable land near the swamps that composed the eastern, downstream end of the island. There was also a much smaller island upstream of Kazimierz known as the “Tartar Island” after the [[Tartar]] cemetery there. This smaller island has since washed away. On 27 March [[1335]], King [[Casimir III of Poland]] (''Kazimierz'' in Polish) declared the two western settlements to be a new city named "Casimiria" (later “Kazimierz”) after him. Shortly thereafter, in 1340, Bawół was also added, making the new city’s boundaries the same as the island. King Casimir gave his city streets in accordance with [[Magdeburg law]] and, in 1362, defensive walls. His settled the newly-built central section primarily with burghers, with a plot set aside for the [[Augustinian]] order next to Skałka. He also began work on a campus for the [[Cracow Academy]] he founded in 1364, but Casimir died in 1370 and the campus was never completed. Perhaps the most important feature of medieval Kazimierz was the ''Pons Regalis'', the only major, permanent bridge across the Vistula for several centuries. This bridge connected Krakow via Kazimierz to the [[Wieliczka Salt Mine]] and the lucrative Hungarian trade route. The last bridge at this location (at the end of modern Stradom Street) was dismantled in 1880 when the filling in of the Old Vistula river bed made it obsolete. ==Jewish Kazimierz== [[Image:Kazimierz Alte Schul 07799.jpg|thumb|right|Interior of the Old Synagogue of Kazimierz before [[1939]].]] [[Image:IsaacSynagogue1.JPG|thumb|right|Interior of Isaac Synagogue]] Jews had played an important role in the Kraków region economy since the end thirteenth century. The Jewish community in Kraków had lived undisturbed alongside their Christian neighbours under the protective King Kazimierz III. By the reign of King [[Jogaila]] (reigned in Poland 1386-1434), however, relations had deteriorated and [[pogroms]] began to occur with increasing frequency. As part of the re-founding of the [[Cracow Academy]], starting in 1400, the Academy began to buy out buildings in the old Jewish district. The Jewish community moved to the area around modern Plac Szczepański. During last the decade of the fifteenth century [[anti-Semitism]] led many Jews moving out of Kraków to nearby Kazimierz<ref name="Carter">Francis William Carter Trade and Urban Development in Poland: An Economic Geography of Cracow, from Its Origins to 1795 [[Cambridge University Press]], 1994, p.71</ref>. In 1494 a disastrous fire destroyed large part of Kraków. Raging populace soon attacked Jews blaming fire on them. In [[1495]] the Polish king [[John I Albert of Poland]] expelled all Jews from Kraków, resettling them to the old Bawół district of Kazimierz. For its own defence against Christian raids, the [[Shtadlan|kahal]] petitioned the Kazimierz town council for the right to build its own interior wall, cutting across the western end of the older defensive walls in 1553. Due to the growth of the community, the walls were expanded again in 1608. Later requests to expand the walls were turned down. The area between the walls was known as the ''Oppidum Judaeorum'', the Jewish City, which represented only about one fifth of the geographical area of Kazimierz, but nearly half of its inhabitants. The Oppidum became the main spiritual and cultural centre of Polish Jewry, hosting many of Poland’s finest Jewish scholars, artists and craftsmen. Among its famous inhabitants were the [[Talmudist]] [[Moses Isserles]], the [[Kabbalah|Kabbalist]] Natan Szpiro, and the royal physician Shmuel bar Meshulam. The golden age of the Oppidum came to an end in 1782, when the Austrian Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] disbanded the kahal. In 1822, the walls were torn down, removing any physical reminder of the old borders between Jewish and Christian Kazimierz. In [[1791]], Kazimierz lost its status as a separate city and became a district of Kraków. The richer Jewish families quickly moved out of the overcrowded streets of eastern Kazimierz. Because of the injunction against travel on the [[Shabbat|Sabbath]], however, most Jewish families stayed relatively close to the historic synagogues in the old Oppidum, maintaining Kazimierz’s reputation as a “Jewish district” long after the concept ceased to have any administrative meaning. By the 1930s, Kraków had 120 officially registered synagogues and prayer houses scattered across the city and much of Jewish intellectual life had moved to new centres like [[Podgórze]]. In a tourist guide published in 1935, [[Meir Balaban]], a [[Reform Judaism|Reform rabbi]] and professor of History at the University of Warsaw, lamented that the Jews who remained in the once vibrant Oppidum were “only the poor and the ultra-conservative.” However, this same exodus was the reason why most of the buildings in the Oppidum are preserved today in something close to their 18th century shape. Views of pre-war Kazimierz can be seen in the opening scenes of the classic, [[Yiddish]] movie, ''Yidl mitn Fidl'', or ''[http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0027231/ Yidl with His Fiddle]'' ([[Yiddish]]: יידל מיטן פֿידל), which was filmed in 1936, directed by [[Joseph Green (actor)|Joseph Green]] and [[Jan Nowina-Przybylski]], and stars [[Molly Picon]]. During the Second World War, the Jews of Krakow, including those in Kazimierz, were forced by the [[Nazism|Nazis]] into a crowded [[ghetto]] in Podgórze, across the river. Most of them were later killed during the liquidation of the ghetto or in [[death camp]]s. ==Post-War Kazimierz== After the Second World War, Kazimierz became a backwater area with a reputation for being unsafe at night. At least one synagogue building was torn apart by scavengers seeking hidden Jewish treasure. Many old buildings were not repaired and became empty shells. However, since 1988, a popular annual [[Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków|Jewish Cultural Festival]] has drawn Cracovians back to the heart of the Oppidum and re-introduced Jewish culture to a generation of Poles who have grown up without Poland’s historic Jewish community. In [[1993]], [[Steven Spielberg]] shot his film ''[[Schindler's List]]'' largely in Kazimierz (in spite of the fact that very little of the action historically took place there) and this drew international attention to Kazimierz. Since 1993, there have been parallel developments in the restoration of important historic sites in Kazimierz and a booming growth in Jewish-themed restaurants, bars, bookstores and souvenir shops. A Jewish youth group now meets weekly in Kazimierz and the [[Remuh Synagogue]] actively serves a small congregation of mostly elderly Cracovian Jews. ==Sights== [[Image:Kazimierz-map.jpg|333px|thumb|right|Map of Kazimierz]] ===Christian part=== 1. Market Square (Wolnica) with a town hall, now housing an ethnographic museum <br> 2. [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] St Catherine's Church <br> 3. Gothic Corpus Christi Church <br> 4. [[Baroque]] Church on the Rock ([[Skałka]]), the site of [[Saint Stanislaus]]'s martyrdom<br> ===Jewish part=== 6. [[Old Synagogue (Kraków)|Old Synagogue]], now housing a Jewish History museum <br> 7. [[Remuh Synagogue]], still active <br> 8. [[High Synagogue (Kraków)|High Synagogue]] <br> 9. [[Izaak Synagogue]] <br> 10. [[Kupah Synagogue]] <br> 11. [[Tempel Synagogue]], still active <br> 12. [[Old Jewish Cemetery in Krakow]] ==See also== *[[Kraków Ghetto]] ==External links== * [http://www.jewishfestival.pl/index.php?lang=e/ The Jewish Cultural Festival] in Krakow * [http://www.galiciajewishmuseum.org/ The Galicia Jewish Museum] ==References== {{reflist}} *Bałaban, Majer ''Przewodnik po żydowskich zabytkach Krakowa'' Krakow: B'nei B'rith, 1935. *Bałaban, Majer ''Historja Żydów w Krakowie i na Kazimierzu, 1304-1868'' (Vol. I, II) Krakow: KAW, 1991. (reprint) *Burek, Edward (ed.) ''Encyklopedia Krakowa''. Krakow: PWM, 2000. *Michalik, Marian (ed.) ''Kronika Krakowa''. Krakow: Kronika, 2006. *Simpson, Scott ''Krakow'' Cambridge: Thomas Cook, 2006. *Świszczowski, Stefan ''Miasto Kazimierz pod Krakowem'' Krakow: WLK, 1981. {{Kraków}} {{coor title dms|50|03|06|N|19|56|41|E|region:PL_type:landmark_source:dewiki}} [[Category:Historic Jewish communities]] [[Category:Jewish communities]] [[Category:Jewish ghettos in Europe]] [[Category:Jewish Polish history]] [[Category:Kraków]] [[Category:Polish culture]] [[de:Kazimierz]] [[fr:Kazimierz]] [[it:Kazimierz]] [[no:Kazimierz]] [[pl:Kazimierz (Kraków)]] [[fi:Kazimierz]] [[sv:Kazimierz]]