Medieval Krakow

In the Middle Ages, Krakow was one of Central Europe’s greatest cities: a thriving crossroads of kings, merchants and legends, crowned by a royal castle and haunted by tales of dragons. But in 1241, catastrophe arrived. Mongol armies swept in from the east, devastating the region and reducing Krakow to ashes. Yet from the ruins, the city would rise again, stronger and grander than before. Join Dan on a journey to uncover Krakow’s extraordinary medieval story - exploring its castles, streets and legends to discover how invasion, destruction and remarkable resilience forged one of Europe’s most magnificent cities. If you'd like to visit any of the locations in this episode, you can visit https://visitmalopolska.pl/en_GB https://www.visitmalopolska.pl for more information The Wieliczka Salt Mine at https://www.wieliczka-saltmine.com/ The Rynek Underground Museum: https://muzeumkrakowa.pl/en/branches/rynek-underground For more information about visiting Wawel Castle, search https://wawel.krakow.pl/en This episode was made in association with the Polish National Tourist Office, with huge thanks to Mirosław Bartyzel, Dorota Wojciechowska and the Malopolska Tourism Organisation. Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore. Dan Snow's History Hit is a History Hit podcast. History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 00

  It was a world of kings and queens, knights and castles.

• 0:38Speaker 00

  It's a world in which people talked of dragons and magic.

• 0:43Speaker 00

  At its heart stood Krakow, a city in modern-day Poland.

• 0:49Speaker 00

  In the Middle Ages, Krakow was one of the great cities of Central Europe, a crossroads between the Baltic world, the German lands, the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, with trade routes stretching east towards the Kievan Rus and the Black Sea. It was a city of bustling market squares and cobbled lanes, merchant caravans, church bells, the sparking Vistula River, and the towering royal castle high on a promontory. Beneath that, according to the legend, a dragon lay in wait. In the 13th century, Krakow must have seemed as close to a fairy tale as anywhere on earth, much as it still does today. But like all fairy tales, there is threat, there is a dark twist in this city's story.

• 1:36Speaker 00

  In 1241, an enemy appeared on the horizon to threaten the kingdom. From the east came the Tartars, what we now commonly call the Mongols, their hungry eyes set on Europe. They tore through burning towns and settlements, leaving a wake of destruction in their path as they headed west. Medieval chroniclers thought it was the end of days. These were the horsemen of the apocalypse.

• 2:04Speaker 00

  These Mongols reduced Krakow to ashes. But from the ruins, heroes emerged, determined to rebuild the city grander than ever before. Krakow would rise again, this time stronger and more powerful, the magnificent iteration of the city that we still see today. This is one of Europe's most dramatic medieval stories, and in this episode of Dan Snow's History, we're going to tell it properly. As I always say, the best place to understand history is to go to the place where it happened. So join us on a summer adventure to Poland as we trace the rise, destruction, and rebirth of one of medieval Europe's greatest cities.

• 3:07Speaker 00

  Well, friends, summer has arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere, and there is nothing better to do on a summer's day. Let me tell you, this is a fact, you can take this one to the bank. There is nothing better to do than get off a train or a plane and head into the heart of a medieval city, right into its core, where surrounded by ancient buildings and street bars and cafes and kids frolicking in fountains. You have to choose between a museum or a church to hit first, a little castle, or perhaps have your first beer on the continent. And I'm here now with Emma Janiger, medieval powerhouse, internet sensation, host of our sister podcast Gone Medieval. And surprise, surprise, Emma and I have chosen the latter.

• 3:52Speaker 00

  We've chosen to go straight to the beer. Emma, how are you doing?

• 3:54Speaker 01

  I'm doing great. I'm about to be better the moment that first Polish beer hits my lips, I'll tell you that much.

• 4:01Speaker 00

  Okay, I've now attracted the wait's attention. We are on the main market square here. How do we pronounce this?

• 4:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, Ryniek Gówny.

• 4:10Speaker 00

  Okay, so that's good. Because actually, among your astonishing list of achievements is the fact you are a Central European. When you want to be, you're presented as a Central European.

• 4:20Speaker 01

  That's absolutely right, you know. And it is one of these funny things where I genuinely feel that when I get off the plane and I'm surrounded by the Baroque architecture. I can hear Slavic language and I can see delicious beer. I do very much feel if I'm...

• 4:35Speaker 00

  The Czech part of your ancestry comes out.

• 4:36Speaker 01

  It comes popping out to the surface.

• 4:39Speaker 00

  And we love that. Just going to get a quick beer.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  Okay, all the... Proponi tia?

• 4:44Speaker 01

  Pro proze dwa druze piva? Perfectny.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  Look at that. We're off to a flying start. Two beers ordered. Emma Janiger, you legend. Let's get into it. While waiting for it to arrive, can we get a sense of the period of Europe? We're in the 12th century, so people will be perhaps a little bit more familiar with England and France at this time. We've got those Plantagenets trying to hold on to that empire that you and I talked about many times, that trans channel, Onjuval Empire. But what's going on in this part of Europe? Who are the big players? Is this part of a big political unit, a big empire, or is it a small city-state? What's going on?

• 5:22Speaker 01

  So the Poles are a really scrappy bunch, and they're incredibly interesting because they're very wealthy. This is an incredibly wealthy part of the world because it's very, very fertile. So this is one of those big bread baskets for the surrounding region. It's also incredibly well-located for the purposes of trade. And of course, you know, at this point in time, we're in what you call the High Medieval Period. So stuff's going pretty well, right? We're seeing the expansion of cities, expansions of populations more generally, and increasing trade with the East. And Krakow and Poland more generally are very well situated in order to take advantage of that because they are a really great crossroads for stuff that is coming out of the East.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  And that, I don't mean just Asia here, but also like the Rus, which is increasingly important. And that is a big place where you get a lot of fur from. You know, I'm always talking about how important wool is in the medieval period because there's no central heating. Yeah, in cold places, fur is really important.

• 6:25Speaker 00

  Super material.

• 6:26Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And so you're going to want to have that as well. And so the Poles are in this really incredible position because of all of these incredible natural resources. But they're also rubbing up cheek by jowl against some pretty major power players as well, which can often put them at a disadvantage.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  So to our west, what, the German lands, Holy Roman Empire?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  Yes, Holy Roman Empire. And I'll tell you what, those guys are nothing if not rapacious. If you think they're not eyeing up Poland regularly, you know, think again. And then on the other side, suddenly, especially in this period, sweeping in off of the steppes of Asia, we have the Mongols. And this is a really interesting point because, yeah, listen, I'll be real, the steppes are pretty far away, but you'd be surprised how far you can get on horseback, right? Mongols show up because they want to amalgamate you into the Pax Mongolica, into their trade empire.

• 7:24Speaker 00

  So this is almost like a hinge point of Eurasia. We've got these Slavic, we've got Mongol civilizations to the east, we've got...

• 7:33Speaker 01

  There's Hungarians. We should mention the Hungarians, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Poland isn't Poland as such. You know, in the same way where there are two different states that now comprise the Czech Republic, Bohemia and Moravia, same thing here in Poland. So it's also this place that is continuously growing. It is eating other lands that are next to it, yes, but Krakow itself is the center of this incredibly important locality. Krakow is indeed one of those cities that you will see show up, for example, on medieval map of Mundi, right? Everybody knows where Krakow is, and they're going to say that is the center of trade. That is somewhere that is literally on the map.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  So Milan, Paris, London, Krakow, this would be seen as, there's nothing different about this?

• 8:16Speaker 01

  Absolutely not.

• 8:17Speaker 00

  So we're on the Vistula River, and that's why it's an obvious place for a settlement here? Like, it's geographically, it's a perfect place?

• 8:23Speaker 01

  Absolutely. You know, rivers are one of the really important things in terms of trading and shipping. The fastest way to move any good in the medieval world is by boat. So moving things up and down the Vistula is incredibly worthwhile.

• 8:40Speaker 00

  So at the beginning of the 12th century, say Krakow, is this a world that would be recognizable to those people who listen to your podcast, fans of the equivalent period in England and France? Is it a world of magnates and royal authority?

• 8:51Speaker 01

  Absolutely, which is one of the reasons why I'm always surprised that people aren't more interested in Poland because maybe, do you want castles? Do you want huge noble families? Do you want all of the clashing back and forth? They are absolutely doing that here. And in particular, there is one incredible important castle, which is Wawel Castle, here near Krakow. And so of course, if you have a very important trade center, very important trade routes, you're also going to have a castle because there's going to be some rich guys who want to take advantage of that, right? So you've got to build a castle so that you can protect that trade route and also so that you can tax people who are using it.

• 9:29Speaker 00

  So it's a world of wealth and commerce, but also threat and violence and...

• 9:33Speaker 01

  Absolutely. You know, it is the same here as anywhere. Fundamentally, this is a world where we've got one class of people who have a monopoly on illicit violence, right, the nobility. And if you can be the people who are the arbiters of who can raise an army, who is the protector of the church? And does the church need protecting? Yeah, they're going to argue absolutely that they do. Who knows when the terrible pagan, they always say, Mongol hordes are going to come sweeping in, and someone is going to literally need to protect the church. So that helps the nobility to really rise to power and build these incredible castles because people see a need for that.

• 10:13Speaker 00

  Emma, it's so beautiful here, and in a way, this is one of the best-preserved medieval European cities.

• 10:20Speaker 01

  100%. Like, there is a reason why I was taught this as an American at university level, right? And it's because you can come here and you can actually see these things in action. And, you know, this is why I moved to Europe, was to be able to come to places like Krakow and to really experience it because until you really put your feet on the ground and you can walk from the cloth hall to the various churches and really see it, you can't quite process how magical it really is.

• 10:53Speaker 00

  So Krakow was one of the most important cities, not just in the Kingdom of Poland, but of Europe in the 12th century. Beneath the great Wawel Castle on the hill was a bustling merchant town. Its streets lined with workshops, market stalls and timber houses, connected to trade routes stretching across Central Europe and beyond. Outside that, there were suburbs and scattered settlements into the surrounding countryside. And it was this lower town, this commercial town, that would bear the brunt of the Mongol invasion when it arrived. And today, we can get a sense of what that version of Krakow looked like, because beneath the cobbles of the main market square, where Eleanor and I sat, there's a very curious museum, which preserves the remains of the original old city that were once buried beneath

• 11:37Speaker 00

  the modern street level, after centuries of debris, flood and fire. It was excavated between 2005 and 2010, during routine surface modernisation of the main market square, and archaeologists uncovered medieval roads, market stalls and a cemetery beneath the square. Now, visitors can still see and walk alongside the original medieval Silk Road, see the foundations of shops and workshops, as well as the artefacts that give us a sense of what this powerful trading hub would have been like before the Mongol attack.

• 12:10Speaker 00

  Eleanor, I now see why I couldn't find you. Look, we're standing on this amazing map, this kind of relief model map of Europe, and look, Krakow's in the middle.

• 12:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:20Speaker 00

  I mean, this is, even allowing for a little local prejudice, it does seem like a really important place.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  It absolutely is. Now, granted, Prague's there too.

• 12:28Speaker 00

  Yes, of course.

• 12:29Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 12:30Speaker 00

  I thought you meant to say...

• 12:31Speaker 01

  But it is really interesting, because what it does show you are these major trade routes throughout Europe. And you can see up the top, we've got the North Sea and the Baltic Trade Route coming out of London.

• 12:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's a huge crossroads of medieval Europe. And you can start to understand, I mean, the quality of the jewellery, the goods, the shoes that you can see that have been excavated here, this was a boomtown.

• 12:54Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. And I think that's a really great way of putting it. It's this place that is expanding very, very quickly, as a result of these incredibly advantageous conditions, and as a result of the crown just pouring money into it.

• 13:07Speaker 00

  Good geography and then good governance.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  Hundred percent. That's what it takes sometimes, is it just takes investment.

• 13:14Speaker 00

  Let's drag ourselves away from this map, because we both like that.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 13:17Speaker 00

  Okay. Because actually, this is exciting to me. You've got, we've actually got evidence of a road system here.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  Right?

• 13:23Speaker 00

  We've got the cobbles. Am I being a bit overromantic? But this is the Silk Road.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  I mean, this is the literal Silk Road. I'm going to touch it. Oh, I did it. But it is true, because when you are building these roads, I think that there is this idea, there's a stereotypical idea that every single road in the Middle Ages is just this muddy pit. No, they have these well-engineered roads that can last centuries. These have survived, just, you know, they've been buried, right? But still, that architecture is in there. This is civic architecture that has been engineered and has managed to last. And it would have carried wagons all the way coming from Asia. These are the cobbles that horses would have trod upon.

• 14:02Speaker 00

  Merchants know you are going to be able to get in and out of town, there's going to be no holdup. This is, you can't underestimate how important this infrastructure is, I guess.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  Oh, that's absolutely the case. You know, time is money, and the actual travelling is the thing that really costs people. So that's why goods that come all the way from Asia are as expensive as they are, because maybe that's a really long way, right? So if you have to actually put this stuff on a camel or a horse, and you've got to walk it across Asia, then you're going to want to know that these routes are as secure as possible. So that means that cobbled roads and things, that's your open for business, you are a place that you can get into and out of easily.

• 14:36Speaker 00

  Frictionless trade, man. Now, there's another nice map of actually the city itself. You can hear the sound effects of this, the mandatory sound effects of a European museum, the horse jangling. So we're looking at the map, very smartly laid out. Talk me through the town that springs up around that trade. What's the key elements of a town?

• 14:52Speaker 01

  Okay, we literally have a boring academic term for the key elements of a town. It's called a criterionbundel, because it's auf Deutsch. And one of the very big things that you need is a defensible series of walls, which is what you're going to see. That's number one, because you need to be able to protect the town, protect trade. You need a marketplace where varying goods are sold, and you need various centres of worship. So not just one church, you need churches, babe, right? And then also, for something to be a city, you need an actual cathedral. It is a technical term. If you are not the centre of the church in the area, then you are not a city, you're just a town.

• 15:31Speaker 00

  The cathedral's the seat of a bishop, right?

• 15:33Speaker 01

  That's right, that's right.

• 15:34Speaker 00

  And so the bishop is running that locale from this cathedral.

• 15:37Speaker 01

  That's correct, yeah.

• 15:38Speaker 00

  Okay. And what about the different structure of society? Because we've got evidence over here of some of the slightly more simple dwellings, thatch roofs, made of wooden logs. Is that wealth being distributed through society? Are they all servicing this trade?

• 15:52Speaker 01

  Well, they are all servicing this trade. I mean, city is going to include everybody, right? Because, yeah, you've got some merchants who are probably the top strata of society, they're the ones who are making all of the cash. And in cities, they are, you know, we use the term patrician, right? These are going to be the people who get elected mayor, stuff like that. But then, you know, who is going to make their shoes? You're going to have cobblers. Who is going to make horse shoes? You're going to have blacksmiths. There's going to be all these people that have to serve the local economy. You know, someone's got to bake the bread, right? There are going to be bakers. And there is a lot of money to be made on those lower echelons as well. You live a pretty decent standard of life, actually.

• 16:30Speaker 00

  Because there's a blacksmith, there's a reconstruction of a smithy over here. And, you know, those wagons, those horses throwing shoes.

• 16:36Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 16:37Speaker 00

  Each place like this, actually, the merchants are going to be spending money, they need to keep the trade rolling. Now, I'm just going to trigger you here, because I enjoy doing it, but obviously, from Hollywood and the movies, the medieval period, it's muddy, it's grey, it's brown. There seems to be like a special filter they put on the front of the camera. What's your impression? What do you think life would have been like in Krakow?

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Okay, so, I mean, let's be perfectly honest, before we invent plumbing, things are a little bit weirder. And it wouldn't be my personal choice to live in that situation, but we don't do that until the 19th century. So it's strange that we always treat the medieval period as uniquely weird and dirty. But fundamentally, it is not as gross as people say. You know, there's that old myth that people would just take their chamber pots and throw them out the window and just say, "Look out below." I have no idea where that myth came from, but there are laws on the books about that. Just imagine, would you do that? Would you do that? You wouldn't, you wouldn't. I mean, people are not monsters, people understand what hygiene is, nobody wants to be covered in poo, right? So there are plenty of laws about that.

• 17:38Speaker 01

  However, there are stuff like horses that are moving back and forth through the city all the time. So, yeah, manure is going to be more of a feature of your daily life. These are serious people who are thinking about sanitation, and you will have people who are called night soilmen, that come and they will take away all of the sewage and take it out to the countryside on a regular basis. So there is basic sanitation happening all of the time. It is not as good as the sanitation we have now, but nothing is, right?

• 18:07Speaker 00

  How would this compare to, say, London or York, do you think?

• 18:09Speaker 01

  I love the city of York, but it is just fundamentally true that Krakow is larger. It's got a larger population, it's got a larger circuit of walls. And the other thing is that there is more coming in to Krakow than there is coming into York. The thing about Norwich, London and York, our biggest cities in the medieval period in England, is they are mostly for getting goods out.

• 18:29Speaker 00

  Right.

• 18:30Speaker 01

  Right? It's more about taking wool and moving it out into the world. Krakow is a centre, there's a lot more things going both ways, and that's the difference.

• 18:36Speaker 00

  And we can imagine, the languages being spoken on these streets.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 18:40Speaker 00

  It's just, there's people coming in from north, east, south and west.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  I would not be surprised to walk out on the streets of medieval Krakow and hear at least five languages.

• 18:47Speaker 00

  Would that be reflected in the different kind of foods and drinks available here?

• 18:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. So here, you're going to have more hot options of what to eat. You know, I'll tell you what, medieval people, one of the big things that they do as a flex is they love to put spices in things. So they'll just be like, "Oh, it's got ginger, it's got garlic, it's got paprika, it's got pepper." Because one of the things that they're showing is, "I have access to all of these incredible spices." So they spice their food in this really outrageous way. Like, our taste buds would be blown up by it, it's just absolutely crazy. We are going to see a pretty bread-heavy culture, that's certainly true.

• 19:23Speaker 00

  Nothing wrong with that.

• 19:25Speaker 01

  You get that really lovely rye bread, that is a part, still a very important part of a central and eastern European diets. Lots of meat. This is a known pork-producing region, and they have really fine pigs, which is kind of like a big deal in the medieval period, everybody likes to eat pork, right? But you're also going to have lots of fish that are coming in from the coast, and crabs as well, that is something that gets shipped down very regularly. And, you know, it is one of those things, the big difference is going to be vegetables, right? A lot of the times, when we think about vegetables now, you know, there's no such thing as a potato, there's no such thing as a tomato, all of these things have to come from the New World. So, you know, you're going to see a lot more cabbages, I love to see it, baby, and things of this nature.

• 20:06Speaker 01

  But fundamentally, it is quite a sophisticated world of food. Actually, there's a bit I really want to show you over here, because of course I do. There's a cemetery that they found as well, which, it's not that surprising to see this in the middle of a city, because, well, you have to put your dead people somewhere, right? And there are lots of churches, which means there's lots of churchyards, and that means that you're going to find cemetery. So they found a lot of burials in this area. But of course, for me, because I like to get spooky with it, one of the things that I was really interested in is they found a bunch of what we would call deviant burials.

• 20:44Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  So the normal burial that you would expect to find in a grave is somebody laying on their back, and they're going to have their arms crossed over their chest. But they have found a bunch of burials, particularly of women, about six of them, who are buried on their side in a fetal position. And they are characterizing these, the word they are using is as vampire burials. So sometimes if someone was suspected that they may come back as, you know, we would use the word vampire, medieval people used to call them the revenant dead. So, you know, you would kind of like get up out of your grave and then do something, terrorize the living.

• 21:20Speaker 00

  The living dead, yeah.

• 21:21Speaker 01

  And then there would be these stories then that you go and then you dig up the grave of whoever did that and you find that they are like, they've got a mouthful of blood and they're still looking very fresh. So in those cases, you would do different things to stop them from coming back out. Sometimes that would be decapitating them and putting their skull between their legs. Sometimes it's putting a rock in their mouth, things of this nature. But we have these 11th century burials where they are burying them in the fetal position. Do we know exactly why? No, but we can guess that burying them in this way means that there was some worry that they were going to come back. And in particular with these burials, we do find that they are in the fetal position, which could mean anything, but we know that it is probably a deviant burial.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  There's some worry about them being revenant because their hands are also bound with rope. So how are you going to get out of this one, young lady, right? And this is quite interesting for a burials in the 11th century. You tend to see more of this in the early modern period, actually. If you said to me, oh, this is in the 17th century, I'd be like, oh yeah, absolutely, that happens all the time. 11th century, really unusual, very cool.

• 22:27Speaker 00

  We're looking at a Christian burial, but it feels superstitious to me. There's little pagis in surviving.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  Listen, Christians can have a little superstition as a treat, right? And so we do see that there are these ideas of what can happen with bodies. And certainly we see, for example, monks write this down as well. So that isn't necessarily a barrier to having these superstitious thoughts. And, you know, indeed, you're growing up in this world that is heavily, heavily religious. You're constantly being told Bible stories and people are always trying to sort of map on what is happening in their lives with these particular religious and superstitious stories. So for example, when you have the Mongols attack, a lot of people will think, oh, well, this must be a sign of the end times, right? This must be the end of the world. They identify the Mongols as we call them, the hordes of Gog and Magog, who are so supposed

• 23:16Speaker 01

  to be released during the apocalypse. And so if you are raised to expect the end of the world, you're raised to expect, yeah, people can come back from the dead. When things start happening, it is a very human response to just sort of try to line those things up.

• 23:33Speaker 00

  On the horizon, invaders were coming.

• 23:37Speaker 00

  In 1234, the Mongols from the Eurasian steppe descend on Europe in a quest to dominate trade routes, force tribute and expand their empire. Their armies left a wake of destruction.

• 23:54Speaker 00

  Survivors described pyramids of skulls. Horsemen appeared and disappeared at supernatural speed. Populations were massacred, towns annihilated.

• 24:05Speaker 00

  To the Christian Europeans, it seemed like the end of days. One of the most important Western European chroniclers of the Mongol invasions, Matthew Paris, described it, he calls them the Tartars, saying that these savage destroyers were a detestable nation of Satan. The first Mongol invasion, because there were several, began with the destruction of the cities in Rus, modern day Ukraine, Belarus and Western Russia. In 1240, Kiev fell. The Rus principalities were unable to withstand the speed of the Mongol cavalry, the precision of their mounted archery, the strict discipline that would prove unmatched time and again over the centuries, overwhelming these Europeans in the West to the Chinese and Koreans in the East.

• 24:50Speaker 00

  On 1241, they set their sights on Hungary and planned their advance through Poland. Their aim was to prevent the Poles helping the Hungarians dividing European resistance. The Mongols moved with extraordinary speed on horseback, gathering intelligence, terrorizing cities. Remember, at that point, Poland isn't one unified country. It's divided into duchies, meaning coordinated resistance is difficult. And as the Mongols pushed further west, panic spread. Reliable information became harder to get. Every retelling amplified the terror, which of course was a key tactic of the Mongols, exemplary violence to head off future resistance. Many fled, leaving the path to Krakow relatively open.

• 25:33Speaker 00

  The people of Krakow had heard of the force barreling towards them. They knew what was coming. They'd heard of other towns and cities destroyed along the way. In March 1241, it was their turn. The Mongols arrived.

• 26:04Speaker 00

  Every hour on the hour, a trumpeter appears in the Tower of St Mary's Basilica in central Krakow. I'm standing in the shadow of that tower now and you're about to hear that tune played. It will play it four times facing in four different directions. There's the bell tolling, he's about to come out.

• 26:27Speaker 00

  There he is playing now, and the legend goes that a watchman standing high in this tower saw the Mongol army thundering towards the city. And he began to play this tune to warn the townspeople and that raised the alarm, that the whole point was to man the defenses and close the gates. But before he could finish the tune, a Mongol arrow struck him in the throat. The trumpet fell from the lips of the watchman and look, you can just hear, the trumpeter has stopped mid-tune. Maintain that tradition to keep it alive, to remind us of that original watchman who was shot, warning his fellow citizens that the Mongols were approaching.

• 27:09Speaker 00

  Now, it's pretty hard to know how much this story is true. Whether that bugler, whether that watchman died sounding the alarm, sadly, it remains a mystery, it remains a powerful myth. But it's a great example of how legend has come inseparable from the history of this period. Now, what we do know about this invasion is that before the alarm was raised, before that bugle call, if you like, thankfully for the city dwellers, they had had a warning of the approach of the Mongol army and many of them had fled to nearby forests and swamps, fled into the countryside. Others fled up to the strongest defended, the most fortified part of the city, which was Vavol Castle up on the hill.

• 27:52Speaker 00

  I'm approaching the walls of the castle now and they are towering above me, angled up from where I'm standing, a mass of red brick with battlements, crenellated turrets above me, watchtowers on all the points. It's not just a castle, this is a sort of giant defense and administrative complex on this outcrop. And it's interesting because beyond the walls, there's big buildings, government buildings, administrative buildings, that are the spires of religious buildings, cathedral in fact, the royal apartments here, there's a palace. If the town square where I've come from is the commercial and social heart of the city,

• 28:31Speaker 00

  well, up here is the religious, governmental and military stronghold, that is for sure. It's clear that whoever commanded these walls, well, they were a man of immense status and power and importance. The High Duke of Krakow was the king in his own domain. Just look at that massive tower ahead of me now, it's enormous. I'm just imagining the medieval visitors who'd made their way through the muddy streets below, through the higgly piggly houses, the hubbub of the commercial city, arriving up here, more rarefied air, much grander architecture, a very different experience indeed.

• 29:14Speaker 00

  But I should point out that this is the result of centuries of building, right up until the present day. So in the 13th century high medieval period, it certainly didn't look like this, but just the position alone was spectacular and it would have been an amazingly imposing sight. It's very interesting, just in one glimpse, you can take in the Romanesque foundations of a building, the Gothic, the Baroque, the Renaissance, they're all packed in beside each other, it's just absolutely heavenly spot. So what I want to do is meet up with Yolanda Shalom, she's an archaeologist, she's going to help me to understand what was up here when the Mongols arrived, that key moment in the 13th century, when this powerful fortress was able to withstand one of the most potent military formations that the world has ever seen.

• 30:03Speaker 00

  Jolanta, jak się masz?

• 30:05Speaker 02

  Dobrze.

• 30:05Speaker 00

  Cieszę się, że mnie spotkałeś tu w castlecie.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  Dzięki za przyjście. Oczywiście jest to dla mnie przyjemne, by explice polską historię.

• 30:13Speaker 00

  Podoba mi się nauka. Stojimy w sercu ogromnego castleka, zbudowanego przez wieczory. Spektakularne. Jak wyglądło, gdy Mongi zasięgły na nim?

• 30:23Speaker 02

  Nie było tak wielkościowo jak teraz, oczywiście. Bo to był tylko jeden ruch z castleka, stojący w northernnej części, z kościołem włącznie. Wyglądało jak mała świątka w tamtym czasie. Oczywiście był okrącony przez ściany z torami.

• 30:44Speaker 00

  Czyli miał motę, torę i ścianę?

• 30:47Speaker 02

  Torę i ścianę. Zbudowany od 10. wieku, od czasu rynku pierwszego polskiego króla. To jest lokalna stawa, limeczna. Świąty, castlek zazwyczaj były zbudowane z stali.

• 31:01Speaker 00

  Ale oni są wdzięczni, że zbudowali je z stali. Kto był w castlecie w tamtym czasie?

• 31:05Speaker 02

  W czasie wizji, powiedzmy? Oczywiście były królowi, królowi, a także nocy. Ale często są bezwzględni. Bo zazwyczaj polskie królowi w początku i południowym wieku wizjowały są w krajach powiązanych. Zazwyczaj kobiety stoją w castlekach i próbują organizować życie. Oczywiście były tu kilka turnów, jak wiemy, na kodyadzie. Bo kodyady były zawsze użyte do turnów nocy, organizowane na okazjach koronacji, weddingów, specjalnych wydarzeń.

• 31:48Speaker 02

  Oczywiście myślę, że kobiety lubią danzigę, więc wiemy, że danzigą lubią tak często. Wiemy, że polskie królowie lubią wojną na łezach. Lubią sztukę, jak zwykle kobiety lubią. Wiemy, że sztuka była bardzo, bardzo piękna w tamtym czasie. Została zrobiona z złota, bo to był królewski kąt, więc wszystko było zrobione z złota. Ręki, pędziki i dekorowane z wielu sztukami, oczywiście. Jak np. pęle. Możemy powiedzieć to, bo niektóre artefakty były zabawne w czasie ekskavacji.

• 32:32Speaker 00

  Czy garrison był gotowy dla Mongi?

• 32:35Speaker 02

  Tak, myślę, że tak. Bo kobiety organizowały także obronę castleka. Myślę, że były bardzo, bardzo, bardzo brzydkie w tamtym czasie. I mogły zrobić wszystko, co mężczyźni robią.

• 32:49Speaker 00

  To nie jest niezwykłe w medievalnym czasie. W Inc. familiowym sieciu, kobiety też wzięły w rządy.

• 32:55Speaker 00

  Stojimy teraz w castlecie. Bylibyśmy w stanie spojrzeć w dół i zobaczyć, jak Mongi przychodzą. Czy tylko zniszczyli miasto poniżej? Dlaczego Mongi nie próbowali atakować tego castleka? Jak było castlek w stanie się chronić na pierwszej wizji?

• 33:07Speaker 02

  Myślę, że było chronione najpierw przez Okulę, tę małą obszarę, dobrze zbrojnie. A z drugiej strony przez Wiswa. Wawel to bardzo starożytny imię. Wawel oznacza to bardzo wysoki punkt, jak tu, dobrze chroniony. I jak znacie, to jest limeczna ziemia.

• 33:30Speaker 00

  Stojimy na ogromnej limecznej ziemi, ryby poniżej. Czy próbowali wchodzić do castleka, albo tylko spojrzeć na nim i myśleć, że nie chcą?

• 33:38Speaker 02

  Tak.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  Nie chcą?

• 33:40Speaker 02

  Tak, dokładnie.

• 33:41Speaker 00

  Czyli idą na łatwe ciepło?

• 33:43Speaker 02

  Tak.

• 33:44Speaker 00

  Wiemy, jak długo Mongi byli tu pierwszy raz?

• 33:48Speaker 02

  Mamy dziesięć dni.

• 33:50Speaker 00

  Dziesięć dni?

• 33:51Speaker 02

  Dziesięć dni, tylko w Krakowie. Ale w Polsce, myślę, jeden miesiąc, nawet dłużej.

• 33:59Speaker 00

  Czy ludzie w Krakowie myśleli, że wchodzą do castleka, że wiedzieli, że Mongi przychodzą?

• 34:05Speaker 02

  Tak, wiedzieli, bo zabrały niektóre miasteczki w południu Polski. Jak na przykład Lublin, jak San Domies. To było bardzo duże miasto w tamtym czasie, w początku i południowym wieku. I wiedzieli, że Mongi przychodzą do Kraków. I wzięli wszystko, co było możliwe, i skończyli. Bo najgorsze było, że Tatarzy przybyli tu, aby wziąć slawę. Mamy, że nawet około 30 tys. młodych chłopaków i dziewczyn zostało wzięte w czasie pierwszej wizji. Więc ludzie mieli przekonanie.

• 34:48Speaker 00

  Więc drogi były zakląte, refugii próbując skończyć?

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Tak, dokładnie.

• 34:53Speaker 00

  Ludzie hiding w drzewach?

• 34:54Speaker 02

  Tak. W Europie jest bardzo talibinne. Wszyscy ludzie mieli przekonanie, że Mongi. Bo jest coś innego. Ale miasto było całkowicie zniszczane, prawie wszystko było w szachach. Ruiny całkowicie, więc zniszczono wszystko, excepto niektóre stawki, świąty i Wawel.

• 35:21Speaker 00

  Na 31 marca, gdy byli stojeni na tych batalemcach, spojrzeli w dół i zobaczyli niskie miasteczki, domy, workshopy, codzienni budynki. Cały, prawie wszyscy zbudowane z woodenu, zostały zniszczane do podstaw. Byłoby to apokaliptyczne scenę.

• 35:41Speaker 00

  Również szybka militarny kampania, jak ta, wypierana przez Mongi, zazwyczaj nie pozostawia dużo wobec archeologii. Ale bardzo zazdrosne, tutaj w Krakowie, mają dowody, archeologiczne dowody dla tego momentu zniszczenia. I jest w Muzeum Reinickim, Elena Janiger jest tam.

• 36:02Speaker 00

  Elena, to dla mnie bardzo interesujące i zazdrosne, bo jest archeologia tutaj, która nas przyprowadzi do jednego sekundowego momentu. I mamy to przykład. Ludzie mają wrażenie, bo słuchają efektów sonka. Mamy wiatr, co się dzieje przed nami?

• 36:17Speaker 01

  To byłby zniszczenie, które zostało wyciągnęte z miasta podczas ataków Mongi. I jedną z rzeczy, którą wiemy, że robią, to zniszczenie wielu struktur ekstensywnych. To jest obecne zachowanie Mongi, jeśli mówisz, że nie będziesz być zamknięty. Masz zasadniczo dwie opcje. Mongi przychodzą do drzwi i mówią: "Włącz się w naszą rynkową imperię". I możesz powiedzieć: "Tak, oczywiście, dziękuję, pan Mongi, i wszystko będzie dobrze". A jeśli mówisz "nie", oni zniszczą twoje miasto. To się stanie. I w tym przypadku, wielu budynków było woodem, więc to jest całkowicie możliwe. Ale mamy to wielkie archeologiczne rekord z tych zaskoczonych, woodnych pozostawów. I to jest bardzo interesujące.

• 37:00Speaker 00

  To jest tak fascynujące. To potencjalnie przyprowadzi nas do tego dnia w kwietniu 1241, gdy armia Mongi skaliowała przez tu. Interesujące, nie znaleźliśmy wiele ludzi.

• 37:10Speaker 01

  Wiemy, że niektórzy ludzie są w stanie hiding w świątach i przetrwają. Ale wielu ludzi zostało ukradzone i zostaną sprzedawane. Widzimy to cały czas w medievalnym czasie, w początku i modernym czasie. To jest jedna z rzeczy, jeśli vikingi atakują, wielu czasów cię wziąłoby z tobą. To jest jedna z rzeczy, za które ludzie naprawdę przerażają.

• 37:31Speaker 00

  To jest zazdrosne, bo jak i ty, spędzam dużo czasu mówiąc i myślałem o wizjach Mongi. Ale nie widziałem żadnych archeologicznych dowodów na nich. I jednak tu mamy te straszne kąty.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  To jest naprawdę cool. Myślę, że jak i mnie, kiedy wyobrażasz Mongi, rzeczą, którą wyobrażam im, to jest, gdy oni wychodzą na swojej łezce, wskoczą i używają swoich kątów. To jest obraz, który żyje bez opłaty w mojej głowie. Więc jest tak nieźle, aby zobaczyć te kąty jako dowody, które przetrwają. I jeśli przetrwają tak długo, jeśli przetrwają 800 lat, wyobraź sobie, ile musiało być wokół sztuki, abyśmy mogli je znaleźć. Bo mediejskie ludzie są całkiem trzysti. Jeśli znalazłeś coś takiego, często go ponownie używasz, zamieszczasz go do powrotem, możesz go użyć dla własnych kątów. To tylko pokazuje, że było tak dużo, że niektóre mogły się zniszczyć.

• 38:21Speaker 00

  Więc ta wizja Mongi Polski była jak wojna lightningowa, prawda? Skaliły się, zniszczyli miasteczki. Czy ludzie, którzy zastąpili społeczeństwo po tym, czy nie pozostawiało dużego odcinka? To jest naprawdę ważny moment?

• 38:33Speaker 01

  Absolutnie. To jest wielki moment psychologiczny. Jest istotny dla ludzi, którzy żyją w Europie. Oni uważają się nie jako europejczyków, ale jako chrześcijan. I odnosią się do tego, gdzie żyją, jako chrześcindom. Więc do nich to wydaje, że te pagani, to jest ich słowo, nie naprawdę rozumieją konceptu Fajryana, Budizmu tak dużo. Więc są tak, że to jest jakiś rodzaj pagana. I mówią: "Dobra, jesteśmy atakowani przez te zewnątrzowe siły". I to jest to, co ich pomaga, umieścić taki rodzaj apokaliptycznej narracji na tym. Oczywiście wiemy, że papacy się tym przerażają. Oni piszą wiadomości w lewej, prawej i środkowej stronie. Próbują zbierać duże armie, aby przyjść i przegryźć Mongi. I nikt naprawdę nie chce to zrobić, bo naprawdę jest przerażony.

• 39:17Speaker 01

  Więc jest trochę dużo wątpienia. I nigdy nie widzimy ogromnego pani europejskiego wojny z Mongi w rezultacie faktu, że każdy jest przerażony. Więc to jest jak Polski, Hungarzki i Czechy, na swoich własnych rzeczach, widzą te kolesi.

• 39:32Speaker 00

  I myślę, że widzisz, gdy ten miasto jest zbudowane. Jest ogromny zestaw zbrojnych wokół. Więc ta wizja Mongi pozostawiała odcinki w architekturze.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  Absolutnie. Więc mamy tu naprawdę interesujące i piękne snapshot. I to jest rzadko. To jest powód, dla którego jesteśmy pod ziemią teraz. Bo jeśli zniszczysz kilka domów, będziesz miał tę linię szachów, będziesz miał tę linię stali, musisz budować na tym.

• 39:55Speaker 00

  Nie zniszczysz, budujesz na tym?

• 39:55Speaker 01

  Tak, idź za tym.

• 39:56Speaker 00

  To jest powód, dla którego moderny uliczny poziom jest dwa lub trzy metry ponad nami.

• 40:00Speaker 01

  Oczywiście było to szaleństwo dla ludzi, którzy musieli żyć przez to zniszczenie. Ale z historicznej strony, to jest jedna z rzeczy, która naprawdę pomaga, aby to stać w miasto, które jest.

• 40:15Speaker 00

  Kraków nie był końcem ich kampanii. Jego długoterminowy plan wymagało, aby nadal pokazywać szybko. Przerobili w południu, gdzie mieli Silesję, gdzie zacząli wyprowadzać prawdopodobnie najfamiliowęstą batalem kampanii. Batalem Legnizia, gdzie wielki królowy Henry II został zabity. On leżał w rynku polskich i innych europejskich sił w próbie ochrony regionu. Ale to była niesamowita wizja Mongi. Europejskie nocy były całkowicie, całkowicie wydodawane i wyznajome. I jego śmierć nadal jest pamięćą jak wielka tragedia w polskiej historii.

• 40:56Speaker 00

  In the years after, Krakow tried to re-establish itself. Those who fled slowly returned, churches were repaired and trade tentatively resumed. But this was really a period of survival, edging back towards normality. Meanwhile, over in Hungary, the Mongols, who had spent months rampaging across Brus, Poland and the Hungarian plains, largely uncontested, destroying armies and burning settlements on their way perhaps to Western Europe, well, suddenly they came to a halt. And that's because in December 1241, something catastrophic happened. The great Khan died. The central figure had held together the empire was gone and the Mongols were left facing a succession crisis.

• 41:38Speaker 00

  So their generals, their princes, their commanders in Europe had to return home to deal with it. They turned back, they pulled out of Central Europe, back through the Balkans towards the steppe. The Europeans were stunned. There was no heroic Christian victory, the Mongols simply left. Now, historians also suggest there are probably other contributing factors, of course. The further west they got, the more challenging the terrain would have got. Western Europe was heavily forested in that time. Large-scale cavalry warfare was different. This was a new ecosystem for them to master. And sustaining such a large force of horses and men so deep into Europe would have become harder and harder as they moved further from their familiar lands and plants and animals.

• 42:22Speaker 00

  Either way, though, they went and Europe breathed a sigh of relief, at least for the time being.

• 42:29Speaker 00

  I'm right in the heart of Krakow at the moment and I'm in the shadow of some very impressive buildings, particularly the town hall, which is a huge clock tower with domes on top and a crown right up by the weather vane, and it is a magnificent building. And all of these buildings embody the next chapter in the history of this remarkable city. And during the sacking of Krakow, that traumatic event, high up in the castle, the boy duke watched as the Mongols ransacked his town below. And he was 15 years old and he would be known to history as Boris Laffinchast. And at 15, he was too small to do much about this rampaging Mongol army that was sacking his patrimony. There was little he could do to stop the carnage.

• 43:13Speaker 00

  But in the years that followed the invasion, we should have made up for it a bit because he led the city, led this community in an astonishing rebuilding project. He grew up and by 1257, he was a young man, he was in the prime of life and he was ready to be the leader that Krakow needed. Because both he and this city were standing on the precipice of a new era. And that era is the one that gives us the remarkable building projects that I'm surrounded by now. And in fact, I've got, right in the middle of town, we've got the Cloth Hall, more on that in a second. Dan, how's it going?

• 43:46Speaker 01

  Hey, Dan.

• 43:47Speaker 00

  Are you in your happy place?

• 43:48Speaker 01

  I literally am. I am so excited to see the Cloth Hall today. This is a building so important that in my days as a medieval history undergrad, I had to learn about it.

• 43:58Speaker 00

  Can we talk about Boris Laffinchast? I don't know why I'm laughing. But it's a particular kind of trauma, watching your community kind of wiped out whilst knowing that you're the titular head and being too young, too small, doing it about it, you must feel so insecure about that.

• 44:11Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, it is one of these things where he really seems to be able to turn straw into gold in this case, right? Because, yeah, clearly he realizes that this isn't going to be good enough and something needs to fundamentally change in Krakow. And for him, one of the biggest things that he changes is the city walls. You know, like he really, really sees to it that the town is fortified. And listen, that's kind of like medieval cities 101. And he realizes that one of the things that's going to drag the city into being is if he can encourage trade. If he can encourage people to say, this is a safe place, then he's going to be on to a winner.

• 44:53Speaker 00

  The geography means that the trading, the great trade routes will pass through here.

• 44:56Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 44:56Speaker 00

  And if he can provide a sort of safe place for that exchange, for those merchants, that's half the battle.

• 45:02Speaker 01

  A hundred percent. Listen, he does specific things like establishes the city charter that makes Krakow a city. You know, it was a kind of looser collection of buildings. I'm not saying it wasn't an important place. But when you get the city charter, what that does is it says, there are certain rights for citizens of Krakow, there's going to be certain favorable taxation rates if you move in. And so suddenly, all the people who are kind of around in the area, who might have been thinking they would live in this town or that town, they're gonna come into Krakow if they've got the ability to do so because they know that they can get a business off the ground there.

• 45:36Speaker 00

  Now, that sounds quite far sighted, is it? I mean, because it sounds like he's almost giving up a little bit of his own power if he's allowing the townspeople to self-govern to a certain extent, some autonomy?

• 45:46Speaker 01

  Oh, completely. So what he's doing is he's trading some direct power in Krakow for taxation revenue. But taxation revenue is going to be absolutely necessary if the specific thing you want to do is build new city walls, improve roads that have been burnt down. You know, he's got a bunch of churches to remake.

• 46:04Speaker 00

  So it's walls, it's churches, and then it's providing, well, literally a space for commerce, for trade, for wealth creation.

• 46:10Speaker 01

  Absolutely, and that is the wonderful Cloth Hall.

• 46:14Speaker 00

  The Cloth Hall of Krakow, said to be Europe's oldest shopping mall, and it has been for centuries, an emporium of trade and consumerism.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  And this is just, it's very difficult to overstate how incredibly important and also unusual this building is in a medieval perspective. Yeah, you do have other big halls and things that exist in the Middle Ages, but usually not for commerce in the same way. A covered market is unusual.

• 46:46Speaker 00

  It's got a beautiful vaulted ceiling, there are still wooden stalls all the way down.

• 46:51Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 46:51Speaker 00

  Selling a range of fascinating objects. There are some touristy shops selling fridge magnets, but there are also real shops, there's some craft work, there's some carved wood, there's some glass, a lot of jewelry. So it still feels like maybe a little bit like it would have been like.

• 47:10Speaker 01

  Absolutely. And one of the things I'm most delighted to see here is a lot of amber. And that's one of those Baltic trade goods that medieval people were really into. And I love seeing that that is still traded in these same spaces because, listen, I would expect to be able to show up here, even though it's called the Cloth Hall, right? I would expect to be able to get amber here because it is a destination for luxury goods, right? So cloth is one of those really important luxury goods and Krakow's got that. The other thing that Krakow has a lot of is salt. And that seems like a little bit of a boring commodity now, but salt is so important in a world without refrigerators, right? Because that's one of the only ways that people have to preserve food.

• 47:53Speaker 01

  And so they're using actually huge quantities of salt all the time. And so having access to good quality salt is a really big deal at the time. And the salt that they are mining here in Krakow is incredibly high quality.

• 48:13Speaker 00

  I've come just outside Krakow now and I've arrived at a handsome building. There's a lift tower, which gives you a bit of a hint as to what lies beneath here. Because this is a salt mine, not typically one of the great sites to go and visit when you're doing some historical travel at certain destinations. But trust me, in this region of Poland, it certainly is. This is the Wieliczka Salt Mine. And I've read about it, I've seen pictures, but I can't actually believe what is down there. Luckily, I don't have to believe, I'm about to see, I'm about to be taken down by Michael. How are you, bud?

• 48:43Speaker 03

  I'm feeling great, how are you?

• 48:44Speaker 00

  Yep, good. You're gonna guide me around?

• 48:46Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 48:46Speaker 00

  What can I expect?

• 48:47Speaker 03

  I'll tell you this in the best way that I can, prepare to get your mind blown because what you're about to see will absolutely knock your socks off. This is one of the most beautiful, most iconic places that we have here, especially in the southern part of Poland. It's a mine of salt. Of course, the salt was a very important mineral in our history. And you're about to see a lot of very interesting things that we did with the salt, including art and other things, but no spoilers.

• 49:14Speaker 00

  And they've been mining here since the medieval period. Just give me a sense of how big, how deep is it, how much area does it cover?

• 49:20Speaker 03

  Well, keep in mind that things started here around the middle of the 13th century. The mine today reaches about four and a half kilometers north-south, six and a half kilometers east-west, and it reaches a final depth of 327 meters underground. It's an absolutely massive scale.

• 49:37Speaker 00

  That's a lot of salt.

• 49:38Speaker 03

  That is. And if you can believe it, there's still plenty to go around if we were to pick up mining again. All right, Dan, follow me.

• 49:47Speaker 00

  Wow, wir sind in einem enormen Raum. Dies ist der Größe eines Untergrund-Park. Warum gibt es so viel Salz hier? Was ist denn passiert?

• 49:57Speaker 03

  Fast 13,6 Millionen Jahre vorher, wenn man zu Vilejčka kommt, hat man ein sehr großes Wasserkörper gefunden, das das Maiusens See nennt. Dieses See evaporiert mit dem Zeitraum, und das hat hinterlassen, diese kristallisierten Salzdeponaten. Im Laufe des Zeitraums wurden die geologischen Bewegungen, die die Carpathianen gebaut haben, in kleineren Teilen zerstört. Wie man sehen kann, waren einige der Salzdeponaten tatsächlich sehr groß. Fast 6.000 Jahre vorher, das wäre die Neolithischen Zeit, kamen die ersten Zivilisten hierher und fanden große Salzflächen. Die haben Salz aus dem Wasser geboilt. Die Flächen waren also Puddeln aus dem Maiusens See. Sie nahmen das Wasser, legten es auf ein besonderes Feuerwerk, das Wasser würde evaporieren, und sie hatten Salzkristalle.

• 50:41Speaker 03

  Das war sehr, sehr hilfreich, weil sie Salz für Dinge wie Fleisch nutzen konnten. Und sie begannen, es als eine frühe Form von Geld zu verwenden. Das ist der Grund, warum wir heute eine sehr bekannte Form für Geld bekommen. Was nennen Sie Ihren Einkommen?

• 50:54Speaker 00

  Ihren Einkommen.

• 50:54Speaker 03

  Genau. Und der Präfix Sal bedeutet...

• 50:57Speaker 00

  Salz.

• 50:58Speaker 03

  Genau.

• 50:59Speaker 00

  Wow. Also ist Salz immer eine der wichtigsten Waren?

• 51:02Speaker 03

  Ja, es war ein integraler Teil der Leben.

• 51:05Speaker 00

  Wann begannen sie, Salz zu minieren?

• 51:07Speaker 03

  Sommer des 13. Jahrhunderts.

• 51:10Speaker 00

  Also nehmen wir die frühen Jahrhunderte. Wie groß war die Mine?

• 51:14Speaker 03

  Sehr klein vorher. Und es gibt einige Gründe, warum. Hauptsächlich der technologische Aspekt. Natürlich hatten wir nicht so viele Werkzeuge wie wir in den späteren Jahren. Die Mine wäre also nur ein paar Korridore und nur am ersten Level. Also nur 64 Meter tief.

• 51:30Speaker 00

  Waren sie nur Pickaxe zu rausziehen?

• 51:32Speaker 03

  Ja, vorher hätten sie sehr kleine Pickaxe verwendet, um Salz aus den Wänden zu rausziehen. Das wäre eine Art. Die Produktion von Salzschyltern war auch ein bisschen später in den Jahren. Also waren das die beiden Formen von Salzminieren vorher. Aber es war nicht etwas schwieriges. Salz ist ein sehr dünnes Material auf der Mo-Schule, die die Dicke von Schnee von 1 bis 10 beschreibt. Salz fallen nur in zwei, zwei und ein halbes Kategorien. Es ist sehr dünner und schlägt auch die Stärke. Das gibt uns viele verschiedene Arten von Salzminieren, die in den späteren Jahrhunderten erschienen.

• 52:03Speaker 00

  War das gefährlich, die frühen Minen? Wie gesagt, in die Erde zu digging? Sind es explosive Gase oder Verletzungen?

• 52:09Speaker 03

  Also, vorher würde ich sagen, die größte Ursache für die Mord hier in der Mine wäre die Explosion von Methan, ein sehr prominentes Gas, das wir hier hatten. Dieses Gas würde sich in die Atmosphäre der Mine während jeder Extraktion freuen. Das Gas formt sich aus der Dekomposition von organischen Materie. Also, wie man es erinnern kann, als das Maiusens See evaporiert, alle lebenden Wesen wurden in Salz verhaftet. Das Gas hatte kleine Blöcke, die in den Salzdeponaten gelegt wurden. Und die Minen, als sie es rausnahmen, würden dieses Ding freuen. Das größte Problem, das wir mit diesem Gas haben, ist, dass Methan keine Farbe, keinen Geschmack, keinen Geruch hat, und es schmerzt dich, wenn du es ingestst.

• 52:44Speaker 00

  Aber über die Jahre würden viele Menschen hier verstorben.

• 52:48Speaker 03

  Wir haben keine exakten Zahlen, aber ja, am Anfang war die Mine ein gefährliches Land. Das ist wirklich eine der Gründe, warum unsere Minen so religiöse Menschen wurden. Und warum heute in den Untergrundern wir so viele verschiedene Untergrundschapelle fahren. Die Minen baten für Sicherheit, sodass sie immer wieder zu Hause zurückkamen.

• 53:05Speaker 00

  Waren sie Menschen, Gefangene, waren sie die kriminelle Klasse, die hier verpflichtet wurden?

• 53:11Speaker 03

  Nichts. Im Ernst, die Minen waren selbst ein sehr kleines Gruppe von den am meisten vertrauten Menschen für den König. Der erste Gruppe von Minen, es waren nur 100 von ihnen. Das waren Menschen, die mit dem König verstanden waren. Der König wusste, dass er sie vertraut hätte. Und er bereitigte sie auch für ihre Arbeit sehr geeignet.

• 53:30Speaker 00

  In der Medievojahrhochzeit war Salz so wertvoll?

• 53:32Speaker 03

  Salz war vorher ein Mineral, das sehr schwer zu erreichen war. Heute können wir Wasser aus dem Ozean nehmen und eine sehr komplizierte, pressurisierte Boiling-Verarbeitung durchführen und Salz bekommen. Aber vorher mussten Sie viele Hundert Liter boilen, um eine sehr kleine Menge Salz zu produzieren. Das ist der Grund, dass, wenn die Menschen Salzdeponaten gefunden haben, große Konzentrationen von Salz in einer Region, sie wussten, dass das etwas war, das sie können verkaufen, können mit diesem Geld teilen. Und es war immer in Bestellung. All Europa suchte Salz.

• 54:01Speaker 00

  Okay. Wir sind auf einem breiten Korridor. Ich kann sehen, wir kommen zu einem größeren Raum. Also, wie weit sind wir jetzt?

• 54:06Speaker 03

  Jetzt? 101 Meter.

• 54:08Speaker 00

  Okay, wir sind durch den 100-Meter-Zeitpunkt gegangen.

• 54:12Speaker 03

  Dies ist mein Lieblingsort in der Vilejčka-Mine.

• 54:14Speaker 00

  Ich habe nie etwas so gesehen. Okay, also, Leute, ihr müsst euch ein Flugzeughang heransehen. Ich meine nicht zu exagerieren. Und war das ein enormes Salzblock? Was ist hier passiert?

• 54:24Speaker 03

  Es war. Im Ernst, es musste viele, viele Jahre dauern, um die Minen das Salzblock in der ersten Zeit zu rausziehen. Und nur danach begann die tatsächliche Konstruktion der Schapelle.

• 54:34Speaker 00

  Zuhörer, ich sage euch, es ist ein gigantischer Untergrundschrank, ausgelost in einer Salzmine, aber das sieht wie die Innere einer Kathedrale aus. Und wir haben Momente von Jesus' Leben an den Wänden. Da sind sie. Das ist Jesus' kleiner Baby, der von König Herod ausleugnet. Wir haben die Mirag, wir haben das Wasser in Wein. Wir haben das Letztes Supper. Das Letztes Supper ist schön.

• 54:56Speaker 03

  Auf der Grundskunst von Leonardo da Vinci.

• 54:57Speaker 00

  Genau. Sie sind in den Wänden geschliffen. Und dann haben wir einen gigantischen Hochaltar. Wir haben eine Pulte. Jeder einzelne Ding ist geschliffen aus Salz. Es hat mich fast weder Sprache mehr. Es gibt enorme Schandeleer, die auch sehr beeindruckend sind.

• 55:11Speaker 03

  Nehmen wir ein bisschen näher an, weil ihr seht, dass diese kleinen Bäume, die ihr seht, umkrempelt um Stränge, sind in Wirklichkeit Stücke von Salz.

• 55:18Speaker 00

  Nein, das sind nicht.

• 55:19Speaker 03

  Ja, im Ernst, das ist die pureste Form von Salz, die man natürlich extrahieren kann.

• 55:23Speaker 00

  Sie sehen wie Glas aus. Das ist sehr beeindruckend.

• 55:25Speaker 03

  Jeder ist etwa 99,8 Prozent Sodiumchlorid. Also, ihr könnt wirklich nichts besser finden als das. Und jedes Kristall stammt aus einem Kristallkäfig, eine rauere geologische Formation. Und weil wir die Käfige nicht mehr eingehen können, weil sie eine begrenzte Region sind, ist dies das einzige Land, wo wir sie von naher Sicht sehen können.

• 55:42Speaker 00

  Das ist eine der most extraordinary Dinge, die ich je gesehen habe, glaube ich. Und das ist 19. Jahrhundert? Wann ist das?

• 55:49Speaker 03

  Im Ernst, 1862, also die zweite Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts.

• 55:52Speaker 00

  Okay, wow. Und gibt es Dienstleistungen hierher?

• 55:55Speaker 03

  Im Ernst, jeden Sonntag um 7:30 Uhr haben wir hier eine Massenveranstaltung, offen für alle.

• 55:59Speaker 00

  Ich sage euch, ich glaube, die Sings sind aus dem Kontrolle.

• 56:01Speaker 03

  Es ist absolut magisch.

• 56:02Speaker 00

  Warum gehen sie zu diesem Problem? Was ist hier passiert?

• 56:04Speaker 03

  Also, im Ernst, seit dieser Stelle öffnet sich die Mine, sind wir bereits sehr nah an Gott. Und in den späteren Jahren, als die Stelle größer wurde, erschienen mehr und mehr dieser Schapellen. Und an einem Punkt in unserer Geschichte hatten wir über 60 aktive Schapellen.

• 56:16Speaker 00

  Was?

• 56:17Speaker 03

  Genau, hier in den Untergrundern.

• 56:19Speaker 00

  Schäfers. Und ist dies die größte Schapelle?

• 56:21Speaker 03

  Genau, dies ist die Schapelle von Herrn Kinga. Also, eines der Dinge, die ihr euch wissen müsst, ist, dass im Jahr 1241 die Mongolei nicht nur den Boden aufgebrannt haben, sie waren auch durch Vilejčka gegangen. Und Vilejčka war ein sehr wichtiges und prominentes Land auf dem Krieg, auch vorher, wegen seiner Bekanntigkeit für die Produktion von Salz. Und dies sehr gut mit der Legende von Kinga zusammenhängt. Weil nachdem Vilejčka aufgebrannt wurde und die Minen nichts mehr hatten, suchten sie Hilfe von der herrschenden Elite. Natürlich sind sie dort im Land. Und Kinga und Boloswaf. Also, dies war Boloswaf der Baste, man kennt ihn als Boloswaf der Schaste.

• 56:59Speaker 00

  Okay, Boloswaf der Schaste, ich sehe. Er ist der junge Junge, der die Mongolei zerstört, Krakow.

• 57:04Speaker 03

  Genau. Also, sie haben wirklich aufgeräumt. Weil sie entschieden haben, dass alles, was in den Untergrund gefunden wurde, zu den Reihen gehörte und gleichzeitig verteilt werden sollte. Deswegen gab es keine mehr privaten Minele. Alles war ein großes Land und ein großes Unternehmen. Und dies führte später zu dem sehr großen Raum, das es wurde, der Krakow Salzberg-Unternehmen. Und das lieferte all das Geld, das notwendig war, um Krakow zu restaurieren und zu expandieren.

• 57:27Speaker 00

  Also ist es interessant, dass wir wiedersehen, dass die Mongolei-Zerstörung ein Zeitraum der Reorganisation war und in einigen Hinsichtern ein Sprungbord für die Zukunft.

• 57:36Speaker 03

  Das ist richtig. Sie sagen immer, dass wenn eine Tür schließt, eine andere öffnet. Das war hier der Fall.

• 57:41Speaker 00

  Während der frühen 14. Jahrhundert war Krakow wirtschaftlich flüssig. Aber Polen war immer noch fragmentiert, geteilt zwischen rivalen Piastr-Duchens, die alle für Macht hingegen. Endlich kamen genug Noblen und die Kirche dazu, dass Polen größer sein könnte als ein vereinigtes Königreich. Also haben sie sich zu Wodysław Wókichek geändert. Das ist nicht, glaube ich, wie die Polen es sprechen. Ich entschuldige mich dafür. Er war ein wenig krass von seinen Mitbinnen als "Der Elbow High". Also in 1320, dieser ehemalige kurze König, Wodysław, wurde in Vávelkathedrale und Krakow die Königin der Reihen.

• 58:19Speaker 00

  13 Jahre später, nach seiner Tod, trug sein Sohn auf, und Krakow wurde noch erfolgreicher unter einem Ruhm, der wirklich seinen Titel verdient hat, Kazimir der Große. Über das 14. Jahrhundert fortsetzte Kazimir die Kirche, baut die Stadt aus Stein, expandierte den Handel, stärkte die Gesetzgebung und errichtete das prestigious Jagelonian University. Unter seinem Ruhm wurde Krakow von einer Stadt, die von der Invasion zurückgekommen ist, zu einer der großen politischen, kommerziellen und intellektuellen Kapitänen von Central Europe.

• 58:51Speaker 00

  Und als Kazimir starb, wartete im Flugzeug, um den Rest der Polen aufzunehmen, die gleichen Höhen zu steigen, war der Teenager Yadwiga, der in 1384 König von Polen wurde. Sie stürzte in eine neue Epoche von polnischer Riesen und Macht. Und das ist ein anderer Podcast, aber ich kann kein Thema Medievojahr Polen ohne sie erwähnen.

• 59:22Speaker 00

  In this fairytale city, it's often hard to separate the legend from the facts, the myth from the reality. The two have become entwined in the story of Krakow, but both are important, they're valuable to understand the heart of this place and how it tells its own history. And there's one legend that really embodies that, I'm going to leave you with it. Right now, I'm under Wawel Castle in a dark and dripping cavern. Now supposedly, this is where the Dragon of Krakow lived, today the symbol of the city. And the story goes like this. Long ago, the Wawel Dragon terrorised King Krak's city. Each day, the evil dragon would beat a path of destruction across the countryside,

• 1:00:05Speaker 00

  kill civilians, pillage homes, devour livestock. Some versions of the story say that the beast required ransoms of cattle, others that it devoured only virgins. Either way, the townspeople had to appease the beast as best they could, and it seemed that no knight on his horse could vanquish it. Then, one day, a simple, young shoemaker's apprentice stepped forward. He believed he could outsmart the dragon. He took a ram's hide and stuffed it with sulphur and pitch. He put this fake ram in front of the dragon's den. The dragon took the bait immediately, devoured the ram down, and immediately felt a burning in its throat.

• 1:00:46Speaker 00

  To quench its terrible thirst, the dragon tried to drink the Vistula River, but water cannot extinguish burning sulphur. The chemicals, the gases, built up inside the dragon until it exploded. The dragon was slain. It would terrorise the countryside no more. The townsfolk celebrated. The heroic shoemaker was rewarded with the princess's hand in marriage. And the local king ordered that a castle be built above the lair, the place where I am emerging from now. And that castle became the first building of what would evolve into one of the most magnificent medieval cities in Europe: Krakow. I'm just coming out into the sunlight now,

• 1:01:30Speaker 00

  to all the banks of the Vistula, this beautiful river, the sun is shining. And we know that medieval people used myths to tell stories about where they came from, to make sense of real catastrophes. The dragons in those stories represented chaos and destruction, and the fear of what lay beyond civilisation. I'm very struck by the fact this story talks about Krakow growing out of this era of destruction, when the land was preyed upon by a terrible monster. Well, I think the parallels with the Mongol invasions are hard to miss. In myth and reality, Krakow had seen off an existential threat and emerged resplendent. And actually, that's a pattern that we see throughout Krakow's history, particularly the brutal 20th century,

• 1:02:14Speaker 00

  where this city has survived everything that humanity can throw at it, and remains today one of Europe's finest medieval cities.

• 1:02:40Speaker 00

  Well, folks, thank you so much for joining me on this tale of medieval Krakow. If you want to learn more about any of the places we've visited or book your own historic adventure to Krakow, just head to www-visitmalopolska.pl for more information, we'll add that link to the show notes. Huge thank you to the Malopolska Tourism Organisation and the Polish Tourism Organisation. And if you're enjoying a bit of armchair travel, then hit follow in your podcast player, as we'll be bringing you plenty more world history this summer. Bye-bye.

• 1:03:15Speaker 00

  Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? Sign up to History and watch the world's best history documentaries on subjects like how William conquered England, what it was like to live in the Georgian era, and you can even hear the voice of Richard III. We've got hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, and there's always something more to discover. Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. Just visit historyit.com/subscribe.