DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0022
town - Cracow, Okol and Wawel - with one enclosure of
walls. The medieval spatial arrangement of Cracow was thus
crystallized, and today it still forms its living heart.
The thirteenth century decided the future of Cracow as a large
city. An enormous amount of work was done then, generally
uninterrupted by struggles for the throne, repeated Tartar inva-
sions (1241, 1259-1260 and 1287/1288), or mutinies by the
nobility and burghers. Cracow entered the fourteenth century as
a fully formed, Western-European medieval town and as the
capital of a reunited country whose ruler had won the ultimate
symbol of sovereignty, the royal crown.
Few thirteenth-century buildings in Cracow are extant. The
cityscape of that time was effaced during the following two
centuries, which saw intensive building development. The be-
ginnings of Gothic architecture in Cracow reach back to the
second quarter of the thirteenth century. Monumental structures
were usually built of brick, joined in a distinct pattern: alternating
two bricks longways (stretchers) and one shortways (headers).
The first fortifications were made of stone, and the majority of
private houses were still built of timber. The best-preserved
thirteenth-century sites are the eastern section of the Franciscan
Church (notably the southern arm of the transept), the Cister-
cian Church in Mogila, and the St Florian (Florianska) Gate
with a stretch of adjoining walls. Significant thirteenth-century
fragments can be found in the walls of the Premonstratensian
Church in Zwierzyniec and the Dominican Church with its
monastery.
The Fourteenth Century. The new political arrangement,
which made Cracow the capital of an extensive, unified kingdom,
spurred the rapid development of the city in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. The structure of municipal government
assumed a definite shape. The purview of the wojt was limited to
sitting in judgement. Actual power passed into the hands of the
city council, which was composed by royal decree half from the
*9
walls. The medieval spatial arrangement of Cracow was thus
crystallized, and today it still forms its living heart.
The thirteenth century decided the future of Cracow as a large
city. An enormous amount of work was done then, generally
uninterrupted by struggles for the throne, repeated Tartar inva-
sions (1241, 1259-1260 and 1287/1288), or mutinies by the
nobility and burghers. Cracow entered the fourteenth century as
a fully formed, Western-European medieval town and as the
capital of a reunited country whose ruler had won the ultimate
symbol of sovereignty, the royal crown.
Few thirteenth-century buildings in Cracow are extant. The
cityscape of that time was effaced during the following two
centuries, which saw intensive building development. The be-
ginnings of Gothic architecture in Cracow reach back to the
second quarter of the thirteenth century. Monumental structures
were usually built of brick, joined in a distinct pattern: alternating
two bricks longways (stretchers) and one shortways (headers).
The first fortifications were made of stone, and the majority of
private houses were still built of timber. The best-preserved
thirteenth-century sites are the eastern section of the Franciscan
Church (notably the southern arm of the transept), the Cister-
cian Church in Mogila, and the St Florian (Florianska) Gate
with a stretch of adjoining walls. Significant thirteenth-century
fragments can be found in the walls of the Premonstratensian
Church in Zwierzyniec and the Dominican Church with its
monastery.
The Fourteenth Century. The new political arrangement,
which made Cracow the capital of an extensive, unified kingdom,
spurred the rapid development of the city in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries. The structure of municipal government
assumed a definite shape. The purview of the wojt was limited to
sitting in judgement. Actual power passed into the hands of the
city council, which was composed by royal decree half from the
*9