Planty Park

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Walkway with benches under trees

Grażyna Monument

Planty is a city park in Kraków, Poland. It encircles the District of Stare Miasto (Old Town), where the medieval city walls used to stand.

The park has an area of 21,000 square metres (52 acres) and a length of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). It consists of a chain of thirty smaller gardens designed in varied styles and adorned with numerous monuments and fountains. The park forms a scenic walkway popular with Cracovians. In summer, sprinkled with ponds and refreshment stalls, it is a cool and shady retreat from the nearby bustling streets.^[1]

Most historic sites of the old Kraków are located inside the Planty park belt along the Royal Road (Polish: Droga Królewska) crossing the park from the medieval suburb of Kleparz^[2] through Florian Gate^[3] at the northern flank of the old city walls. The historic Wawel Castle at the Wawel Hill, adjacent to Vistula River meander, form the southernmost border of Planty.

Planty park around Stare Miasto

[edit] History

The green belt was established in place of the medieval walls between 1822–1830 as part of the urban development projects to preserve the concept of a "garden city".

By the beginning of the 19th century the expanding city had begun to outgrow the confines of the old defensive walls. The walls had been falling into disrepair due to lack of maintenance after the Partitions of Poland. As a result, Emperor Franz I of Austro-Hungary ordered the dismantling of the old fortifications. However, in 1817 Professor Feliks Radwański of Jagiellonian University managed to convince the Session of the Senate of the Republic of Kraków to legislate the partial preservation of the old fortifications, namely, the Florian Gate and the adjoining Barbican.