Podgórze

For other places with the same name, see Podgórze (disambiguation).

Historic Podgórze city hall at the Rynek Podgórski square

Podgórze district on the map of Kraków

St Joseph's church, built 1905–1909

Tadeusz Pankiewicz's "Under the Eagle" pharmacy at the heart of Kraków Ghetto in World War II

Podgórze is a district of Kraków, Poland, situated on the right (southern) bank of the Vistula River. Initially a village at the foot of Lasota Hill (hence the name: Podgórze roughly translates as at the bottom of/near a hill) was granted city status by the Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1784 and has become Royal Free City of Podgorze. During the years 1784–1915 it was an independent city; in 1910 Podgórze was the 13th largest town in Galicia (population 18,142 in 1900). After lasting several years discussions on the 4th of July 1915 in has become part of Krakow and president of Podgorze has become vice president of Krakow.

The oldest man-made structure in Podgórze is the Krakus Mound (Polish: Kopiec Krakusa) on Lasota Hill, believed to be the grave of the legendary prince. It is the largest prehistoric mount in Poland and the best view point in Krakow Krakus.

The first bridge, named Carl's Bridge (German: Karls Brücke), linking Podgórze with Krakow across the Vistula was built in 1802. This wooden construction, located between today's Mostowa and Brodzińskiego streets, survived until 1813 when it was destroyed in a flood.

Formally it was a successful industrial city which, in 1915, reached the size of 1/5 of Kraków, but now is integrated into part of the city of Kraków. It includes historic Podgórze with the triangular market square and impressive st. Joseph church and green hills of Krzemionki. Also includes (site of the Nazi Kraków Ghetto and a factory of Oscar Schindler - a German who saved nearly 1,200 Jews), as well as old villages of Płaszów, Rybitwy and Przewóz, with the population of 31,599 and area of 24.6 km² (as of 31 December 2006).

The often repeated story that the city's initial name was Josephstadt is completely groundless.^{[citation needed]}

People

• Edward Dembowski, died here
• Arthur Dunkelblum, Jewish Belgian chess master, born here
• Ignacy Friedmann (Freudmann), a Jewish pianist, composer, born here
• Józef Hofmann, born here
• Aleksander Kotsis, died here
• Bernard Offen, Holocaust survivor, author, lived here
• Poldek Pfefferberg, taught at the Kosciuszko Gymnasium in here as a professor
• Albin Francisco Schoepf, born here
• Mike Staner, Holocaust survivor, author, born here
• Ryan Socash, American artist, currently lives here

See also

• Krakus Mound
• Kraków Ghetto was located in the central part of Podgórze
  • Operation Reinhard in Kraków
  • Large parts of the 1993 film Schindler's List were shot in Podgórze
  • Tadeusz Pankiewicz
• Jewish Culture Festival

External links

• Podgórze District Council official page (Polish)
• Pogórze historical route from the municipality of Krakow website
• Assocition PODGORZE.PL site of the association of friends of the district with descriptions of the main sites of interests in several languages.
• Jewish Community in Podgórze on Virtual Shtetl