A Little History

A TINY village on Wawel Hill, beside the Vistula river, grew into the Polish capital of Kraków by 1038, holding that position until the royal court was transferred to Warsaw in the late 1500s.

Kraków was destroyed by Mongols in 1241, but was rebuilt, only to be ravaged again in 1259, although a third attack in 1287 was beaten off thanks to improved fortifications.

The city's barbican, in front of St Florian's Gate, looms out of today's early-morning mist

The barbican was erected in the late 1400s in preparation for an expected Turkish attack following an abortive Polish invasion of the Ottoman empire's client state Moldavia.

That counterattack never reached Kraków, but the barbican saw action in subsequent invasions by Swedish, Transylvanian and Russian troops.

According to Wikipedia, the barbican is considered by experts to the best preserved of three such surviving European buildings.