Krakus Mound
Kraków Mounds
A historic mound on Lasota Hill in Podgórze (271 m above sea level), said by legend to be the tomb of Krak, the founder of the city. It is 16 metres high and 57 metres across at the base. It is the site of Rękawka, the annual fair held on the Tuesday after Easter.
History
Krakus Mound, also called Krak's Mound, stands in Podgórze on Lasota Hill (271 m above sea level), the highest point of the Krzemionki limestone ridge. It is 16 m high and 57 m across at the base. No one knows who built it, when or why, although there is no shortage of theories. Jan Długosz linked it with Krak, the legendary founder of the city: according to him Krak was buried at the top of the hill, and his two sons carried out his wishes by raising the mound in his eternal memory. This is only tradition, however, as no burial has been found inside. The mound is linked to the Rękawka festival.
Excavations in 1934-1937 were led by Józef Żurowski and Franciszek Jakubik under the patronage of the Polish Academy of Learning; they were funded by the editor-in-chief of the "Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny". It turned out that the inner structure of the mound was built around a tall post, from which wicker partitions radiated outwards; the spaces between them were filled with tightly packed earth and stones. At the base a bronze strap-end of the Avar type was found, and near the top a silver Bohemian denarius of Boleslaus II. According to Professor Andrzej Buko, the mound was built between the end of the 8th and the middle of the 10th century.
In the 19th century the Austrians made it part of the Kraków Fortress: they surrounded it with a rampart, a wall and a moat, and inside the walls they built the barracks of citadel fort 33 "Krakus". These structures were levelled in the 20th century. Since 2013 the city has been revitalising the mound and its surroundings in stages.
Did you know?
Professor Leszek Paweł Słupecki spotted a group of other mounds next to this one on old city plans, a Swedish one from 1702 and an Austrian one from 1792. Kazimierz Radwański of the Archaeological Museum estimates that at the end of the 18th century there were at least 46 of them, but none has survived. Słupecki believes that Krakus Mound is part of an old barrow cemetery.