In 1335 Polish king Kazimierz The Great found a new city, next to Cracow, Kazimierz. At this time it wasn’t a Jewish town. In 1495 another Polish king John Olbracht made Jewish move out of Cracow, to Kazimierz.
In XVI century Kazimierz was the biggest Jewish cluster in Europe. The first rabbi and scholar was Jakub Polak. He found a Jewish school which very fast became very famous.

Citizens of Kazimierz were very rich due to trade and credits. Credits, according to catholic church, were forbidden. In XVIII century 3500 Jewish people lived in Kazimierz. The Austrian conqueror made them move to a Jewish district – the first ghetto. In 1800 Kazimierz became a part of Cracow. 67 years later Jewish and catholic citizens got the same rights and law.

In the beginning of XX century there were 64 000 Jewish in Cracow, what was 26% all of the city’s population. Holocaust, during World War II,  was a tragic chapter in history of Kazimierz Jews. They were captured into the getto, then took away to concentration camps-especially to Plaszow and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Only 3 000 Jewish people came back to Cracow after the war.

Nowadays Kazimierz is an avant-garde part of city. There are hundreds of pubs, cafes, restaurants and little gastronomy objects. Every Sunday morning there is a flee market there.
Days of Jewish culture are one of the biggest event in Kazimierz.
You can visit Kazimierz going on two trades: catholic and Jewish ones.