University of Silesia in Katowice

Please note that every excursion (except Tour no. 5: Trekking) begins in Kraków. After arrival in Kraków, all participants will take part in a plenary lecture held at the Jagiellonian University. The participants will then split into groups depending on the excursion of their choice.

This excursion begins in Kraków. After the plenary lecture, we will take the cruise on the Vistula river from Kraków’s Kazimierz district to the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec. While onboard, we will learn about the history of the city and see, among other things, the foothills of the Wawel Royal Castle, the legendary Forum Hotel, the Kościuszko Mound, and the Zwierzyniec Monastery. The Tyniec Abbey is the oldest existing abbey in Poland with a history of almost a thousand years. We will visit its oldest parts (the cloister, church, refectory, chapter house) and the museum with its printing press. On the abbey grounds there is a Benedictine shop and a café, which offers a magnificent view over the Vistula River valley. We will also have lunch in the abbey. From Tyniec, we will travel a short distance by coach to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, which has been in operation since the 13^th century and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We will follow the tourist route located at the depth of 135 m below ground and 3.5 km long, along which we will admire salt lakes and magnificent underground chambers. We will return to Kraków by coach.

This excursion begins in Kraków. After the plenary lecture, the participants will travel by coach to the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, a geographical region located on the historical border of the Lesser Poland and Silesia provinces. The participants of the trip will explore fragments of the tourist route called the Trail of the Eagles’ Nests, which is a chain of castles and fortresses built on limestone rocks as tall as 30 m mostly by King Casimir the Great in the second half of the 14^th c. We will visit the castle in Pieskowa Skała (the Dog’s Rock), see the famous rock formation called the Hercules’s Club, and the ruins of the Ogrodzieniec Castle, which used to be the largest stronghold of the trail. On the way back, we will visit Olkusz, one of the oldest towns in Poland, along with its underground cellars and passageways. There, two exhibitions will provide us with information on the history of the city and the silver mining in the area. We will return to Kraków by coach.

This excursion begins in Kraków. After the plenary lecture, we will spend the whole day exploring the most renown sites of the royal city of Kraków. During the walk, we will learn about the more than 1,000-year-old history of one of the most ancient cities in Poland. Our walk will begin with a visit to the Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland founded by King Casimir the Great in 1364. We will then head to St. Florian’s Gate and the Barbican. From there, we will walk to the Old Town Square, where we will explore the Cloth Hall and St. Mary’s Basilica, and later proceed towards the Wawel Hill with its former Royal Castle. There, we will visit the Wawel Cathedral, the Castle treasury, and the former royal chambers. The tour will end on the Wawel Hill and you will have the time to explore Kraków on your own.

This excursion begins in Kraków. After the plenary lecture, we will walk to Kraków’s Kazimierz, which is a unique quarter, shaped by the centuries of Christian-Jewish coexistence. Jews settled in Kazimierz in the middle of the 14^th c. and lived in what effectively became a “Jewish Town”. During our walk, we will walk along the Szeroka (Broad) Street with its synagogues, we will see a fragment of the defensive walls of Kazimierz, Helena Rubinstein’s House, a memorial to the Holocaust of the Jews of Kraków, and other places of interest. During the tour, we will visit two renown museums: the Oskar Schindler’s Factory, which featured in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, and the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art.

This excursion begins in Katowice and does not begin after the Jagiellonian University plenary lecture. The participants will go directly to the Beskid Śląski mountain range for a gentle hilltop hike. We will ascend the Skrzyczne Mountain (1,257 m above the sea level) by a chairlift, walk along the hilltop trail towards the peak of Małe Skrzyczne (the Little Skrzyczne, 1,211 m above the sea level), and continue the trek towards the Malinowska Skała (the Raspberry Rock) along a slightly more strenuous incline, to descend towards the Biały Krzyż (the White Cross) saddle, where we will have lunch, finish the excursion, and from where we will travel back to Katowice.

NB: This excursion is not advisable for people experiencing the fear of heights as we are going to ascend the slopes of Skrzyczne in an open-top chairlift.