Old Synagogue

This guide to the Old Synagogue on Szeroka Street in Kraków begins at the wall where Nazi occupiers executed thirty Polish hostages in 1943, then reaches back to the synagogue's founding after a 1494 fire pushed the city's Jews out of the center, and to the Florentine architect who gave it fortress-thick walls after a 1557 blaze. You'll hear how General Tadeusz Kościuszko once called on the congregation here to join his 1794 uprising, and how German soldiers stripped the sanctuary bare before the courtyard outside became an execution ground. Look for the small stone marker near the entrance.