Blonia

Błonia. For a long time, the spacious 48-ha meadow in the city centre was a pasture, regularly flooded by the Rudawa river that then crossed it. Inhabitants of the local villages and the Premonstratensian nuns from Salwator were permitted to graze their cattle here. It was only after the river was regulated and re-routed that the meadow became a recreation area, and the last cows nibbled its grass in the 1970s. Today, this is a place for jogging, rollerblading, cycling, or simply picnicking. The large area also provides ample space for assorted parades; the military have paraded here in front of Prince Józef Poniatowski (1809), Tsar Nicolas I (1849), Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph (1880), and Józef Piłsudski (1933). Pope John Paul II also used Błonia for his field masses during successive visits to Kraków. This is how Błonia brings together history, large and small; everyday relaxation and extraordinary ceremonies.