1,000 Places to See Before You Die

by Patricia Schultz

  An enjoyable, more wallet-friendly alternative is the family-owned Vila Drago, whose simple balconied rooms have perfect views of the island. You’ll have to look hard to find better seafood and roasted meats than those served at its grapevine-shaded restaurant.

  WHERE: Budva is 19 miles/33 km southeast of the international airport at Tivat. HOTEL ASTORIA: Tel 382/33-451-110; www.budva.astoriamontenegro.com. Cost: from $155 (off-peak), from $260 (peak). TRI RIBARA: Tel 382/33-471-050; www.triribara.com. Cost: dinner $25. AMAN SVETI STEFAN and THE VILLA MILOČER: Tel 382/33-420-000; in the U.S., 800477-9180; www.amanresorts.com. Cost: from $850 (off-peak), $990 (peak); dinner $95. VILA DRAGO: Tel 382/33-468-457; www.viladrago.com. Cost: from $65; dinner $20. BEST TIMES: Apr–Jun and Sep–Oct for nicest weather and fewer crowds; early Jun for Budva Music Festival.

  Killing Fields in the Center of Europe

  AUSCHWITZ

  Poland

  The industrial city of Oświęcim would not be given a second look had the Nazis not chosen it in 1940 as the site of the most notorious extermination camp the world has ever known. Oświęcim is the town known as Auschwitz in German, where workers at the camp of the same name and the nearby Brzeziny (Birkenau) camp organized the systematic murder of an estimated 1.6 million people. The majority of the victims were Jews, transported here from all over Nazi-occupied Europe. It is a harrowing place to visit, beginning with the infamous motto above the camp’s entrance (Arbeit Macht Frei, or “Work Brings Freedom”) and continuing on to the “barracks”—built for 52 horses but later housing up to 300 people—and the haunting exhibits of confiscated shoes, suitcases, and other personal effects. Auschwitz and Birkenau are just over a mile apart, and you can either walk between the two, taking time to meditate in the quiet surroundings, or board one of the hourly buses. Built to alleviate congestion at Auschwitz, Birkenau was the largest and most lethal of the camps intended to be the “final solution to the Jewish Question.”

  Accommodation is limited in Oświęcim, as most visitors come on organized day trips from nearby Kraków (see below), where they can visit the former Jewish district of Kazimierz, currently undergoing a cultural renaissance, and the impressive Galicia Museum, which commemorates Jewish victims of the Holocaust and celebrates Jewish culture in the Galicia region of southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. The neighboring district of Podgórze (Podgorica), site of the wartime ghetto, is where Oskar Schindler had his enamelware factory and the lesser-known pharmacist Tadeusz Pankiewicz dispensed medicine and sheltered Jews on the premises of his Eagle Pharmacy throughout World War II. Both sites are now open to the public.

  WHERE: 25 miles/40 km west of Kraków. STATE MUSEUM AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU: Tel 48/33-844-8100; www.auschwitz.org.pl. GALICIA MUSEUM: Tel 48/12-421-6842; www.galiciajewishmuseum.org. SCHINDLER’S FACTORY: Tel 48/12-257-1017; www.krakow-info.com/schindler.htm. EAGLE PHARMACY: Tel 48/12656-5625; www.mhk.pl.

  Europe’s Largest Medieval Market Square

  RYNEK GŁÓWNY

  Kraków, Poland

  All of Kraków sooner or later passes through Rynek Główny, Europe’s largest and most authentic medieval market square. Ringed by Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque buildings, this massive plaza is dominated by the 15th-century Sukiennice (Cloth Hall), whose vaulted ground-floor passages are filled with souvenir stalls.

  But it’s the mismatched towers of St. Mary’s Church, looming above the square to the northeast, that really catch the eye. The taller of the two was once the city’s watch-tower, and every Polish child knows the story of its heroic trumpeter, killed by an arrow that hit his throat mid-note while he was warning of a Tatar invasion. Today the incident is reenacted every hour by a handful of firemen in costume. Inside the church’s 14th-century Gothic basilica is Kraków’s most prized possession, a wooden altarpiece carved by renowned Gothic sculptor Wit Stwosz in 1489.

  The Rynek Główny (Main Market Square) is the very heart of Kraków’s Stare Miasto (Old Town), about 4 square miles of preserved streets and centuries-old buildings and monuments. Laid out in the mid-13th century, it has survived in more or less its original form. On its narrow streets are a dozen museums and some 20 of the city’s 120 churches. Bars and cafés are filled with the students of Jagiellonian University, Poland’s oldest and finest, keeping alive the former capital’s legacy as an academic, cultural, and artistic center.

  Just off the square is the Stary Hotel, housed in a charming 18th-century residence. Many of the 53 guest rooms are a seamless blend of centuries-old frescoes and contemporary design; there’s a pool and spa, and from the open rooftop terrace you can almost touch the towers of St. Mary’s.

  Overlooking the Rynek Główny to the south is the historic restaurant Wierzynek, the perfect place to enjoy traditional Polish specialties and courtly service since King Casimir the Great hosted his daughter’s wedding banquet here in 1364. Enjoy seasonal game, trout, and other specialties in the elegant ground-floor café or any of the eight atmospheric salons in the upstairs restaurant. A few doors west on the main market is the Hotel Wentzl, opened in 1792. It is particularly known for its restaurant, whose beamed ceilings, Oriental carpets, fine oil paintings, and views of the square take a backseat to its menu: Try the duck marinated in Żubrówka (the national herb-flavored vodka).

  Every hour, a trumpet signal rings out from St. Mary’s Church.

  WHERE: 186 miles/299 km southwest of Warsaw. VISITOR INFO: www.krakow-info.com. HOTEL STARY: Tel 48/12-424-3400; www.hotelstary.com. Cost: from $190 (off-peak), from $295 (peak). WIERZYNEK: Tel 48/12-424-9600; www.wierzynek.com.pl. Cost: dinner (restaurant) $65, (café) $40. WENTZL: Tel 48/12-431-9220; www.wentzl.pl. Cost: from $245; dinner $45. BEST TIMES: May–Oct for nicest weather; May for Juwenalia, a student festival; Jun for the Jewish Culture Festival; Aug for International Music Festival; Christmas and Easter for markets in the square.

  Symbol of the Nation’s Identity

  WAWEL HILL

  Kraków, Poland

  Kraków’s centerpiece is the Royal Castle and Cathedral, a majestic complex of Gothic and Renaissance buildings that presides over the city from a rocky hill high above the Vistula River. The Royal Castle was the seat of Polish kings for more than 500 years until 1596, when the center of power moved to Warsaw. It is the silent guardian of a millennium of Polish history and is the most visited site in the country. Among the treasures in the historic interior of the royal chambers (or state rooms) are 16th-century Flemish tapestries, Italian and Dutch paintings, royal portraits, elaborate ceiling frescoes, and ornate Baroque furnishings. Other sections open to the public include the crown treasury and the armory.

  Wawel Cathedral, consecrated in 1364 and dubbed “the sanctuary of the nation,” was led by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Karol Wojtyla from 1964 until his election as Pope John Paul II in 1978. For centuries, Polish kings were crowned and buried here; the royal crypts below the nave also contain the tombs of statesmen and heroes, including Tadeusz Kościuszko, who fought in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. From the bell tower you can see much of Old Town (see p. 310) and its wealth of impressive buildings. (Unlike Warsaw, Kraków wasn’t bombed during World War II, and as a result it is the only major Polish city to have retained its remarkable concentration of prewar architecture.)

  For lunch or dinner, head ten minutes south of Wawel Hill to Chłopskie Jadło. The food here is traditional Polish “peasant grub” (which is what the name means) including roast goose and zurek, a soup made with beef or chicken stock, bacon, onion, mushrooms, and sour cream, flavored with kwas (a fermented beverage made with rye flour), and served in a carved-out loaf of bread. From Wawel, it’s also just a few minutes’ walk to the venerable Hotel Copernicus, situated on the oldest (and most picturesque) street in Kraków. The 29-room inn handsomely blends 16th-century features and modern comforts, with elegant, dark furniture upholstered in luxurious fabrics and set against reproductions of period frescoes on the walls. Pope John Paul II, who lived just across t
he street as a young priest, considered it one of the finest addresses in town.

  WAWEL ROYAL CASTLE: Tel 48/12-4225155; www.wawel.krakow.pl. CHŁOPSKIE JADŁO: Tel 48/12-421-8520; www.chlopskiejadlo.pl. Cost: dinner $25. HOTEL COPERNICUS: Tel 48/12-424-3400; www.copernicus.hotel.com.pl. Cost: from $225 (off-peak), from $315 (peak).

  Tributes to Poland’s Poet of the Piano

  SHOWCASES ON CHOPIN

  Warsaw and Zelazowa Wola, Poland

  Frédéric Chopin, who took well-loved Polish folk tunes and dances such as the polonez (polonaise) and the mazurek (mazurka) and turned them into virtuoso concert pieces, lived in Poland for his first 20 years—more than half his short life. Here he acquired a reputation mostly as a pianist before leaving for Paris and international fame. He is Poland’s greatest cultural export.

  Chopin aficionados in Warsaw will make a beeline southwest of the Stare Grad (Old Town) for the Ostrogski Palace, the headquarters of the Chopin Society and a wonderfully intimate venue for chamber music concerts. Stop at the small Chopin Museum here, which contains some interesting items, including the composer’s last piano and his death mask, before taking a bus from just outside the museum to the tiny village of Żelazowa Wola, 33 miles west, where the great composer was born in 1810.

  Although Chopin is buried in Paris’s Père-Lachaise Cemetery (see p. 113), music lovers find the journey to his Polish birthplace (now a museum) and the shady park that surrounds it a poignant pilgrimage. Schedule your trip to coincide with one of the Sunday concerts (from May to September) performed by noted pianists in the modest home’s parlor. (Warsaw also has a schedule of summer Chopin concerts that take place in the city’s pretty Royal Lazienki Park, near the Frédéric Chopin Memorial, on Sundays from mid-May to September.) Afterward, consider a trip to Kampinos National Park, which includes Europe’s largest area of inland sand dunes. The well-marked green trail originates in Żelazowa Wola and makes its way through thick forests and flower-strewn meadows—a setting that would have fueled Chopin’s creative fires.

  For an après-concert meal, head to Gessler Restauracja U Kucharzy, in Warsaw, and sample its peerless pierogi—Polish “ravioli” stuffed with either savory or sweet fillings—or one of a host of other traditional dishes. Run by the well-known Gessler family, the busy restaurant is set within the kitchen of a former hotel, affording you the opportunity to watch the chefs prepare your meal.

  A statue in Lazienki Park honors Chopin.

  CHOPIN MUSEUM: Warsaw, tel 48/22441-6251; Żelazowa Wola, tel 48/46863-3300; www.chopin.museum/en. GESSLER RESTAURACJA U KUCHARZY: Tel 48/22-8267936; www.gessler.pl. cost: dinner $65. WHERE TO STAY: The elegant boutique hotel Le Regina is housed in an 18th-century palace in Old Town. Tel 48/22-531-6000; www.leregina.com. Cost: from $150 (off-peak), from $350 (peak). BEST TIME: Chopin International Piano Competition held in Warsaw every 5 years (2015, etc.) with concerts scheduled at various venues and a gala concert on Oct 17, the anniversary of Chopin’s death.

  Mountain Resort Town with Its Own Architectural Style

  ZAKOPANE

  Poland

  Poland’s very own St. Moritz, Zakopane is the nation’s top center for winter sports and its highest town. It transforms in warmer months to a verdant base for hiking and trekking in the Tatra Mountains, the highest range of the Polish Carpathians. Zakopane’s popularity goes back to the 1870s, when its clean air, idyllic surroundings, and folkloric past began to attract writers, artists, and craftsmen in search of inspiration.

  Among them was the architect Stanisław Witkiewicz, father of the more famous writer, playwright, and painter known as Witkacy. He designed a house for a client that was inspired by the farmhouses and outbuildings of the Podhale, the highland region north of Zakopane and it launched the Zakopane style, which dominated the look of housing throughout Poland until World War I. Some of the buildings Witkiewicz designed still stand and can be visited; among the best examples is Villa Koliba, completed in 1893 and now housing the Museum of Zakopane Style.

  When he was known as Karol Wojtyla, the late Pope John Paul II (who hailed from these parts) liked to take a good schuss on these trails. The ski slopes of the Zakopane region, the highest of which grace Mount Kasprowy Wierch (6,520 feet), are suitable for skiers of all levels. Don’t expect Aspen, but you’ll find that the town has good equipment and facilities, including a cable car, chair lifts, and decent runs, plus a season that can extend as late as April. Hikers and trekkers will appreciate the 186 miles of trails that crisscross Tatra National Park, just south of Zakopane.

  The massive gingerbread house containing the 54-room Grand Hotel Stamary opened in 1905 and now, after a total makeover, holds Poland’s best spa. You’ll find traditional touches at the more intimate chaletlike Hotel Lipowy Dwor, with 15 small, well-maintained rooms on a quiet street near the center of town.

  On Krupowki Street, the long, pedestrian main street, where horse-drawn sleds make their way, several restaurants offer traditional Carpathian cuisine and live alpine music. The best is Staro Izba; its menu includes excellent lamb dishes, kielbasa, and kwaśnica, a hearty mutton and sauerkraut soup.

  Hotels and homes sit in the shadow of the Tatras.

  WHERE: 65 miles/105 km south of Kraków. VISITOR INFO: www.promocja.zakopane.pl. MUSEUM OF ZAKOPANE STYLE: Tel 48/18-2015205; www.muzeumtatrzanskie.pl. GRAND HOTEL STAMARY: Tel 48/18-202-4510; www.stamary.pl. Cost: from $150 (off-peak), from $210 (peak). HOTEL LIPOWY DWOR: Tel 48/18-206-6796; www.gat.pl. Cost: from $75. BEST TIMES: Dec–Mar for skiing; Jun–Sep for trekking; mid-Aug for International Festival of Mountain Folklore.

  The Last Thriving Peasant Culture in Europe

  MARAMUREȘ

  Romania

  Folded into the Mara and Izei valleys in northern Romania is time-warped Maramureș, a rural region where a medieval way of life persists largely untouched by the intense transformations that the rest of Romania has weathered over the past 25, 80, even 200 years. Peasants continue to live off the land, traditional villages are improbably preserved, and centuries-old customs are still dutifully followed: Hitchhikers along the single-lane back roads are just as likely to get a ride in a horse-drawn cart as in a car.

  Maramureș’s PAUSE button is stuck largely because of poor economic conditions and an exodus of skilled workers. But the glimpse of the past it offers—amid a hypnotic, undulating landscape—has generated unexpected appeal. Travelers who spend some time in this green landscape of haystacks, ancient farmsteads, and fields plowed with teams of oxen will find a warm welcome, often punctuated with a shot of homemade țuică, a plum brandy that’s prized locally and popular in all of Romania.

  This has always been a forested region, and its builders and carvers made lavish use of wood in intricately carved wooden gates, traditional houses with steeply pitched roofs, and even wooden grave markers. At the Cimitirul Vesel (Merry Cemetery) in the town of Săpânta, 13 miles northwest of Sighetu Marmației, the unofficial tourism hub of Maramureș, a local wood-carver created blue-painted markers starting in 1935, each including a portrait and a warm, often humorous epitaph. The markers have appeared in art exhibits across Europe, but most are still in the cemetery, ready to be visited.

  Wood construction reached a kind of apogee in tall, wooden, Orthodox churches built of logs and thick beams without the use of a single metal nail. One in Surdești, built in 1724, is 236 feet tall. Other notable examples are two 17th-century churches in Călinești and the region’s oldest church, built in 1365, in Ieud.

  WHERE: Sighetu Marmației is 344 miles/554 km northwest of Bucharest. VISITOR INFO: www.romaniatourism.com/maramures.html. WHERE TO STAY: The Casa Iurca, in Sighetu Marmației, is a family-run inn whose popular restaurant is a plus. Tel 40/262-318-890; www.casaiurca.ro. Cost: from $50. HOW: Staying in the villages is highly recommended. The website www.pensiuni.info.ro is an excellent source for finding guesthouses. Cost: from $35. BEST TIMES: May–Sep for nicest weather; Jul for Maramusical Festival in Botiza; early Aug for Hora de la Prislo
p folk music festival, held on the Prislop Pass; Dec 27 for Winter Festival, featuring food, music, costumes, and a parade in Sighetu Marmației.

  The Sistine Chapels of the East

  THE PAINTED MONASTERIES OF SOUTHERN BUCOVINA

  Moldavia, Romania

  In the 15th and 16th centuries, painters working for local princes and powerful families in what is now northeastern Romania took entire buildings as their canvases, covering a cluster of small monasteries from top to bottom, often inside and out, with brightly colored frescoes. Their purpose was to record the good fortune bestowed on their patrons, especially in regional warfare, and to tell stories of redemption and damnation to a largely illiterate populace. What they left to modern Romania was a unique and surprisingly enduring cultural gift.

  Spread over an area 45 miles west of Suceava, in the dramatically unspoiled region of the Carpathian foothills called Southern Bucovina, the painted monasteries remain remarkably vivid in color and detail despite 500 years of exposure to harsh weather, assorted vandals, and the whims of successive rulers. Acclaimed as brilliant examples of a Byzantine aesthetic infused with the vitality of local folk art, mythology, and historical references, they were a kind of poor man’s Bible—late-medieval billboards of Orthodox Christianity in a time when this part of Europe was under the threat of Turkish invaders.