View of the Vistula River

Tower at Wawel Castle

Tower at Wawel Castle

Most old cities are built along the shores of a river. One of the primary purposes of that is to have easy access to water. It is also good for transportation as well. It is not surprising that a lot of very important cities in the world are set up this way. The city of Krakow is in a similar situation. It is situated at the bend of a Vistula River which now winds its way through the modern city of Krakow. In fact, major cities feature the river as one of the focal points of the city.

View of the Vistula River at Wawel Castle

View of the Vistula River at Wawel Castle

It is probably great then that Wawel Hill happens to be right by the Vistula River. This probably helped seal the deal for Wawel Castle. If you have an elevated area and it happens to be a near a river then it would be a perfect place to build a castle. The castle extends all the way to the river and somehow the height of the hill didn’t really change. For this reason, there is a nice viewing area from the castle complex of the Vistula River. You can see the rest of modern Krakow from here, which as far as I can tell, is a relatively flat city. There seem to be some walking paths along the river may it would be able to provide some nice views of the castle.

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