Kraków
The city Cracow was founded in 1320. The Cracow population is now estimated at 769,307 people. Back in 1950, the population was 339,473. Warsaw is the capital of Poland now but back in 1596 Cracow was the capital.
LEGEND
SMOK WAWELSKI - Wawel Dragon
Once upon a time there lived a good king in a castle upon the Wawel hill in the place where today we can see the royal castle in Cracow. All the people in his country loved him, because he was just and honest and knew very well how to rule his people.
One day terrible news shocked the whole land. An enormous dragon appeared out of nowhere and settled down in a huge cave just under the king’s castle. Since the day he appeared in Cracow terrible things started to happen in the neighbourhood. He needed big amounts of food every day, so he often attacked farms and stole cattle, sheep or chickens. But that was not enough for him. After a while he ordered the people of Cracow to bring him every morning one beautiful, young girl so that he could eat her for breakfast. Otherwise – as he said – he would use the fire from his stomach to destroy the whole city. What could the people do? They had to agree. Poor king was crying day and night seeing the terrible misery of his people.
Finally he came up with an idea. He sent his servants to all corners of the world with a message that the daredevil who would have enough courage to come and kill the monster would as a reward receive half of the kingdom and the king’s beautiful daughter as a wife.
Both the kingdom and the princess attracted a great variety of brave young men: soldiers, knights, princes were coming form different far-off lands. Unfortunately, the dragon was stronger and killed them all without the slightest difficulty. The saddest moment came when one day the monster demanded the princes for his next morning meal.
And just then a very strange person appeared in the castle – it was neither a soldier nor a noble, but an ordinary shoemaker, a young boy called Dratewka, who lived and worked in Cracow. Nobody believed him when he said he could kill the dragon, but the king was so much in despair that he let him try.
The boy took the skin of one dead sheep and stuffed it with sulphur. Next he stitched it very carefully and added four sticks that looked like legs. After it had been done he took the ‘sheep’ to the cave and placed it right in front of the entrance. When the dragon woke up in the morning he saw the animal as if waiting for him. He was expecting the princess, but he thought he could have that sheep as a starter. Without hesitation he swallowed the dish. A few moments passed and suddenly something strange started to happen inside his stomach. He felt extremely thirsty so he rushed to the nearby river and started to drink. He was drinking and drinking and drinking but nothing could satisfy his thirst. He drank almost all water from the river and then – with a huge ‘boom’ he popped like a balloon! The noise could be heard in all corners of the kingdom.
The king was very happy. He immediately gave half of his kingdom to the shoemaker and the princess was also delighted to marry her hero. After the old king’s death the shoemaker was crowned and ruled long and happily.
prize for ftf is a jar of our homemade jam 
This is the first of the series The Legends of Poland.
please pop in for coffee to our farm and for a rest.
7kotow