or CRACOW, a city of Poland, situated in a palatinate of the same name, E. Long. 25°. 76′. N. Lat. 50°. 8′. It was formerly the capital of Poland, where the kings were elected and crowned, and was once almost the centre of the Polish dominions, but is now a frontier town; a proof how much the power of this republic has been contracted.

Crackow stands in an extensive plain, watered by the Vistula, which is broad but shallow: the city and its suburbs occupy a vast tract of ground, but are badly peopled, that they scarcely contain 16,000 inhabitants. The great square in the middle of the town is very spacious, and has several well-built houses, once richly furnished and well inhabited, but most of them now either untenanted or in a state of melancholy decay. Many of the streets are broad and handsome; but almost every building bears the most striking marks of ruined grandeur: the churches alone seem to have preserved their original splendour. The devastation of this unfortunate town was begun by the Swedes at the commencement of the present century, when it was besieged and taken by Charles XII., but Crackow, the mischiefs it suffered from that ravager of the north were far less destructive than those it experienced during the late dreadful commotions, when it underwent repeated sieges, and was alternately in possession of the Russians and Confederates. The effects of cannon, grape, and musket shot, are still discernible on the walls and houses. In a word, Crackow exhibits the remains of ancient magnificence, and looks like a great capital in ruins: from the number of fallen and falling houses one would imagine it had lately been sacked, and that the enemy had left it only yesterday. The town is surrounded with high walls of brick, strengthened by round and square towers of whimsical shapes, in the ancient style of fortification: these walls were built by Venceslaus king of Bohemia during the short period in which he reigned over Poland.

The university of Crackow was formerly, and not unjustly, called the mother of Polish literature, as it principally supplied the other seminaries with professors and men of learning; but its lustre has been greatly obscured by the removal of the royal residence to Warsaw, and still more by the late intestine convulsions. In this city the art of printing was first introduced into Poland by Haller; and one of the earliest books was the Constitutions and Statutes compiled by Casimir the Great, and afterwards augmented by his successors. The characters are Gothic, the same which were universally used at the invention of printing: the great initial letters are wanting, which shows that they were probably painted and afterwards worn away. The year in which this compilation was printed is not positively known; but its publication was certainly anterior to 1496, as it does not contain the statutes passed by John Albert in that year. The most flourishing period of the university was under Sigismund Augustus in the 16th century, when several of the German reformers fled from the persecutions of the emperor Charles V., and found an asylum in this city. They gave to the world several versions of the sacred writings, and other theological publications, which diffused the reformed religion over great part of Poland. The protection which Sigismund Augustus afforded to men of learning of all denominations, and the universal toleration which he extended to every sect of Christians, created a suspicion that he was secretly inclined to the new church; and it was even reported that he intended to renounce the Catholic faith, and publicly profess the reformed religion.

Towards the southern part of the town, near the Vistula, rises a small eminence or rock, upon the top of which is built the palace, surrounded with brick walls and old towers, which form a kind of citadel to the town. This palace owes its origin to Ladislaus Jagiellon; but little of the ancient structure now appears, as the greatest part was demolished by Charles XII. in 1701, when he entered this town in triumph after the battle of Klipow. It has been since repaired. The remains of the old palace consist of a few apartments, which are left in their ancient state as they existed in the last century. This palace was formerly the residence of the kings of Poland, who, from the time of Ladislaus Locketec, have been crowned at Crackow. The Polish and German historians differ concerning the time when the title of king was first claimed by the sovereigns of this country; but the most probable account is, according to Mr. Coxe, that in 1295 Premilaus assumed the regal title, and was inaugurated at Gnefna by the archbishop of that diocese. He was succeeded by Ladislaus Locketec, who offending the Poles by his capricious and tyrannical conduct, was deposed before he was crowned; and Venceslaus king of Bohemia, who had married Richa daughter of Premilaus, being elected in his stead, was in 1300 consecrated at Gnefna. Ladislaus, after flying from his country and undergoing a series of calamitous adventures, was at length brought to a sense of his misconduct. Having regained the affection of his subjects, he was restored, in the lifetime of Venceslaus, to part of his dominions; and he recovered them all upon the demise of that monarch in the year 1305: he governed, however, for some years without the title of king; but at length in 1320 was crowned at Crackow, to which place he transferred the ceremony of the coronation; and afterwards enacted, that for the future his successors should be inaugurated in the cathedral of this city.

Since that period all the sovereigns have been consecrated at Crackow, excepting the last king. Previous to his election a decree was issued by the diet of convocation, that the coronation should be solemnized for this turn at Warsaw, without prejudice in future to the ancient right of Crackow; a proviso calculated to satisfy the populace, but which will not probably prevent any future sovereign from being crowned at Warsaw, now become the capital of Poland and the residence of its kings. The diadem and other regalia used at the coronation are still kept in the palace of Crackow, under so many keys, and with such care, that it is impossible to obtain a sight of them.

Adjoining to the palace stands the cathedral, also within the walls of the citadel. Here all the sovereigns, from the time of Ladislaus Locketec, have been interred, a few only excepted, viz. Louis and Ladislaus II., who were kings of Hungary as well as of Poland, and whose bodies were deposited in Hungary; Alexander, who died and was buried at Vilna; Henry of Valois, interred in France; and the late monarch Augustus III. The sepulchres of the kings of Poland are not distinguished by any peculiar magnificence; their figures are carved in marble of no extraordinary workmanship, and some are without inscriptions.

The bishop of Crackow is the first in the kingdom, duke of Saveria, and very often a cardinal. His revenues are larger than those of his metropolitan the archbishop of Gnefna, and are computed to amount to 40,000 dollars per annum.