University route

In 2000, the Jubilee celebrated 600 years of renewal of the Jagiellonian University, the oldest Polish university. In 1400 Władysław Jagiełło revived the University, founded as the Academy of Krakow in 1364 by Casimir the Great. It is the oldest university in Central Europe after Prague. From him the intellectual thought radiated across Europe. The Golden Age is the time of Kraków's greatest glory, the shaping of the currents of humanism and the Reformation, defining the future of the identity of the city. Students of the Jagiellonian University were among others. Nicholas Copernicus, whose heliocentric theory became an epochal discovery, and Karol Wojtyla, later elected to the papal office (John Paul II).


The Jagiellonian University is at the forefront of Polish universities and plays a leading role among the 17 Cracow universities. The most important universities of the city include the AGH University of Science and Technology, the Cracow University of Technology, the Academy of Economics and the Academy of Fine Arts - the oldest art school in Poland. There are almost 100 research institutes in the city. The oldest scientific institution is the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, existing since 1816.