Tourists, who happen to came inside the church of St.Francis quite often are surprised by colorful polichromy, and splendour stained-glass windows
made by our leading artist from Art Nouveau period -Stanisław Wyspiański.


The fire from 1850 destroyed most of the old Gothic church from 13th century. When the reconstruction of the new walls came close to the end, the friar commissioned the polichromy and the windows to young, 'promising' painter from Krakow.
Wyspiański designed windows between 1897 and 1902, and the glass was made in Insbruck in the years 1899 and 1904, according to the artist's design with one exception.
On one of the windows Wyspiański wanted to put the images of three ladies connected with the order of St.Francis of Assisi - Saint Salomea,Blessed Jolanta and Saint Kinga.
The monks however decided later to put only the image of St. Salomea, who brought to Poland order of St.Clare, the image with the surrounding flowers were made by the factory artist from Austria,
and unfortunately damage a little the overall harmony of Wyspiański's design.

There are eight windows, one above the main entrance, and seven in the presbytery, one of them completely covered by the main altar.

The windows from left show :

1) the element of fire with fire itself destroying wooden trunks
2) red lilies- the symbols of fire
3) St.Salomea
4) non-visible (a working ploughman under the clouds -symbolic elements of earth and wind )
5) St.Francis of Assisi praying to Jesus
6) symbols of water irises
7) water flowers white lilies

The most impressive stained glass window is also the last one designed by the artist, and shows God the Father at the moment of Creation of the World.

Three small windows with flower motives on the southern side of the church have been designed in 1904 by Tadeusz Popiel.

During the sunny day it is worth to find some time in the afternoon to have look into the church, as sun shining thhrough gives colorful reflections all over the interior of the church.

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The most popular district of Krakow both among visitors and city bohema features centuries of history rich in events sad or joyful.
Founded in 1335 by king Kazimierz the Great it existed at the beginning as a separate town, to be inherited later by rapidly growing Royal City of Krakow.
Soon after foundation Kazimierz became the refuge place for numerous Jews, who came here from all over Europe.




The colorful streets of Kazimierz witnessed thousands of Jewish lives, some poor and dirty, but many of rich and famous including the cosmetic empress Helena Rubinstein (born here) and the film director Roman Polański ( lost his family in Krakow's Holocaust).
Suddenly the World War II took these lives away, but spared the buildings, left empty and in uncertain conditions until the Communist fall in Central Europe.
The last years is the time of solid renowation of historical buildings, synagogues and old Jewish cementeries, but also for ordinary houses, which remain its pre-war outlook.
Many of the locations are changed now into the restaurants or cafes, and there are almost hundred of them in Kazimierz, all filled in the evening with colorful crowd of students, artists,
and the locals who just want be seen here. There are also plenty of tourists, who just visit the Jevist Quarter, but many of them are staiyng overnight in small hotels or luxury apartments,
which keep the modern world standards in the old historical surroundings.
Kazimierz itself is located several minutes of walking from the river Vistula, the Royal Castle,and even from the old City of Krakow, so indeed the apartments are in the very heart of the city.

Please have look at the photo above ( courtesy of luxury vacation rentals) .

The terrace on the photo is equipped with comfortable garden furniture and a barbecue, and features the view on the river and the Wawel Castle.
The newly decorated and well-furnished 2-bedroom apartment ofers all you need to feel at home, jet away from home.
TV, DVD, computer & broadband are the standard here, bathtube, washing machine and well equipped kitchen which allows comfortable self-catering.


This apartment is only one example from the vast offer prepared by MasterpieceRentals.com, the world's largest website for luxury rentals by owners.
Masterpiece Rentals is not a broker, but rather a matchmaker, which provides the most reliable, inexpensive and simple method for successful relationship between the potential renter and manager of the property. The list, from which tourists can rent directly, includes all types of vacation homes: luxury houses, mansions, castles, villas, estates, beach homes and the like, in over 1,000 popular vacation destinations worldwide.

The appartments to rent in Krakow are at Krakow Luxury Vacation Rentals

The full offer from Poland is at Poland Luxury Vacation Rentals

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When choosing the perfect accommodation for the summer holidays, you have to go through many of various travel places, where you can find the hotel reviews, detailed description
and the room prices.It is hard to remember and to pick up the right offer, and that is the place, where can help you the comparison places, like kayak, that display the offers of different travel agencies together on single web page.




Getting the insurance quote is even more sophisticated and time consuming than simply booking a hotel room.
The insurance companies ask vast number of questions, you have to fill boring questionaries, giving the detailed data about all aspects of your life.
How easy and simple the life would be, if it existed a single site, where one can compare all the quotes at once, without filling the perpetual strings of personal data.
This site exists. At NetQoute.com you can compare the insurance quotes of major providers of car, homeowner, health, life and business insurance.
NetQuote does not directly provide insurance, but connects customers with insurance agents, who contact the client with already prepared insurance quotes tailored to the specific personal demand. It is enough to fill one standard insurance form online, providing the basic info about yourself and your expectations, to be matched to the insurance companies that best fit your profile. Furthermore the agents may contact you to present the competing offer, that best suits your personal needs.
You'll be able later to review these quotes from the comfort of your own home.
Life ( insurance ) was never easier than now.

Try yourself! Take look at Michigan insurance as a perfect example.

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Getting a bit annoyed by the worldwide recession knocking on to our doors, we have decided to look for the new marketing ideas over the ocean.
The friend recently told me about a new commercial prepared by vacation rental just before 2010 Super Bowl competitions.

The idea is - the man in the funny clothes appears from nowhere and make a mess with the luggage of the poor family, trying to tell them into saving a small fortune by choosing
the vacation rental instead of the hotel they've already chosen.
I was a little disappointed at the end,as I expected the man to fly, all in all, US has a long tradition of superheroes.
Wearing the superhero clothes, known as unitard commits.

The hilarious unitard gets the help in the person of the classic salesman and both, yet in different way convince to use the service provided by Vacation Rental.org.

This picture comes from the video published on the pages of vacation rental commercial.

Suddenly, when I recalled Mel Gibson's troubles in ' What Women Want ?', I got the enlightment
and realized that the man in tights is not a bad idea at all. Let's take away some age and pounds from our superhero, make some holes in the unitard and put a nice female blond inside.

Anyway, If the idea works, next year expect the big groups of Polish unitards in front of the Super Bowl stadium - "Stop! Do not waste your hard earned money for such a barbarian play, go to civilized Krakow instead".
I wonder.

Disclaimer:
If anyone doubts that this is a sponsored article - we do not do anything for free. We hope that Vacation Rentals is going to send us one of these priceless unitard suits ( green if possible, please ).

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