Kraków Main station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kraków Main station (Polish: Kraków Główny, commonly called Dworzec Główny) is the largest and the most centrally located railway station in Kraków. The building, constructed between 1844 and 1847 (architect: P.Rosenbaum), was sited parallel to the tracks, even though the station was initially a terminus of the Kolej Krakowsko-Górnośląska (Obeschlesische-Krakauer Eisenbahn, English: Cracow and Upper Silesia Railway). This design was chosen to allow for future line expansion. Trains entered the trainshed via an archway in a brick wall at the northern end of the station.

The station opened on 13 October, 1847, with the first train leaving for Mysłowice (then Myslowitz in Prussia).

When the railway line got extended eastwards by the k.k. priv. galizische Carl Ludwig-Bahn (the first section, to Dębica, then Dembitz in the Habsburg Empire, opened in 1856), the increasing traffic resulted in the station's having been modernised and enlarged in stages between 1869 and 1894. The next substantial expansion took place in the 1930s. At that time the northern brick wall and trainshed were demolished, the latter replaced by individual platform roofs.

Currently (mid 2000s) the area surrounding the station is undergoing major development. A new transport interchange is being developed (a coach station, new tram lines, etc.); a new shopping centre (Galeria Krakowska, Cracow Gallery) opened in September 2006.

[edit] References

• (2000) Encyklopedia Krakowa. Warszawa-Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. 
• Demel, Juliusz (1954). Początki kolei żelaznej w Krakowie. Towarzystwo Miłosników Historii i Zabytków Krakowa. 
• Station history

[edit] External links

• Track diagram