EUROFUSE Workshop on Data and Knowledge Engineering

	EUROFUSE Workshop on Data and Knowledge Engineering September 22-25, 2004, Warszawa, Poland

Sightseeing suggestions

WARSZAWA

The conference venue is in the walking distance of virtually all sightseeing attractions of Warszawa, commercial zones, the opera house and theaters, etc.

KRAKOW (CRACOW)

One can get to Krakow (Cracow) from Warsaw by a less than 3 hours train ride. Other sites worth visiting in the southern Poland include:

a historical salt mine of Wieliczka, the only museum of this kind in the world (oldest parts dating back to 11^th century, an underground church,...), close to Cracow.
Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp ca. 40 km from Cracow, and can be reached by (rental) car or train.

Brief info about Cracow

Cracow was the capital of Poland, and then of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, between the end of the 11^th century and the end of 16^th century. Jagiellonian University, founded in 1360, was the first Slavic university (Copernicus was one of its students). In 14^th-16^th centuries Cracow was one of the most powerful cities of Europe, with a well-developed self-government and close ties with virtually all the regions of Europe, both East and West. Thus, in particular, Cracow was the primary place of work of one of the most renowned medieval sculptors, Veit Stoss, originating from Nürnberg in Germany, which was due to the fact that Germans constituted an important part of the city's population; one of the quarters of Cracow, Kazimierz, hosted the Jewish community that was the largest in Central Europe; and an important number of Armenian merchants and craftsmen lived in the city since the early Middle Ages. The present size and shape of the Old Town Square repeat those of the Middle Ages. The entire medieval town of Siena in Italy - of that time - could fit well into this market square. Poland in general, but Cracow in very particular, is the place where you can see the only true-to-life Renaissance architecture North of the Alps. This is due to the fact that Buona Sforza, a daughter of Dukes of Milan, married the King of Poland and brought the finest Italian architects of Renaissance to Poland.