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The Krakow region attracts more visitors - Polish and foreign - than any other in the country. The Tatras , which form the border with Slovakia, are Poland's grandest and most beautiful, snowcapped for much of the year and markedly alpine in feel. Along with their foothills, the Podhale , and the neighbouring, more modest peaks of the Pieniny , they have been an established centre for hikers for the best part of a century. And with much justice, for there are few ranges in Europe where you can get so authentic a mountain experience without having to be a committed climber. The region as a whole is perfect for low-key rambling, mixing with holidaying Poles, and getting an insight into the culture of the indigenous gorale , as the highlanders are known. Other outdoor activities are well catered for, too, with raft rides down the Dunajec Gorge in summer and some fine winter skiing on the higher Tatra slopes. With a population of just under one million, Krakow itself is equally impressive: a city that ranks with Prague and Vienna as one of the architectural gems of central Europe, with a Stare Miasto which retains an atmosphere of fin-de-siecle stateliness. A longtime university centre, its streets are a cavalcade of churches and aristocratic palaces, while at its heart is one of the grandest of European squares, the Rynek Glowny. The city's significance for Poles goes well beyond the aesthetic though, for this was the country's ancient royal capital, and has been home to many of the nation's greatest writers, artists and thinkers, a tradition retained in the thriving cultural life. The Catholic Church in Poland has often looked to Krakow for guidance, and its influence in this sphere has never been greater - Pope John Paul II was archbishop of Krakow until his election in 1978. Equally important are the city's Jewish roots . Until the last war, this was one of the great Jewish centres in Europe, a past whose fabric remains clear in the old ghetto area of Kazimierz, and whose culmination is starkly enshrined at the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau , west of Krakow. This section also takes in an area which loosely corresponds to Malopolska - a region with no precise boundaries, but which by any definition includes some of the historic heartlands of the Polish state. Highlights here, in countryside characterized by rolling, open landscape, market towns and farming villages, include Kielce , springboard for hikes into the Swietokrzyskie Mountains , the magnificent ruins of Krzyztopor Castle and the pilgrim centre of Czestochowa , home of the Black Madonna, the country's principal religious symbol.
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