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Description

A Manuscript Map of Kraków following the Kraków Uprising

Finely executed manuscript plan of Kraków, drawn in about 1848.

The map covers the old town of Krakow, centereds, along with the Kazimierz, Stradom, Smolensk, Wesola, Kleparz and Piasek sections of the city, beyond the outer walls of the old town, showing detail very similar to the map of  Kraków by Alexander Kocziczka, published in 1847:  https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/66009

While the map does not include place names, it provides a nice account of the town and environs.

The map shows the city of Kraków at the end of the period when it was the Free City of Kraków (1815-1846), which following the unsuccessful Kraków Uprising.  The present map was acquired in a large collection of manuscript maps of German and Polish regions, which we suspect was amassed by a military engineer in the mid 19th Century.

If the 1848 date in the title is correct, the map shows the city at the end of the reign of Ferdinand I and beginning of the reign of Franz Joseph I, who would have held the title of Grand Duke of Kraków (along with Emperor of Austria) during this period.

Kraków History in the 19th Century

In the late 18th century, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned three times by its expansionist neighbors: Imperial Russia, the Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia. After the first two partitions (1772 and 1793), Kraków was still part of the substantially reduced Polish nation. In 1794 Tadeusz Kościuszko initiated a revolt against the partitioning powers, the Kościuszko Uprising, in Kraków's market square. The Polish army, including many peasants, fought against the Russian and Prussian armies, but the larger forces ultimately put down the revolt. The Prussian army specifically took Kraków on June 15, 1794.  Poland was partitioned for the third time in 1795, and Kraków became part of the Austrian province of Galicia.

When Napoleon Bonaparte captured part of the former Poland, he established the Duchy of Warsaw (1807) as an independent but subordinate state. West Galicia, including Kraków, was taken from the Austrian Empire and added to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1809 by the Treaty of Schönbrunn, which ended the War of the Fifth Coalition. The Congress of Vienna (1815) restored the partition of Poland, but gave Kraków partial independence as the Free City of Cracow. The city again became the focus of a struggle for national sovereignty in 1846, during the Kraków Uprising. The uprising failed to spread outside the city to other Polish lands, and was put down, resulting in the creation of the Grand Duchy of Cracow within the Austrian Empire. In 1850 10% of the city was destroyed in the large fire.

After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria granted partial autonomy to Galicia, making Polish a language of government and establishing a provincial Diet.  Kraków became a Polish national symbol and a center of culture and art, known frequently as the "Polish Athens" (Polskie Ateny) or "Polish Mecca" to which Poles would flock to revere the symbols and monuments of Kraków's (and Poland's) great past.   

Condition Description
Laid on linen. Some minor areas of loss along two folds. Some chipping in blank margins and just touching the neatline.Stradom, Kraków, Poland