Looking for weird, quirky, or unusual things to do in Krakow? Add this one to your list for sure!

Just a few minutes walk from the Main Market Square, down the street called Karmelicka, you will find a Carmelite Monastery, and on the corner where Karmelicka Street meets Garbarska Street, you will see an iron cage attached to that monastery, protecting something quite valuable. The footprint of King, or Queen Jadwiga!

So why do we sometimes call her King Jadwiga? That’s because she was the King of Poland! Her father, King Louis of Hungary, didn’t have any male heirs, so he convinced the Polish nobility to let his daughter Jadwiga be crowned at the ripe age of 10!  Two years after her coronation- she was married to Władysław II Jagiełło- and people began to call them the more traditional gendered titles.

Jadwiga was born in 1374, and died fairly young in 1399 due to postpartum complications. But in that short time, she was able to establish herself as one of the most, if not the most, important female rulers of Poland, gaining a reputation as a kind-hearted soul who really cared about all people. And it is this personality description that explains why her footprint is here on the corner of a street in Krakow. The legend goes like this…

The Legend of Queen Jadwiga’s Footprint

Queen Jadwiga was walking down the street, when she stumbled upon a poor man. He was a hard worker, and gainfully employed, but his wife had fallen ill, and he was struggling to come up with the money to help her situation. Upon learning his wife’s story, young Jadwiga knew she wanted to help, but didn’t have any money on her to spare. So, she placed her foot on a stone, and began to take off the golden buckle attached to her shoe. She gave the golden buckle to the poor man, so that he could sell it to get the funds he needed to help his wife, and walked away. To the man’s further surprise, he noticed that the Queen had left her footprint behind! The shoe print of course needed to be protected and memorialized, and so it was, and even now you can visit it on your trip to Krakow.

The sign in Polish that reads “stópka Królowej Jadwigi” is translated into “the little foot [or tootsy] of Queen Jadwiga”- and provides an ever-lasting relic honoring one of the greatest rulers Poland has ever seen.

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