PORTION OF THE CITY IN FLAMES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13540, 18 November 1914, Page 3

PORTION OF THE CITY IN FLAMES.

(Received November 18, 10.25 a.m.) ROME, Nov. 17. Advices received at Venice state that part of Cracow is .invested, and is ablaze. The inhabitants are fleeing. [Cracow is a city, m Austrian Galicia 259 miles north-east of Vienna. Xt -stands 672 feet aboye sea level, m a wide hill-girt plana, JSh %he left bank of the Vistula, which here becomes navi- 1 fable and expands by a bridge (built m 850) leading to' Podgorze. The old walls, converted into promenades,, have been superseded by a line of detached forts. On the Wawel rock rises the old castle of "the Polish kings, degraded now to a barracks. The neignboring cathedral (1320—50) is a splendid pUe, containing the graves of eminent men, such as Kosciusko, with-Thorwalden's statue of Christ. The university, dating hack to 1364, was recognised and reopened m 1817, and has .been attended by, over 1100 students. Important fairs were held at Cracow, and there was a great revival m its trade and manufactures, comprising chemicals, tobacco, beer, agricultural implements, etc. Three miles west of the city iis a grassy mound 150 ft. high, rearedi m 1823 to the memory of Kosciusko. , Cracow was the Polish capital from 1320 to 1600. On the third partition Of Poland m 1795 it .was assigned to Austria. In 1809—15 it was part of. the Duchy of Warsaw, and m 1816—45 it was a republic, but m 1846 it was re-annexed to Austria. The population is about 100,000.]