Lublin - Brama Krakowska

A fortress of a regional tribe is attested here. After its destruction, Casimir I the Restorer, son of Mieszko II Lambert, had a castle built here.

In 1205 Roman of Volhynia unsuccessfully besieged the castle. In 1241 Lublin was destroyed by the Tatars. In 1244 the place was conquered by Lithuanians, in the same year, Daniel Romanovich of Galicia conquered and fortified it.

Under the protection of the castle, the settlement developed into a trade center. In 1317 it received the town charter. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the town grew rapidly. The largest trade fairs of the Polish-Lithuanian community were held in Lublin. In the 16th century, the parliaments (Sejm) of the Kingdom of Poland were held in Lublin several times. At one of the most important ones, the "Union of Lublin" was proclaimed in 1569, uniting Poland and Lithuania. After the capital was moved from Krakow to Warsaw in 1596, Lublin was located away from the main traffic and trade routes. As a result, there was an economic and cultural decline.

In the course of the Counter-Reformation, the Protestants were forcibly expelled from the city in 1631, so many merchants emigrated. In 1655 Cossacks sacked the town and the following year Swedish soldiers. After the Northern War, the reconstruction of the town began. Stanislaus II August Poniatowski allowed Protestants to settle in the city again. At this time, a significant Jewish community was also established. The Jews were an important part of life in the city until the Holocaust. During WWII they were deported by Nazi Germany to the infamous Lublin Ghetto and eventually murdered.

After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Lublin was part of the Austrian Empire, after the Austro-Polish War of 1809 it was part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815 it was part of Congress Poland as part of the Russian partition of Poland. Russian rule ended in 1915 when the city was occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian armies. After the end of World War I, the Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland - the first government of independent Poland - was based in Lublin for a short time.
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The lower part of the Krakow Gate, made of limestone and bricks, dates back to the 14th century. 200 years later, the gate was renovated after being damaged by several fires. In the 17th century, another renovation of the gate took place. Due to the ongoing renovation works and the limited financial resources of the city, the gate was to be demolished in 1830. However, the project found little support. From 1962 to 1965, the gate was renovated again as part of the transformation of the gate into the Museum of the History of the City of Lublin.

A city festival was held, so the old town was crowded with numerous visitors.