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Nowa Huta, Kraków
Wanda Mound is an earthen tumulus in Cracow's Nowa Huta district, near Mogiła. Together with Krakus Mound it belongs to the oldest structures of this kind in the city, and its origins are usually placed in the early Middle Ages. It is smaller and plainer than the other Cracow mounds, which is why it stays far less crowded.
Tradition sees in it the grave of Wanda, daughter of the legendary duke Krak. According to the story she rejected the advances of a German ruler and threw herself into the Vistula to spare her people a war, and her body was recovered nearby. Researchers also point to other possible reasons for raising the mound: defensive, ritual and even astronomical.
On the summit stands a marble monument designed by Jan Matejko and erected in 1890, showing a distaff crossed with a sword and bearing the name Wanda. The path to the top takes a few minutes, and from above you can see the steelworks, the abbey in Mogiła and the Vistula valley.
