Krakow's Old Town (Stare Miasto) is the medieval city centre, enclosed within the Planty — a ring of parkland that replaced the city walls demolished in the 19th century. The area was spared the destruction that flattened Warsaw and much of Poland during the Second World War, which means the Old Town's streetscape of Gothic churches, Renaissance palaces, and Baroque townhouses is largely intact and genuine, not reconstructed.
The density of significant buildings is extraordinary — a slow walk through the Old Town passes under the Gothic arch of the Florian Gate, along the Royal Road lined with churches and merchants' houses, to the Main Market Square and then down to Wawel. The streets between the square and the Planty hold Collegium Maius (Poland's oldest surviving university building), the Church of St. Anne, the Czartoryski Museum, and dozens of other sites. The Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; navigating it is easy and the distances are short.