Kraków Szopka
The Kraków szopka is a Nativity crib built as a glittering model of the city itself, cramming Wawel Cathedral, St Mary's Basilica, castle towers, spires and arcades into a many-storeyed facade of cardboard, tin foil and painted paper around the central stable. The tradition took shape in the nineteenth century, when Kraków bricklayers and building workers made portable cribs to earn money at Christmas, and it gained its civic form after 1937, when the first official contest was held; makers known as krakowianie still compete every first Thursday of December on the Main Market Square beside the