Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship , the city has a population of , , with approximately 8 million additional people living within a km 62 mi radius. The city began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was a busy trading centre of Central Europe in Felix and Adaukt Rotunda, Romanesque churches such as St. Andrew's Church , a cathedral , and a basilica. A third attack in was repelled thanks in part to the newly built fortifications. The city continued to grow under the Jagiellonian dynasty.
As the capital of the Kingdom of Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League , the city attracted many craftsmen from abroad, [ 40 ] businesses, and guilds as science and the arts began to flourish. The walls were expanded again in due to the growth of the community and influx of Jews from Bohemia. The Polish throne passed to Henry III of France and then to other foreign-based rulers in rapid succession, causing a decline in the city's importance.
Already weakened during the 18th century, by the mids the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth had twice been partitioned by its neighbors: Russia , the Habsburg empire and Prussia. The richer Jewish families began to move out.
However, because of the injunction against travel on the Sabbath , most Jewish families stayed relatively close to the historic synagogues. In , German became the town's official language. Of the members appointed by the Habsburgs to the municipal council only half were Polish. Outside the city, mining and metallurgy started developing. The population of the city had an increasing number of Catholic clergy, officials and intelligentsia with which the rich townspeople sympathised.
They were opposed to the conservative landed aristocracy who also were drawn more and more to the city real estates even though their income still mainly came from their agricultural possessions in the Republic, the Kingdom of Poland and Galicia. The percentage of the Jewish population in the city also increased in this time from During the era of the free city, a free trade zone led to positive economic development.
