A lighthouse in Kraków?

I suppose that even if you are a foreigner either living or just visiting Kraków for a short time you would not expect to find a lighthouse in the city. It is not located by the sea nor it is a river port. However, thanks to one of its citizens from the 19th century one of the city towers becomes a lighthouse for a few days every year. 

Haby you got any ideas who was this citizen that I'm refering to in the above introcution? Somebody whose name does not seem Polish and his English was mastered enough to earn him a title of one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. A person who left Poland at an early age and travelled to exotic countries, living the life of a sailor for a long time and gathering enough of thoughts and experience on the condition of human beings. A writer whose texts are that universal though written in the 19th and early 20th century that they inspire e.g. Francis Ford Coppola. 

Yes, I'm speaking about Joseph Conrad, born as Józef Korzeniowski. It is thanks to him and the fact of his short period of living in Kraków (in Poselska Street you can find a plaque commemorating this fact) and the organisers of the Conrad Festival that the City Hall Tower becomes a lighthouse for a few days in October. 

And since October and this year edition of the festival is getting closer and closer I wanted to remind you of the person and also you can check for yourself if the light on the City Hall Tower will again lead all the lovers of literature to Kraków between 19 and 25 of October. 

While waiting fir this magical moment in October we can have a look at the pictures of lighthouses  (also exotic one) from the online collection of the National Museum in Kraków:

You can also visit the branch of the Museum of Kraków-Rynek Underground to move back in time to the centuries when Kraków was among the cities of the Hanzeatic League (mostly ports) as an important centre of trade.