The obviousness of coexistence : intercultural relations in the capital of Władysław Jagiełło's monarchy

The courts of medieval Europe essentially constituted an environment in which cross-cultural contacts occurred rather frequently. The court of Władysław Jagiełło may be a good case in point here. The ruler, brought up in the Ruthenian traditions of pagan multicultural Lithuania, who, baptised, entered the circle of the culture of the Latin West and became a Catholic Polish monarch. Gradually acquiring new knowledge, new experiences and new cultural competences, the ruler never completely renounced his old habits, customs and traditions - skilfully synthesizing them also in the circle of people in his environment. Krakow, the capital of the Jagiellonian monarchy was also a multicultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic city. Within the walls of this city of diversity was considered something natural and obvious, not interfering with the relatively harmonious coexistence of members of the communities living there. This harmony was given a new dynamics with the reopening, upon the efforts of the royal couple - Jadwiga and Jagiełło - the Kraków Studium Generale. Today, when tolerance for diversity seems to have again become a problem, Kraków of the days of Władysław Jagiełło may constitute a positive example of solving problems related with such an attitude