KRAKOW, Poland -- The ancient white marble was too far away to brush with fingertips, but the sarcophagus of King Jadwiga certainly seemed real.

As did the rest of the 14th century cathedral built by Wladislaw the Elbow-high, and the sprawling Renaissance castle next door — seemingly very real neighbors atop Krakow’s Wawel Hill, which, in all likelihood, also was real.

I was having trouble grasping such a magnificent seat of power for a nation that, well, didn’t exist. At least not for centuries at a time.

As the frequent capital of a country that has been on the wrong end of dozens of hostile takeovers — even disappearing from the map for 120 years — Krakow is having the last laugh.

Whereas Dresden, Germany, and Warsaw had to be rebuilt from rubble (and Poles joke about Prague becoming a theme park), Krakow’s medieval and Gothic treasures are intact in large part because of its invaders. Add to that dozens of contemporary galleries and museums covering the best (and worst) of times in Poland, and the kind of nightlife that comes with being home to 100,000 college students.

I was in Krakow to seek out the new vibe in an old city, especially as Poland strives to meet European Union goals, as well as to better understand why the city, no longer the capital, is still considered the cultural heart of Poland.

Or, as a fellow passenger on the train into town put it: “Warsaw is for business. Krakow is for life.”

AGGRESSIVE NEIGHBORS

It’s difficult enough keeping track of your own monarchs over the past 1,000 years, no less rulers during foreign occupations, but Jerzy Korta seemed to have it covered.

Korta, a longtime guide in Krakow, had already shown my wife, Ann, and me the Gothic Church of St. Mary and its 39-foot-tall high altar (carved by Veit Stoss when Columbus was still trying to prove the world isn’t flat), and we had moved on to the Wawel Hill. Wandering among the cheek-to-jowl chapels, tombs, statues and sarcophagi in the Wawel Cathedral, Korta rattled off dates, legends and names, from Boleslaw the Brave (not to be confused with Boleslaw the Curly, Boleslaw the Wrymouthed or Stanislaw the Furrowed Brow) to hometown hero Pope John Paul II, archbishop of Krakow for 15 years.

An odd jog in the royal line: King Jadwiga, a 10-year-old girl who was crowned “king” in 1384 instead of “queen” to make it clear she was the ruler, not a consort. She was later sainted and her cross at the cathedral is a major pilgrimage goal for the Polish. (An American living in Krakow told me there are two religious groups: conservative Catholics and really conservative Catholics: “This is a city that likes to go to church.”)

Interspersed throughout Korta’s patter were glimpses of times when Krakow and Poland were run by someone other than Poles. Much of the story, however, is of geographical — not philosophical or psychological — subjugation.

Captured, not conquered.

According to Korta, Krakow never embraced communism; fought back during the Partition years when Poland was divided up among Russia, Prussia (Germany) and Austria; and maintained the unique language through occupations by Hungary, Prussia, Russia, the Soviet Union, Sweden, the Tartars, Nazis and, in the middle 1600s, the army of Transylvania.

There were silver linings: Krakow ended up part of Austria (instead of Prussia or Russia) during the Partition era, a fact that Krakovians say gives them a better disposition. And the lone positive note in the Nazi occupation during World War II is that the city was used as a regional command — much of which operated out of Wawel Royal Castle — and was spared the bombing that flattened Warsaw.