Castle, Museum

Wawel is the main symbol of Kraków and of Poland as a whole. Perched on the hill are the Royal Castle, the cathedral, fortifications, gardens and several separate exhibitions, from which you’ll be spoilt for choice. The good news is that you don’t have to pay anything just to walk around Wawel, or to enter the outer courtyards or the beautiful Renaissance arcaded courtyard. So even without visiting the interiors, you’ll see a large part of the…

Market, Gallery

The long, historic Sukiennice Cloth Hall stands right in the centre of Rynek Główny, and you can hardly miss it whilst strolling through the city centre. The market hall on the ground floor is still in use, although fabrics and everyday items have long since been replaced mainly by souvenirs, jewellery and handicrafts. The upper floor houses the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Fine Art. Most visitors simply walk through the shopping arcade for…

Museum

The most interesting thing about the Main Square Underground is that you’re not just looking at objects in display cases. You walk right amongst the exposed pathways, shop foundations and other remains of medieval Kraków, which today lie several metres beneath the paving of the Main Square. A visit is particularly worthwhile if you’re interested in what Kraków looked like hundreds of years ago. The underground is a great place to visit on a…

Museum

The Jewish Museum of Galicia is not a traditional historical museum full of old artefacts and reconstructed rooms. It is more like a large-scale photographic essay. Through contemporary photographs, it showcases synagogues, cemeteries, memorials and the subtle traces of Jewish life that remain scattered across what is now Poland and Ukraine. This is precisely where its strength lies, but for some, it is also its weakness. If you merely skim…