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Old Town Museums

Kraków is host to a plethora of museums. Opening hours and exhibitions that are continually closing for restoration can strike visitors as willfully eccentric, until one stops to consider how much patience and care - and how little capital - is invested to maintain such high standards. It is for this reason that philanthropic visitors may even see fit to throw an extra złoty into the collection box. Alternatively, cheapskates and paupers should note that all branches of the National Museum are free on Sundays. The museums listed here are in the Old Town, while Kazimierz and Podgórze museums are listed in their respective sections of the guide.


Krakow » Sightseeing » Museums

19th Century Polish Art Gallery

19th Century Polish Art Gallery
Open again after a lengthy closure, the magnificent 19th Century Polish Art Gallery is better than ever. Comprising four separate spaces above the Cloth Hall, the works on display cover painting in Poland throughout most of that century and beyond. Read_on (No Comments)

Archaeology Museum

Fresh from a recent boost of cash, Kraków’s one-time lacklustre Archaeology Museum has been transformed into something actually worth going to have a look at. Read_on (No Comments)

Archdiocesan Museum of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła

John Paul II lived here - twice. Once as Karol Wojtyla, the young priest with a penchant for skiing (his Head skis are on show) and later as a bishop, in grander, adjacent rooms. Read_on (No Comments)

Barbican

The showpiece of the city's medieval defences, the Barbican was built at the end of the 15th century to protect Kraków's main entrance and was connected to the Floriańska Gate via a drawbridge over the moat that surrounded it. Read_on (No Comments)

Bishop Erazm Ciołek Palace

This early 14th century palace holds two permanent exhibitions of the National Museum, Art of Old Poland from the 12th to 18th Centuries and Orthodox Art of the Old Polish Republic. Read_on (No Comments)

Cathedral Museum

For more info see Wawel Cathedral. Read_on (No Comments)

Celestat

About as odd as it gets, the History of the Fowler Brotherhood celebrates what is essentially a male-only cult of hunters who wear strange hats, worship a silver chicken and have their very own king. Read_on (No Comments)

City Defensive Walls

This small museum is in turns uninformative and overly informative, but basically it gives you a chance to climb around what's left of Kraków's 13th century defensive walls. Read_on (No Comments)

City Engineering Museum

For more info see Kazimierz Museums & Synagogues. Read_on (No Comments)

Collegium Maius

Jagiellonian University is the third oldest university in Europe, founded by King Kazimierz the Great in 1364. Its picturesque courtyard ranks as one of the most beautiful of the city. Read_on (No Comments)

Czartoryski Museum

Renowned for its possession of Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine - one of only three existent Da Vinci oil paintings Read_on (3 Comments)

Ethnographical Museum

For more info see Kazimierz Museum & Synagogues. Read_on (No Comments)

Galicja Jewish Museum

For more info see Kazimierz Museums & Synagogues. Read_on (No Comments)

Gallery of Ancient Art

This small branch of the National Museum is also a satellite of the Czartoryski Museum across the street, and brings together Read_on (No Comments)

Geology Museum

One tiny room given over to the provision of information about the rocks and geological structures in the Kraków region. Read_on (No Comments)

Hipolit House

The Hipolit's were a merchant family who lived in this fine building around the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, although the building dates back considerably further than that. Read_on (No Comments)

History Museum

Established in 1899, Kraków’s superb History Museum charts the trade, culture, politics and daily life of the city from 1257 until the end of the Second Republic in 1939. Read_on (No Comments)

History of Photography Museum

Allegedly Poland’s only museum dedicated exclusively to photography, this recently renovated museum is a real gem for fans of the art form and features some interesting exhibits. Read_on (No Comments)

Home Army Museum

A beautifully restored 3-floor red-brick railway building has been adapted (including a beautiful glass atrium) to house the Home Army Museum - documenting Poland's military resistance against foreign invaders over the last century. Read_on (No Comments)

Isaac's Synagogue

For more info see Kazimierz Museums & Synagogues. Read_on (No Comments)

Jan Matejko House

Jan Matejko was an historical painter whose work and life is honoured in the house where he was born, and would eventually die in the 1890s. Read_on (No Comments)

Józef Mehoffer House

Mehoffer was one of the turn of the 19th century's artistic elite, a skilled stained-glass artist collaborating with Wyspański on the interiors of numerous Kraków churches and important buildings. Read_on (No Comments)

Manggha

The Museum of Japanese Art & Technology houses the National Museums Japanese artefacts, consisting primarily of local legend Read_on (No Comments)

National Museum in Kraków

National Museum in Kraków
Far from being the shoeless peasants many cynical historians would have us believe, previous generations of Poles have in actual fact excelled in the arts. Read_on (No Comments)

Old Synagogue

For more info see Kazimierz Museums & Synagogues. Read_on (No Comments)

Palace of the Arts

This gorgeous Art Nouveau building's exterior depicts the highs and lows of the creative process, with a few famous Poles incorporated in. Read_on (No Comments)

Pharmacy Museum

Located inside a wonderful 15th-century building, Kraków's brilliant Pharmacy Museum is laid out on several floors Read_on (No Comments)

Pharmacy Under the Eagle

For more info see Podgórze Museums. Read_on (No Comments)

Polish Aviation Museum

Until recently this magnificent museum was little more than a place of marginal interest to flight enthusiasts, most of them from Poland. Read_on (No Comments)

Remuh Synagogue & Cemetery

For more info see Kazimierz Museums & Synagogues. Read_on (No Comments)

Rynek Underground

Rynek Underground
The largest market square in Europe, Kraków's magnificent Rynek Główny (Main Market Square) has been attracting Read_on (No Comments)

Schindler's Factory

For more info see Schindler's Kraków. Read_on (No Comments)

Stained Glass Museum

A fitting museum for a city renowned for its spectacular examples of the art, not only do they display some fine examples, the good people who run this unique sight on the premises of S. Read_on (No Comments)

Temple Synagogue

For more info see Kazimierz Museums & Synagogues. Read_on (No Comments)

Town Hall Tower

The only element of the 14th century town hall remaining after many fires, renovations and uncaring demolitions, is this 70m-high tower, proudly standing next to the Cloth Hall. Read_on (No Comments)

Ulica Pomorska

'People of Krakow in Times of Terror 1939-1945-1956' is an exhibit that endeavours to recount the misery and cruelty of foreign domination and totalitarian injustice in Kraków. Read_on (No Comments)

Wyspiański Museum

Dedicated to the beautiful works of Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907), Kraków's foremost Art Nouveau artist and one of the city's most celebrated sons. Read_on (No Comments)

Zwierzyniecki House

This very obscure branch of the Kraków History Museum sits at the bottom of Salwator Hill, not far from the Błonia, though it's hard to imagine anyone discovering it by accident without being hopelessly lost. Read_on (No Comments)