Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Selected city: krakow
Cities & towns
Kraków
In 1949 work began on fields outside Kraków on a city built from scratch – for the people who would work in a gigantic steelworks. Nowa Huta ("New Steelworks") was meant to be a model socialist town without a church and with a central squa…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Between 1934 and 1937 archaeologists dug right down to the base of Krakus Mound, looking for the grave of the legendary founder of Kraków. They found no grave. What they did find was just as intriguing: the mound has a carefully planned st…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
In Mogiła, now part of Kraków's Nowa Huta district, stands a mound that nobody has fully explained. Wanda Mound was probably raised in the 7th–8th century, and since the Middle Ages it has been seen as the grave of the legendary daughter o…
Cities & towns
Kraków
For almost five hundred years Kazimierz was not a district of Kraków but a separate town — with its own market square, town hall and walls, cut off from Kraków by a branch of the Vistula. King Casimir the Great founded it on 27 February 13…
Monuments & mounds
Kraków
Into this mound went soil from every First World War battlefield where Poles fought, and since 1981 soil from Second World War battlefields has also rested at its foot — hence its nickname, the "Grave of Graves". Józef Piłsudski Mound, on…
Nature
Kraków
In 1917, in the middle of the First World War, the Kraków Municipal Savings Bank bought the woods on the city's western hills and handed them over to the city as a people's park. That is how Wolski Forest came about — 419 hectares of beech…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
The Camaldolese Hermitage at Bielany (Polish: Klasztor na Bielanach, roughly "KLAHSH-tor nah byeh-LAH-nakh") is a Baroque monastery on Silver Mountain, rising above the Vistula valley at the edge of Wolski Forest on Kraków's western outski…
Hidden gemMonuments & mounds
Kraków
The dragon was originally meant to lie in the Vistula, partly submerged in the current. The idea was dropped when it became clear that rubbish carried by the river would pile up on the sculpture. So Bronisław Chromy's bronze Wawel Dragon w…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
Mogiła Abbey (say "mo-GHEE-wah") is a Cistercian monastery in Kraków's Nowa Huta district – and the oldest landmark of a neighborhood better known for Stalin-era architecture. Monks have lived here without interruption since 1222. Its basi…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Kraków
Long before chartered Kraków and its Main Square existed, a trade route from Hungary and Bohemia to Mazovia and Greater Poland already ran this way. Grodzka Street leads from a corner of the Main Market Square to the foot of Wawel Hill and…
Hidden gemTechnical monuments
Kraków
A 145-metre steel arch, two suspended decks and bronze acrobats who seem to be balancing above the Vistula – within a few years the Father Bernatek Footbridge has become one of the symbols of modern Kraków. It links Kazimierz with Podgórze…
Hidden gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
The entire nave vault springs from a single column in the middle of the church and spreads overhead like the crown of a tree. The Church of the Holy Cross, next to the Słowacki Theatre, is one of the purest Gothic buildings in Kraków, and…
Hidden gemOld towns & squares
Kraków
The Little Market Square (Mały Rynek, say "MAH-wih RIH-nek") in Kraków is a long, cobbled square tucked directly behind St. Mary's Basilica – a calmer sidekick to the vast Main Market Square and one of the oldest trading spots in the city.…
Other
Kraków
Céline Dion, the Scorpions, Krzysztof Krawczyk and the TV detective Lieutenant Borewicz all share the same stretch of riverside path below Wawel Hill. Kraków's Avenue of Stars (Aleja Gwiazd) is a row of brass stars set into the paving of t…
Other
Kraków
Just a few steps from the bustle of the Main Market Square lies St Mary's Square – an intimate square around St Mary's Basilica where, until the early 19th century, the dead were buried. Pale paving now marks the area of the old cemetery,…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The Dominican Basilica in Kraków – the Basilica of the Holy Trinity on Stolarska Street – is a soaring Gothic brick church just a few minutes from the Main Market Square. Dominican friars have been based here since 1222, and the church is…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The Franciscan Basilica in Kraków – formally the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, on All Saints' Square (plac Wszystkich Świętych) – is one of the oldest churches in the Old Town and a must for anyone who loves Art Nouveau. Its interior…
Landscape parks
Kraków
Bielany-Tyniec Landscape Park (Bielańsko-Tyniecki Park Krajobrazowy, roughly "byeh-LAHN-skoh ti-NYETS-kee PAHRK krah-yo-brah-ZOH-vee") is a green belt along the Vistula in western Kraków, combining the Benedictine abbey in Tyniec, the Cama…
Old towns & squares
Kraków
The Kraków Christmas Market 2026 opens on the Main Market Square on 27 November 2026 and runs until 6 January 2027. Wooden stalls go up between the Cloth Hall, St Mary's Basilica and the Mickiewicz Monument, and Galician mulled wine is pou…
Landmarks
Kraków
St. Florian's Gate in Kraków (Polish: Brama Floriańska, "BRAH-mah flo-RYAN-skah") is the medieval city gate and tower that marks the northern entrance to the Old Town at the top of Floriańska Street. Together with a surviving stretch of th…
Other
Kraków
The Vistula Boulevards (Bulwary Wiślane, roughly "bool-VAH-ri veesh-LAH-neh") are Kraków's historic riverside embankments, now the city's favorite place to stroll, cycle and picnic with Wawel Castle as the backdrop. They line both banks of…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
The John Paul II Centre "Do Not Be Afraid!" in Kraków is a pilgrimage and cultural complex in the Łagiewniki district (say "wah-gyev-NEE-kee"), built around the octagonal Sanctuary of St. John Paul II, a museum devoted to the Polish pope a…
Landmarks
Kraków
Rakowicki Cemetery (Cmentarz Rakowicki, roughly "rah-ko-VEETS-kee") in Kraków is the city's oldest municipal cemetery and one of Poland's most important burial grounds. Spread over more than 42 hectares of tree-lined avenues, it holds pain…
Old towns & squares
Kraków
For centuries, kings rode along this same route to Wawel to be crowned, and funeral processions carried their coffins the same way. The Royal Route runs from Matejko Square through St Florian's Gate, the Main Market Square and Grodzka and…