Things to do in Kraków

Wawel Royal Castle

Kraków

120–240 min

The Royal Castle on Wawel Hill was the principal residence of Poland's monarchs and is today one of the country's most important museums. The stronghold's origins go back to the 11th century, and its Renaissance shape with the arcaded cour…

Nowa Huta

Kraków

180–360 min · Free entry

Nowa Huta is a town built from scratch — Poland’s largest exercise in socialist-realist urban planning and one of the few such vast projects in Europe. Construction began in 1949 for the workers of a new metallurgical combine; the Lenin St…

Cloth Hall (Sukiennice)

Kraków

60–120 min

In the very heart of the Main Market Square stands the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) — a Renaissance merchants' hall whose trading traditions go back to the Middle Ages. After the great fire of 1555 the building was rebuilt in Renaissance style,…

Krakus Mound

Kraków

20–40 min

**Krakus Mound** in Kraków’s Podgórze district is the city’s oldest and one of its most mysterious mounds. It stands on Lasota Hill, is about 16 metres high and, according to legend, marks the grave of Prince Krak, the city’s founder. Its…

Kraków Barbican

Kraków

Kraków Barbican, also known as the Rondel, is a late-Gothic part of the city’s former fortifications. It stands on Basztowa Street opposite St Florian’s Gate, at the northern edge of the Old Town. The circular brick structure shows how Kra…

St Andrew Church in Kraków

Kraków

**St Andrew’s Church in Kraków** at 56 Grodzka Street is one of Poland’s best-preserved Romanesque buildings. The stone church was founded in the late 11th century as a defensive temple, and its austere exterior contrasts with the richly d…

Sigismund Bell on Wawel Hill

Kraków

## Sigismund Bell on Wawel Hill The Sigismund Bell was hung in 1521 in the Sigismund Tower of Wawel Cathedral. It was cast in Kraków the year before and funded by King Sigismund I the Old. Hans Beham, a bell-founder from Nuremberg, gave it…

Kościuszko Mound

Kraków

**Kościuszko Mound in Kraków** is one of the city’s best-known viewpoints. It was raised between 1820 and 1823 on St Bronisława Hill as a monument to Tadeusz Kościuszko. It rises about 34 metres above the hill, and its earth includes soil…

Wanda Mound

Kraków

**Wanda Mound in Kraków** stands in Nowa Huta, by Ujastek Street. This modest mound, about 14 metres high, is one of the city’s oldest and probably dates from the early Middle Ages. Legend says it is the grave of Wanda, daughter of Prince…

Saints Peter and Paul Church

Kraków

**Kraków's first baroque building** rises in the middle of Grodzka Street — it was constructed between **1597 and 1619** for the Jesuits with funding from **Sigismund III Vasa**. The dolomite facade was modelled on Rome's Santa Susanna, an…

Collegium Maius

Kraków

Collegium Maius at 15 Jagiellońska Street is the oldest surviving building of Jagiellonian University and the home of the UJ Museum. The Gothic complex centres on an arcaded courtyard and preserves the Libraria, professors’ dining room, tr…

Kazimierz in Kraków

Kraków

**Kazimierz in Kraków** is a historic district between the Old Town and the Vistula, known for centuries of coexistence between Christian and Jewish traditions. The former town, chartered in 1335, retains its own urban layout, squares, chu…

Corpus Christi Basilica

Kraków

**Corpus Christi Basilica in Kraków’s Kazimierz district** is a Gothic-Baroque church of the Canons Regular of the Lateran and one of the neighbourhood’s most important landmarks. Its foundation is associated with Casimir the Great around…

St. Adalbert's church

Kraków

On the Main Market Square stands one of the oldest masonry churches in Kraków — St. Adalbert's, with walls dating from the 11th century. It was built when a trade route still ran through this spot, which is why today you descend into it fr…

Old Synagogue in Kraków

Kraków

At **24 Szeroka Street** stands the oldest preserved synagogue in Poland and one of the most valuable monuments of Jewish sacral architecture in Europe. This Gothic-Renaissance, two-aisled hall served as the main synagogue of Kraków's Jewi…

Piłsudski Mound

Kraków

**Piłsudski Mound in Kraków** stands on Sowiniec, in the heart of Wolski Forest. It is about 35 metres high and the largest of Kraków’s mounds. Raised between 1934 and 1937 to commemorate Józef Piłsudski, it contains soil from battlefields…

Skałka in Kraków — Basilica and Crypt

Kraków

**Skałka in Kraków**, the Basilica of St Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop, is one of Kazimierz’s best-known landmarks. Tradition identifies this as the place where Bishop Stanisław of Szczepanów died in 1079. The basilica and…

Juliusz Słowacki Theatre

Kraków

The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre opened on **21 October 1893** as the Municipal Theatre — an eclectic, neo-Baroque 'Kraków opera' designed by Jan Zawiejski and modelled on Viennese theatre buildings. It took barely two years to build, and the…

Krakow Zoo

Kraków

Las Wolski covers **419 hectares** in western Krakow, clothing the highest hills of the Sowiniec ridge: Sowiniec (**358 m above sea level**), Pustelnik (352 m) and Srebrna Gora (317 m). In **1917** the area was bought by the City of Krakow…

Kraków Zoo

Kraków

180–300 min

Kraków Zoo is set in Las Wolski, so a visit combines animals with a walk through one of the city’s greenest areas. Around 1,500 animals representing more than 270 species live across 20 hectares, including over 100 threatened species. ## P…

Tempel Synagogue

Kraków

The Reform synagogue at **24 Miodowa Street** in Kazimierz is one of the four still active synagogues of Kraków. Built between **1860 and 1862** to a design by Ignacy Hercok, it served from the outset as the main house of prayer for the ci…