Kraków weaves royal history into everyday city life: Wawel Castle with the Cathedral, the Main Market Square with St Mary's Basilica and its hourly trumpet call, the former Jewish district of Kazimierz and the landscaped boulevards of the Vistula. The historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and many of the sights are within a single day's walk.
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
Behind a gate with a Hebrew inscription on Szeroka Street lies a small white prayer hall measuring just 10.4 by 5.1 metres. The Remuh Synagogue is the second-oldest synagogue in Kraków and the only one in the city where services are held r…
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 gemCaves
Kraków
The Dragon's Den (Polish: Smocza Jama, roughly "SMOH-chah YAH-mah") is a limestone cave inside Wawel Hill in Kraków, the legendary lair of the Wawel Dragon. A short, atmospheric route takes you from the castle grounds down a spiral stairca…
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 gemLandmarks
Kraków
Behind the synagogue at 40 Szeroka Street lies one of the oldest surviving Jewish cemeteries in Europe. The Remuh Cemetery (also spelled Remah) has received the dead since 1551, and its oldest matzevah dates from 1552 — in Poland only Wroc…
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 gemChurches & monasteries
Kraków
Most visitors in St Mary's Square look up at the towers of St Mary's Basilica — and walk straight past the smaller church on the other side of the square. Yet St Barbara's holds a stone Pietà from the late 14th century, a carved Garden of…
Hidden gemMuseums
Kraków
The Museum of Kraków is not a single building but a network of sites across the city: from the Barbican and the Town Hall Tower, through the underground of the Market Square, to Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory and the shelters of Nowa Hut…
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 gemMuseums
Kraków
In Kraków's Kazimierz district, at ul. św. Wawrzyńca 15, stands a group of halls that since the late 19th century has housed horse-drawn trams, narrow-gauge electric trams and buses in turn. The museum calls it unique in Europe — an almost…
Hidden gemPalaces
Kraków
Krzysztofory Palace, on the corner of the Main Market Square and ul. Szczepańska, is the headquarters of the Museum of Kraków and one of the best places to get to grips with the city's history in a single afternoon. It takes its name from…
Hidden gemMuseums
Kraków
Jan Matejko, Poland's great painter of national history, bought this manor house in 1876 with money from the sale of his painting "Batory at Pskov" – mainly so that his often sickly children could breathe country air. In Krzesławice, now p…
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…
Landmarks
Kraków
Of the more than three kilometres of medieval walls that once ringed Kraków, only about 200 metres survive – thanks to one professor who argued in the city senate that the walls protected St Mary's Basilica from nasty winds blowing in from…
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,…
Lakes
Kraków
Zakrzówek in Kraków is a flooded former limestone quarry with turquoise water framed by white cliffs – one of the most unusual places to relax in any Polish city. It lies in the Dębniki district, a few kilometres from the Main Square, and…
Museums
Kraków
The Under the Eagle Pharmacy (Apteka pod Orłem, roughly "AP-teh-kah pod OR-wem") in Kraków is one of the most moving places to visit in Podgórze, the district south of the Vistula where the Nazis sealed off the city's Jewish ghetto in 1941…
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…