Galician Town in Nowy Sącz (Miasteczko Galicyjskie)

The Galician Town in Nowy Sącz (Miasteczko Galicyjskie; say NOH-vee SONCH) is an open-air museum that recreates a small market town of Austrian-ruled Galicia around 1900, complete with a cobbled square, a town hall, timber houses and craftsmen's workshops you can step inside. Run by the Nowy Sącz District Museum, it sits right next to the Sącz Ethnographic Park, so you can see both town and village life in one visit. It is one of the most family-friendly sights in southern Poland's Sącz region.

Where it is and how to get there

Nowy Sącz is in the foothills of the Carpathians in southern Poland, roughly 100 km southeast of Kraków, about two hours by car or bus. The Galician Town is on the eastern edge of the city at Lwowska 226. There is a large free parking lot for cars and coaches, and city buses 25 and 27 stop nearby.

What was Galicia?

From 1772 to 1918 this part of Poland belonged to the Habsburg Empire as the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Small towns were multicultural places where Poles, Jews and others lived and traded side by side. The museum built this ensemble in 2005–2010 to show that world, modeling the buildings on real ones from the region, including Stary Sącz, Łososina Górna, Ciężkowice and Zakliczyn. The town hall is a replica of a design for Stary Sącz that was never built.

What to see

Start on the market square with its wooden well, then go door to door. The houses hold recreated:

• a retro pharmacy, a dentist's office and a barbershop,
• a photographer's studio and a watchmaker's workshop,
• a potter's and a woodworker's workshop and a Jewish tailor's shop,
• a post office, a colonial goods store and a pastry shop,
• an exhibition of folk sculpture and painting from the village of Paszyn,
• a fire station with old fire engines, helmets and hand pumps.

The town hall has a café and exhibition room, with guest rooms upstairs, and the Orawka inn opposite serves regional food.

Is it worth visiting?

Yes, especially with children or if you are curious about everyday life in old Galicia. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the town alone, or 3–4 hours with the neighboring open-air village museum (over 20 hectares). The square and paths are cobbled, which matters with a stroller. Labels are mostly in Polish, so consider booking an English-speaking guide (PLN 130, or PLN 180 with the combined ticket).

Opening hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

• Hours: until 15 October, Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00); 16 October–30 April, Tue–Sun 9:00–16:00 (last entry 15:00). Closed Mondays and on major holidays.
• Tickets: standard PLN 20, reduced PLN 15, family (2 adults + 2 children under 16) PLN 58. Combined ticket with the open-air museum: off-season PLN 27 (reduced PLN 20). Free admission on Wednesdays.
• Contact: +48 18 444 35 70, kasamg@muzeum.sacz.pl.

Nearby

Next door, the Sącz Ethnographic Park shows village farmsteads, a manor house and a wooden Orthodox church. The old center of Nowy Sącz and the charming small town of Stary Sącz, about 10 km away, round off the day.