Krzysztofory Palace

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 a stone figure of St Christopher dating from about 1380, which once adorned the corner house. Beneath the Baroque façade lie Gothic cellars where Tadeusz Kantor's theatre once performed.

History: from a Gothic tower to a museum

The oldest masonry structure on the plot was a square tower measuring 10 m per side, probably built as early as the 13th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries a large merchant's house stood here, owned from 1423 to the mid-16th century by the patrician Morsztyn family. Around 1600 one of Kraków's oldest pharmacies operated on the ground floor.

In 1644 the house and its neighbours were bought by the Court Marshal Adam Kazanowski, who joined them into an L-shaped Baroque residence with an arcaded gallery. After damage during the Swedish invasion known as the Deluge, the new owner Jan Wawrzyniec Wodzicki had the palace rebuilt in 1682–1684 by Jakub Solari, with stucco work by Baldassare Fontana. Later residents included Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk, and in 1809 Prince Józef Poniatowski's staff was quartered here. In the 19th century the ground floor housed the printing works of the newspaper "Czas" and Antoni Hawełka's grocery shop.

In 1912 a building company planned to demolish the palace to build a block of flats, but protests by Kraków residents, led by the Society for the Protection of Polish Monuments, saved it. Since 1965 it has belonged to the Museum of Kraków, and after a major renovation completed in 2021 a new permanent exhibition opened here.

What to see

The exhibition "Kraków from the beginning, with no end" covers about 1,400 m² and tells the city's story by theme rather than chronologically. Among several hundred exhibits are:

• the Lajkonik costume, worn in Kraków's traditional hobby-horse parade, and Kraków nativity scenes (szopki), including an oversized one you can walk into,
• the silver rooster of the Fowler Brotherhood, a 16th-century marksmen's guild trophy,
• the ring and sceptre of Kraków's 16th-century mayors,
• paintings by Jan Matejko, Józef Mehoffer, Zofia Stryjeńska and Jacek Malczewski.

Take time for the arcaded courtyard, the Baroque portal and Fontana's stucco showing the fall of Phaethon. In the 18th century the room with this stucco served as the palace chapel.

Did you know?

In the 1930s the palace cellars saw the birth of the avant-garde Kraków Group of artists, and in 1961 Tadeusz Kantor moved his Cricot 2 theatre here, where it played until 1980. Every December the palace hosts the exhibition of prize-winning Kraków nativity scenes. Since 2021 a statue of a market woman, "Miedzianna", has stood on the side façade facing plac Szczepański, recalling the vegetable market that once filled the square.

Tripto tip

The permanent exhibition is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00, with last entry for individual visitors at 17:00. Entry to the permanent exhibition is free on Tuesdays, but book tickets online, as numbers are limited. Allow 1.5–2 hours for your visit. Come in December for the nativity scene exhibition, but expect queues.