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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…
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…
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…
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…
Museums
Kraków
Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory in Kraków is the building where the German industrialist made famous by Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List employed and ultimately protected more than 1,100 Jews during World War II. Today it houses a bran…
Museums
Kraków
Hipolit House (Kamienica Hipolitów, pronounced roughly "kah-myeh-NEE-tsah hee-po-LEE-toof") is a small branch of the Museum of Kraków on Mariacki Square, right behind St. Mary's Basilica in the city's UNESCO-listed Old Town. Medieval cella…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
For years the people of Nowa Huta, a model socialist-realist town built for steelworkers, fought the communist authorities for a new church. The result of their persistence is the Ark of the Lord (Arka Pana), a boat-shaped church with a 70…
Museums
Kraków
MOCAK, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (say "MO-tsak"), is the city's leading venue for art of recent decades. It stands in Zabłocie, a former industrial area across the Vistula, on the grounds of Oskar Schindler's wartime enamel…
Museums
Kraków
The Archdiocesan Museum in Kraków, named after Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, occupies two historic townhouses on Kanonicza Street, right below Wawel Castle. It combines a fine collection of sacred art from churches across the Archdiocese of Krak…
Museums
Kraków
Under the glass roof of a former Kraków Fortress building hangs the fuselage of a British Halifax bomber, with a V-2 rocket standing nearby. The General Emil Fieldorf "Nil" Home Army Museum tells the story of the Polish Underground State a…
Museums
Kraków
The Czartoryski Museum in Kraków (say "char-to-RIS-kee") is the branch of the National Museum in Kraków that holds Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine – one of only a handful of Leonardo portraits in the world. Set in a cluster of hist…
Museums
Kraków
The Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków (Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego) is one of Europe's largest aviation museums and a must for anyone who loves aircraft. It occupies the historic Rakowice-Czyżyny airfield (roughly "ra-ko-VEE-tseh chi-ZHI-ni"…
Museums
Kraków
At 17 Kanonicza Street, on the way from the Main Square to Wawel, a red facade hides one of the finest collections of medieval art in Poland. In the Bishop Erazm Ciołek Palace, the National Museum in Kraków displays the Krużlowa Madonna, w…
Museums
Kraków
The National Museum in Kraków – Main Building (Polish: Gmach Główny, roughly "gmakh GWOV-ny") is the largest exhibition venue of Poland's oldest national museum, standing on 3 Maja Avenue just west of Kraków's Old Town, opposite the vast B…
Museums
Kraków
Opposite Wawel, on the other side of the Vistula, stands a building with an undulating roof designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki. The Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology exists thanks to the film director Andrzej Wajd…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
Tyniec Abbey (pronounced "TIN-yets") is a Benedictine monastery perched on a white limestone cliff above the Vistula River, within the city limits of Kraków, and one of the oldest abbeys in Poland. Tradition dates its founding to 1044, and…
Historic sites
Kraków
The National Pantheon in Kraków occupies the brick crypts of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul at 52a Grodzka Street, halfway between the Main Square and Wawel Hill. Since 2012 it has been the resting place of outstanding figures of Poli…
Thermal baths & water parks
Kraków
The Kraków Water Park (Park Wodny, say "PARK VOD-nee") is the city's big indoor aquapark, open since 2000 in the Mistrzejowice district, about 2.5 km north of the Main Market Square. Under a striking timber roof you'll find pools, a lazy r…
Museums
Kraków
The Rynek Underground (Podziemia Rynku, "pod-ZHEM-ya RIH-neh-koo") in Kraków is a museum hidden beneath the city's Main Market Square, one of the largest medieval squares in Europe. Below the cobbles around the Cloth Hall, archaeologists u…
Museums
Kraków
The Polonia Wax Museum at ul. Floriańska 32, on the route between the Main Market Square and St Florian's Gate, displays wax figures of politicians, clergy, athletes, actors and fictional characters. It has earned an unusual reputation: ma…
Churches & monasteries
Kraków
Above the Łagiewniki district rises a white, elliptical building shaped like a boat, with a slender tower topped by a cross beside it. This is the Basilica of Divine Mercy, the newest part of a shrine that pilgrims from around the world ca…
Museums
Kraków
A few metres below the Arcaded Courtyard lies one of the oldest stone buildings in Poland: a pre-Romanesque rotunda shaped like a four-leaf clover, dated by radiocarbon testing to around 970. Lost Wawel is an archaeological and architectur…