Showing 1-21 of 21 results
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Archaeological Museum
The Archaeological Museum presents Małpolska's history from the Palaeolithic period up until the early Middle Ages. Also on show is an absorbing collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including both human and animal mummies, and 4200 iron coins from the 9th century. The gardens, laid out with rose bushes, magnolia trees and contemporary sculptures, are a lovely place for a stroll afterwards. Make sure you ask for an audioguide.
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Archdiocesan Museum
Located in a 14th-century town house, the Archdiocesan Museum presents a collection of religious sculpture and painting, dating from the 13th to 16th centuries. Also on display is the room where Karol Wojtyła (the late Pope John Paul II) lived from 1958 to 1967 (he also lived next door from 1951 to 1958), complete with his furniture and belongings - including his skis. There's also a treasury of gifts he received here too.
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Crown Treasury & Armoury
Wawel Royal Castle is now a museum containing five separate sections, each requiring a different ticket that is valid for a specific time. There's a limited daily quota of tickets for some parts, so arrive early if you want to see everything or phone ahead to reserve. You will need a ticket even on 'free' days.
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Ethnographic Museum
The Ethnographic Museum accommodated in the former town hall of Kazimierz after WWII has one of the largest collections in Poland but only a small part of it is on display over three floors. The permanent exhibition features the reconstructed interiors of traditional peasant cottages and workshops from all over Poland (ground floor), folk costumes, exhibits related to crafts and trades, and some extraordinary Nativity scenes (1st floor), and folk and religious painting and woodcarving (2nd floor).
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Former Town Hall of Kazimierz
The former town hall of Kazimierz was built in the late 14th century in the centre of a vast market square (Plac Wolnica is all that's left). It was significantly extended in the 16th century, at which time it acquired its Renaissance appearance. The Ethnographic Museum is here.
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Galicia Museum
From the Corpus Christi Church, walk east along ul Św Wawrzyńca for 500m to what should be your first port of call in the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz - the Galicia Museum, which both commemorates Jewish victims of the Holocaust and celebrates Jewish culture in Galicia past, present and future.
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Hipolit House
On Plac Mariacki is Hipolit House, a branch of the city history museum than contains faithful recreations of town house interiors from the 17th to early 19th centuries.
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Kraków City History Museum
At the northern corner of Rynek Główny (the Main Market Square), the 17th-century Krzysztofory Palace is home to the Kraków City History Museum. Basically the story of Kraków from 1257 to WWII, the museum features a bit of everything related to the city's past, including old clocks, armour, paintings, Kraków's celebrated szopki (Nativity scenes), and the costume of the Lajkonik.
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Małopolska Contemporary Art Collection
Dominating Rynek Główny (the Main Market Square) is the centrally positioned Cloth Hall, once the centre of Kraków's medieval rag trade. The ground floor is still a trading centre but now one for crafts and souvenirs, while the upper floor is taken over by the Małopolska Contemporary Art Collection, replacing the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Painting (Galeria Sztuki Polskiej XX Wieku). That collection, with works by Józef Chełmoński, Jacek Malczewski, Aleksander Gierymski and the leader of monumental historic painting, Jan Matejko, has been moved to the Royal Castle at Niepołomice, 20km east of Kraków, for three years while Cloth Hall is renovated.
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Museum of Pharmacy
It might not sound like a crowd-pleaser but the Jagiellonian University Medical School's Museum of Pharmacy is one of the largest museums of its kind in Europe and arguably the best. Accommodated in a beautiful historic town house worth the visit alone, it features a 22,000-piece collection, which includes old laboratory equipment, rare pharmaceutical instruments, heaps of glassware, stoneware, mortars, jars, barrels, medical books and documents. Several pharmacies dating back to the 19th and early 20th centuries, including one from Lesko, have been painstakingly recreated here, and the garret is crammed with elixirs and panaceas, including vile vials or dried mummy powder. Much attention is given to the 'righteous gentile' Tadeusz Pankiewicz and the Pharmacy Under the Eagle he courageously kept in operation in the Jewish ghetto during the German occupation.
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National Museum in Kraków
The so-called Main Building (Gmach Główny) of the National Museum in Kraków, 500m due west of the Old Town down ul Piłsudskiego, houses three permanent exhibitions: the Gallery of 20th-Century Polish Painting, the Gallery of Decorative Art, and Polish Arms and National Colours - plus various temporary exhibitions.
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Nowa Huta Museum
In Nowa Huta, drop into the tourist office a couple of hundred metres north of Plac Centralny, the suburb's central square, for a free map and to inspect the Nowa Huta Museum inside.
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Oriental Art Exhibition
Wawel Royal Castle is now a museum containing five separate sections, each requiring a different ticket that is valid for a specific time. There's a limited daily quota of tickets for some parts, so arrive early if you want to see everything or phone ahead to reserve. You will need a ticket even on 'free' days. The castle's Oriental Art Exhibition features a collection of 17th-century Turkish banners and weaponry, captured after the Battle of Vienna, displayed along with a variety of old Persian carpets, Chinese and Japanese ceramics, and other Asian antiques. The entrance is from the northwestern corner of the courtyard.
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Pharmacy Under the Eagle
On the south side of Plac Bohaterów Getta in Podgórze is the Pharmacy Under the Eagle run by the non-Jew Tadeusz Pankiewicz during the occupation and now a museum.
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Princes Czartoryski Museum
The Princes Czartoryski Museum is one of the richest collections in town, and is itself something of a museum of a museum. Originally established in 1800 in Puławy by Princess Izabela Czartoryska as the first historical museum in Poland, the collection was secretly moved to Paris after the November Insurrection of 1830 (in which the family was implicated) and in the 1870s brought to Kraków.
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Royal Chambers
Wawel Royal Castle is now a museum containing five separate sections, each requiring a different ticket that is valid for a specific time. There's a limited daily quota of tickets for some parts, so arrive early if you want to see everything or phone ahead to reserve. You will need a ticket even on 'free' days.
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Salt Mine
Just outside the administrative boundaries of Kraków, some 14km southeast of the city centre, Wieliczka (vyeh- leech -kah) is famous for its ultra-deep Salt Mine, which has been in continuous operation for 700 years and can be visited. It's an eerie world of pits and chambers and everything has been carved by hand from salt blocks. The mine was included on Unesco's World Heritage List in 1978.
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Ul Szeroka
From the Galicia Museum in Kazimierz, walk north along ul Dajwór to ul Szeroka, traditionally the centre of the Jewish quarter. Short and wide, it looks more like an elongated square than a street and is often packed with tourists and coaches.
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Wawel Cathedral Museum
Diagonally opposite Wawel Cathedral is the Wawel Cathedral Museum, a treasury of historical and religious objects from the cathedral. There are plenty of exhibits, including church plate and royal funerary regalia, but not a single crown. They were all stolen from the treasury by the Prussians in 1795 and reputedly melted down.
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World of Senses
Aside from the fascinating university collection inside the Collegium Maius, there is also an exhibition called World of Senses, which has 40 interactive models that teach visitors how the five senses function (and can deceive us).
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Wyspiański Museum
Dedicated to one of Kraków's most beloved sons and the key figure of the Młoda Polska (Young Poland) movement, the Wyspiański Museum, on the 1st and 2nd floors of Szołayski House, reveals how many branches of art Stanisław Wyspiański explored. A painter, poet and playwright, he was also a designer particularly renowned for his stained-glass designs, some of which are in the exhibition.
Showing 1-21 of 21 results
