Things To Do in Krakow Poland

Medieval Heritage and the Old Town

Krakow is the most architecturally intact medieval city in Central Europe, having escaped the systematic destruction that reduced Warsaw and other Polish cities to rubble during the Second World War. The Rynek Glowny, the largest medieval market square in Europe, is framed by the Gothic Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and the Basilica of the Assumption whose carved wooden altarpiece is the most important work of Gothic sculpture in Poland. The Wawel Royal Castle on the hill above the Old Town held the coronation regalia of Polish kings for five centuries and remains the symbolic heart of Polish national identity. The entire Old Town was among the first sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978.

The Kazimierz Quarter and Jewish Cultural Heritage

Kazimierz, the former Jewish district of Krakow, has a history reaching back to the fourteenth century when a community was established here by royal charter. Before the Second World War, Krakow had a Jewish population of approximately 65,000; the wartime destruction of that community is commemorated at the Galicia Jewish Museum and the Schindler's Factory Museum, which documents both the occupation of the city and the story of a factory owner who sheltered workers from deportation. Today Kazimierz functions as the city's most culturally active neighbourhood, with independent restaurants, galleries, and characterful bars in buildings whose layers of history are visible in every detail. The Jewish Culture Festival in late June and early July is one of the most significant events of its kind in the world.

Food, Drink and the Krakow Table

Krakow's food culture benefits from its position as the capital of the Malopolska region, whose highlands produce smoked meats, sheep's milk cheeses, and agricultural produce of genuine quality. The obwarzanek krakowski, a boiled and baked bread ring sprinkled with poppy seeds or sesame, has been sold by street vendors in the Old Town since the fourteenth century and holds protected geographical status as the city's most authentic street food. The milk bars that continue to operate as working cafeterias serving traditional Polish dishes at democratic prices are a piece of living social history. Kazimierz's cafe and restaurant culture, grown organically from the neighbourhood's revival after decades of neglect, has produced some of the most interesting dining in the country.

Festivals and Seasonal Life

The Krakow Film Music Festival focuses on orchestral scores from cinema, with live performances in historic settings that place music and architecture in dialog. The Lajkonik procession, unique to Krakow, involves a costumed figure on horseback processing through the city from the Norbertine Convent to the Main Market Square in a tradition maintained since the thirteenth century. Christmas and Easter markets on the Rynek draw visitors from across Europe who come specifically for the architectural setting as much as the seasonal celebrations. The city's festival calendar is among the fullest in Poland, with events distributed across the year rather than concentrated in a single season.

Academic Life, Student Culture and the Youngest of Old Cities

Krakow is a university city of considerable depth, home to the Jagiellonian University founded in 1364, the second oldest university in Central Europe after Prague, whose graduates have included figures of international significance in science, politics, and the arts across six centuries. The university's presence gives Krakow a student population that constitutes a significant proportion of the city's total and sustains a bar, café, and cultural life that operates at a youthful intensity unusual for a city so dominated by its medieval heritage. The Collegium Maius, the university's oldest surviving building, contains a museum of scientific instruments, artworks, and historical memorabilia that gives the institution a physical presence as important as its intellectual reputation. The student quarter around Plac Nowy in Kazimierz and the bars of Ulica Floriańska and the surrounding old town streets create a nightlife economy that extends well past midnight on most evenings and forms one of the most enjoyable aspects of spending time in the city. The Jagiellonian University Library holds over four million volumes and is one of the most significant academic libraries in Central Europe, while the city's six other higher education institutions collectively make Krakow one of the most educationally concentrated cities in Poland. Krakow's connection to the surrounding Malopolska region gives it access to day trips of considerable range and significance. The Wieliczka Salt Mine, 14 kilometres southeast of the city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains over 300 kilometres of underground passages, chapels carved entirely from salt, and an underground lake in a complex that was worked continuously from the 13th century until 2007. The Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum, 70 kilometres west of Krakow, is the most visited Holocaust memorial site in the world and a destination that many visitors to Krakow consider obligatory; its scale and the directness of its physical evidence produce an experience that no other historical site of this period prepares you for. The Tatra Mountains, two hours south by bus or train, offer hiking, skiing, and the distinctive culture of the Tatra Highlanders whose folk music, architecture, and food traditions survive in the mountain villages of the Podhale region.