-
Wawel Castle
Kraków
Kraków is easily Poland's best destination: a beautiful, old-fashioned city buzzing with enjoyable sights, tourists, and college students, and some heavy history (nearby lies the Holocaust memorial and museum of Auschwitz). Even though the country's capital moved from here to Warsaw 400 years ago, Kraków remains Poland's cultural and intellectual center. Bustling university life, thought-provoking museums, breathtaking churches, great restaurants, sprawling parks, and vivid Jewish heritage sights round out the city's appeal. Of all of the eastern European cities laying claim to the boast "the next Prague," Kraków is for real.
At a Glance
▲▲▲ Main Market Square Stunning heart of Kraków and a people magnet any time of day; home to Cloth Hall, fourteenth-century market hall with 21st-century souvenirs.
▲▲ St. Mary's Church Landmark church with extraordinary wood-carved Gothic altarpiece.
▲▲ St. Francis Basilica Lovely Gothic church with some of Poland's best Art Nouveau.
▲▲ Wawel Cathedral Poland's splendid national church, with tons of tombs, a crypt, and a climbable tower.
▲▲ Wawel Castle Grounds Historic hilltop with views, castle, cathedral, courtyard with chakras, and a passel of museums.
▲▲ Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art Worthwhile collection of paintings by should-be-famous artists, upstairs in the Cloth Hall.
▲▲ Czartoryski Museum Eclectic collection of historic bric-a-brac and art, including Leonardo's stunning Lady with an Ermine.
▲▲ Stansław Wyspiański Museum Art by the talented leader of the Młoda Polska (Polish Art Nouveau) movement.
▲▲ Rynek Underground Museum Super-modern exhibit on medieval Kraków filling excavated cellars beneath the Main Market Square.
▲▲ Wieliczka Salt Mine Medieval salt mine on the outskirts of the city featuring an underground world of salt caverns and hand-hewn salt sculptures.
▲▲ Schindler's Factory Museum Building where Oskar Schindler saved more than 1,000 Jewish workers, now filled with engaging exhibit about Kraków's WWII experience.
▲▲ Old Jewish Cemetery Poignant burial site in Kazimierz, with graves from 1552 to 1800.
▲ New Jewish Cemetery Graveyard with tombs from after 1800, partly restored after Nazi desecration.
▲ Pharmacy Under the Eagle Small but evocative Podgórze exhibit about the Holocaust in Kraków, including three historic films.
▲ Stained-Glass Workshop and Museum Stained-glass factory offering tours and hands-on classes.
