Archaeological Wanderings: From Zesławice to Cło

Nowa Huta is known as the socialist model town built around a steelworks in the 1950s, but the ground under it was settled thousands of years earlier. “Archaeological Wanderings: From Zesławice to Cło” is a temporary exhibition at the Branice branch of the Archaeological Museum in Kraków that tours those ancient settlements one village at a time. It opened on 1 May 2026 and the museum has announced no closing date.

Archaeological Museum in Kraków on the exhibition (our translation; the museum publishes no English text):

The temporary exhibition “Archaeological Wanderings - from Zesławice to Cło” is built on the idea of an excursion, a journey across the prehistoric lands of Nowa Huta, to places where for thousands of years communities developed and left behind material traces of their daily life, work and beliefs.

The exhibition presents original archaeological finds from the collections of the Nowa Huta Branch, discovered along the Dłubnia and the Vistula.

The display is accompanied by panels in the form of comic-strip stories, which bring certain aspects of the life of the area’s former inhabitants closer in an accessible and vivid way.

In the cases and on the panels we tell of the farmers of Zesławice, the bronze-workers of Pleszów, the Celts of Krzesławice, the potters of Cło, the Slavic settlers of Wyciąże, ancient beliefs and the Christian beginnings of Mogiła.

The exhibition combines science with storytelling, showing that history is not only dates and finds but above all people. Visitors will be able to understand better what life was like in prehistory and how strongly it shaped the development of today’s communities.

What to expect

This is a small regional exhibition, not a treasure show. Each stop on the “wanderings” is one present-day part of Nowa Huta and one community that lived there, from Neolithic farmers to medieval Mogiła. The objects come from the branch’s own collection, which grew out of the excavations it has run in the district since the 1950s. The description of the show on the museum’s website is signed by Janusz Bober.

What sets it apart is the comic-strip panels, which make the show work for children who can already read on their own far better than a case of potsherds would. According to the museum’s Museum Night programme, both of the branch’s exhibitions, permanent and temporary, are housed in the same historic building, which the museum describes as a late-Renaissance manor.

The museum ran free guided tours of the show every hour during the “Zajrzyj do Huty” (Look into Nowa Huta) district weekend on 19-20 September 2026. It also opened the show for Museum Night on 15 May and for the Małopolska Archaeological Picnic on 13 June. Its calendar announces no further tours for now. Guided visits tend to come with district events, so keep an eye on the museum’s events calendar (in Polish).

Context

Branice lies on the eastern edge of Kraków, beyond the steelworks, and all the villages the show visits are now districts of the city. At Zesławice, where the tour starts, archaeologists dug between 1953 and 1958 while a brickworks was being built. They uncovered a Neolithic village of 200 by 145 metres, with the remains of some 230 buildings and a cattle enclosure on a hill above the Dłubnia river.

Cło, at the other end of the route, was a separate village until 1973. Its name, which means “customs duty” in Polish, comes from a customs house on the old border between Austria-Hungary and Russia. Mogiła, where the show looks for the Christian beginnings of the area, is best known today for its Cistercian abbey, listed as a Monument of History in 2023. In the Middle Ages Zesławice belonged to the same order.

Tickets and time

The temporary exhibition has its own ticket: 7 PLN regular, 5 PLN reduced. If you also want the permanent exhibition, “Archeolodzy dla Nowej Huty” (Archaeologists for Nowa Huta), buy the pass for 10 PLN (7 PLN reduced) straight away: it costs less than two single tickets. Holders of the Karta Dużej Rodziny, the Polish large-family card, pay 8 PLN for the pass. Admission to the exhibitions is free on Mondays, and the park around the branch is always free during exhibition hours.

The opening hours are the real constraint. Monday to Friday the branch is open 10:00-14:00 (10 AM-2 PM) all year; on Saturdays and Sundays it opens 14:00-18:00 only from May to October. From November to April it is closed at weekends, so the last weekend day this season is Saturday 31 October. Last entry, to the park as well, is half an hour before closing. The museum also closes on the public holidays listed on its opening-hours page, among them 11 November and 24-26 December.

Allow half an hour for the temporary exhibition alone, an hour and a half with the permanent one and a walk in the park. From the city centre you need a tram and then a bus (the route is on the branch’s profile). Treat Branice as a trip in its own right, not a stop on a Nowa Huta walk.

Best for people curious about what lay under Nowa Huta before the steelworks, and for families with school-age children who read Polish. Skip it if you want spectacular treasures: this show is about places and people, not single masterpieces.

English on site: the museum’s page for the show is in Polish only and it says nothing about English labels, an audio guide or tours in English. The quote above is our translation, so assume the panels are in Polish unless the ticket desk tells you otherwise.

What the press says

LoveKraków.pl (12 May 2026, editorial team): the Museum Night programme lists both Branice exhibitions, with art workshops and a bonfire if the weather held - link (Polish-language source).

LoveKraków.pl (10 June 2026, editorial team): the preview of the 20th Małopolska Archaeological Picnic notes that visitors could also see this exhibition during the event - link (Polish-language source).

Both pieces are event previews; no review of the exhibition has been found.

See also

• Godfryd Ossowski’s Legacy in Vistula Pomerania - the same museum’s other temporary exhibition, in the Senacka street building until 8 October: a pioneer of Polish archaeology and his fieldwork.
• Archaeological Museum of Krakow - the main building on Senacka street with “Pradzieje i średniowiecze Małopolski” (Prehistory and the Middle Ages of Małopolska), the same story told for the whole region. The permanent exhibition there is free on Tuesdays.
• Rynek Underground - the archaeology of the medieval city beneath the Main Market Square, a sharp contrast with Nowa Huta’s village sites.
• St Adalbert’s Church Archaeological Reserve - the same museum’s third address: a seasonal exhibition beneath the church, open until the end of October.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the Archaeological Museum in Kraków website (in Polish).

Museum profile: Archaeological Museum - Nowa Huta-Branice Branch .