Kraków. Sounds, Melodies, Words

A show you take in by ear: old trams, vendors’ calls on the Main Square, Kraków’s bells, music boxes and gramophones, and the Hejnał bugle call from old Radio Kraków broadcasts up in the attic. Best for visitors curious about how the city sounded decades ago, and for families with children.

Museum of Krakow on the exhibition:

At the heart of the exhibition are the sounds of urban life that shape the identity of Kraków and the everyday experience of its residents.

The exhibition explores the transformations that have taken place in the city’s soundscape over the past century, while also highlighting the remarkable continuity of certain sonic phenomena. It is designed to be listened to as much as it is to be viewed.

A specially commissioned sound installation was created for the occasion, bringing past and present recordings into dialogue. Its author is Marcin Dymiter, a sound artist working in the fields of electronic music, field recording, and improvised music. In each gallery space, visitors encounter unique compositions built from archival audio materials and contemporary field recordings made in Kraków.

What to expect

The exhibition is accompanied by sound walks (“Listening to the City”), educational workshops and curatorial tours - a multisensory look at Krakow’s intangible sonic heritage.

Objects worth slowing down for:

• The old clapper of the Sigismund Bell - on loan from Wawel Cathedral; the curator told Gazeta Krakowska it struck the bell from 1521 until Christmas 2000.
• Barrel organs and the trumpets of the Hejnal buglers - named by Gazeta Krakowska among the objects that sit alongside the street and bugle-call recordings.
• Sound machines - music boxes, a phonograph, a portable gramophone, record players and a tape recorder, through to today’s mobile devices, in the section on music at home and in the street.
• Radio Kraków broadcasts from 1938-1939 - the oldest recordings the curator managed to find, played in the attic room together with recordings made from the Krzemionki television tower.
• A maraca and a clavichord - listed by the museum among the instruments on display in its announcement of a family workshop.

The museum’s own trailer gives a sense of the rooms before you go:

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the Museum of Krakow website .

Context

The Intangible Heritage Interpretation Centre of Krakow, a Museum of Krakow branch housed in the “House Under the Cross”, looks after the city’s living traditions. They include the Lajkonik parade and the craft of Krakow nativity scenes (szopki krakowskie), the first Polish tradition inscribed in 2018 on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Hejnal Mariacki bugle call, the subject of the exhibition’s fourth section, has been broadcast continuously on the radio since 1927. The exhibition’s second section explores the symbolic and social role of Krakow’s bells, including the Sigismund Bell at Wawel Cathedral, whose historic clapper - on loan from the cathedral - is on display.

Tickets and time

Regular admission is 26 PLN, discounted 22 PLN, a family ticket (up to four people) 52 PLN, and a group ticket (16+ people) 16 PLN per person; school groups pay 11 PLN per person. Holders of Kraków’s resident card (Karta Krakowska) pay 20.80 PLN regular or 16 PLN discounted, and Large Family Card (Karta Dużej Rodziny) holders pay 13 PLN. The branch does not announce a free-admission day.

A guided tour of the exhibition on request costs 150 PLN plus admission tickets; book it with the branch (phone +48 12 422 52 58 ext. 14 or 18, folklor@muzeumkrakowa.pl ).

Allow around an hour to take in the sound installations at a comfortable pace. The exhibition is built to be listened to as much as looked at, so visitors expecting the pace of a purely visual show should budget extra time.

The branch is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00-17:00, closed Monday and Tuesday; last entry is 30 minutes before closing for individuals and 60 minutes for groups.

Events

The museum announces these events in Polish only, with no English-language session listed.

• 11 October 2026, 10:00 and 14:00 - two curator-led tours with Dr Monika Widzicka on the exhibition’s final day, included in the admission ticket, 25 places each, meeting point in the lobby of the House Under the Cross, tickets at the branch desk: 10:00 , 14:00 .
• 10 October 2026, 11:00 - “Krakow’s Landscape Painted in Sound and Colour”, an art workshop for families with children aged 7-12, 30 PLN, 20 places, tickets at the branch desk - details .
• 8 October 2026, 17:00 - a lecture by Agata Stanisz, professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, on the sounds of movement and standstill in the city, streamed on the branch’s Facebook page, free, no booking - details .
• 3 October 2026, 11:00 - “Listening to the City: Krakow along the Trail of Music”, a two-hour Old Town walk with Alicja Natkaniec, starting in the lobby of the House Under the Cross, 30 PLN, 30 places, tickets online - details .
• 27 September 2026, 11:00 - a family visit with an instrument-making workshop for children aged 6-10, 60-90 minutes, 30 PLN per child (one accompanying adult free), tickets online and at the desks - details .

If you want to see the show with its curator, 11 October is the last announced chance - with 25 places per tour, book ahead through the Museum of Krakow’s visitor centre on +48 12 426 50 60. School groups can book museum lessons such as “Krakow’s Household and Street Melodies”, and the museum also runs the art-therapy programme “Sound-Sensitive Krakow”. The full programme is on the Museum of Krakow events calendar (in Polish).

What the press says

RMF24 (16 Feb 2026, Renata Gaweł): the opening preview calls the exhibition exceptional and presents it as a chance to discover Krakow through sound rather than sight - link (Polish-language source).

Polskie Radio Trojka (16 Feb 2026, Izabela Dudkiewicz/PAP): the opening coverage described the exhibition’s four thematic sections and the sound installation that blends archival recordings with contemporary field recordings - link (Polish-language source).

Gazeta Krakowska (18 Feb 2026, Anna Piątkowska): an opening interview in which the curator singles out the old Sigismund Bell clapper and the 1938-1939 Radio Kraków broadcasts as the most exceptional pieces on show, the broadcasts being hard to hear anywhere else - link (syndicated on Kraków Nasze Miasto; Polish-language source).

TVP3 Kraków (28 Apr 2026, Monika Socha): a regional TV report that treats the visit as practice in listening to the city and highlights the bell’s first clapper, first heard in 1521 - link (Polish-language source).

Curator Dr Monika Widzicka, on the bell clapper, to Gazeta Krakowska: “Over five centuries Kraków changed beyond recognition, but this sound stayed the same” (our translation).

Four press items so far, all factual and favourable, none critical. No in-depth review has appeared in the cultural press: the coverage consists of opening-week reports and one TV feature from April.

Updates

• 2026-09-22 - dates and prices re-checked on the exhibition page and in the Museum of Krakow newsletters of 14 and 21 September: the show runs until 11 October 2026, and the museum bills the 11 October curator tours as the last chance to see it. The city’s visitor site krakow.travel still lists 13 December 2026; the museum’s date is the one to trust. Added the events up to closing day, two press items and the museum’s trailer.

• 2026-09-13 - checked dates and prices on the museum’s own page - unchanged from what was already recorded (20 Feb 2026 - 11 Oct 2026, prices as above). Two secondary pre-opening sources (the krakow.pl city events calendar and a 16 Feb 2026 PAP wire item) list a different end date (13 Dec 2026), but the exhibition’s own page on muzeumkrakowa.pl states 11 Oct 2026 unambiguously, so the date on our page is left unchanged.

See also

• Krzysztofory Palace - the Museum of Krakow’s main seat on the Main Square, home to the city’s collection of Krakow nativity scenes, the same intangible tradition the Centre looks after.
• Ethnographic Museum - folk culture and tradition in Kazimierz, a natural companion to this exhibition’s theme.
• Rynek Underground - the archaeology of the old market square’s bustle, a few minutes’ walk from the House Under the Cross.

Museum profile: Intangible Heritage Interpretation Centre of Krakow .