Kossakówka

What to expect

First, the practical headline: Kossakówka is not open yet. The branch is temporarily closed, the exhibition is still being prepared, and the Museum of Krakow is inviting visitors from autumn 2027. If you are planning a trip before then, treat this as a facade to admire from the street, not a museum you can enter.

Why it is worth knowing about anyway: this small manor house by the Vistula was home to the Kossaks, Krakow’s most famous artistic dynasty. Juliusz Kossak, his son Wojciech and grandson Jerzy were three successive generations of painters, best known for horses and battle scenes; Wojciech’s daughters, the poet Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska and the satirist Magdalena Samozwaniec, grew up here too. For decades the house ran as an open salon for Krakow’s artistic and intellectual elite, and locals still speak of the address with something close to reverence. After a long period of decay, the villa and its garden were restored between 2023 and 2026, and a plaque marking the completed restoration was unveiled by the Mayor of Krakow in May 2026. The Museum of Krakow is now fitting out the interiors with a permanent exhibition devoted to the family - conceived less as a picture gallery and more as the story of a house that kept producing talent.

Visiting in practice

There is nothing to book for now: no opening hours, no ticket prices, and no interior access - the house and garden are closed while the exhibition is built, with the opening announced for autumn 2027. The branch already has a working contact point (tel. +48 512 648 022 or +48 510 429 483, e-mail kossakowka@muzeumkrakowa.pl ) and its own page on muzeumkrakowa.pl, which is the place to watch for the opening date and any preview events. Once the museum opens, expect a compact house-museum visit of about an hour. In the meantime, the exterior and the small square in front of it take a few minutes to see and combine naturally with a riverside walk below Wawel.

Getting there

Plac Juliusza Kossaka sits on the western edge of the Old Town district, between Zwierzyniecka and Retoryka streets, a few steps from the Vistula boulevards. From the Main Market Square it is a walk of about ten minutes via Franciszkańska and Zwierzyniecka streets. The nearest tram stops are Jubilat and Filharmonia, served by lines along Zwierzyniecka street and the Trzech Wieszczów avenues. Approaching on foot along the river boulevard from Wawel Castle towards Dębnicki bridge drops you almost at the square.

Nearby

Until Kossakówka opens, the artist-house itch is best scratched a few blocks away: the Józef Mehoffer House on Krupnicza street preserves the painter’s apartment and garden, and the Stanisław Wyspiański Museum holds the largest collection of work by Krakow’s great Art Nouveau polymath. Inside the Planty ring, Collegium Maius , the oldest building of the Jagiellonian University, adds a very different collection of historic scientific instruments.