Krzysztofory Palace - Museum of Krakow

What to expect

This is the museum to do on your first morning, before the castle and before the churches. Krzysztofory Palace occupies the north-west corner of the Main Market Square. Its permanent exhibition “Kraków od początku, bez końca” (Krakow from the beginning, without end) opened in 2022, after the building was rebuilt for it. Several hundred objects are arranged in twelve themes: the city chronologically first, then cross-sections - legends, residents, customs, crafts.

The route starts in the cellars and works upwards through the floors. You pass the costume of the Lajkonik, the Marksmen’s Brotherhood’s 16th-century silver rooster, carved mascarons taken off tenement facades, and paintings signed by Jan Matejko and Józef Mehoffer. The moment people remember is the scaled-up Krakow nativity scene you can walk inside. Armour and fabrics are there to be handled, and short films and quizzes break up the reading.

Best for a visitor with two or three days in the city who wants the rest of Krakow to make sense afterwards. Children from roughly eight upwards last the whole route because of the costumes and the quizzes; younger ones fade halfway. Skip it if you already know Polish history and want one subject in depth - a specialist branch will serve you better. Until 25 October 2026 the palace also shows “Kunszt i fach. Kraków rzemieślników” on the city’s craftsmen, on a separate ticket (30 PLN, reduced 24 PLN).

Tips

• Allow 90 minutes. An hour gets you through without stopping. Add the temporary show and you are at two hours.
• Free Tuesday has a limit. Free entry covers the permanent exhibition only - the temporary exhibition is paid on Tuesdays too. The free passes go early in the day.
• This is the quiet one. Of the Museum of Krakow branches on the square, Krzysztofory draws the smallest crowds. A weekday morning other than Tuesday usually means no queue at all. Buy at the door or online at bilety.muzeumkrakowa.pl.
• Last admission is 17:00. For organised groups 16:45. The route is one-way and chronological, so a 17:00 entry is a rush, not a visit.
• Look up on the first floor. One room keeps its mirror vault with Baltazar Fontana’s stucco of the fall of Phaethon. It belongs to the building rather than the exhibition, and most visitors walk under it watching the display cases.
• Guided tours are priced per group. 280 PLN on top of tickets, so it only makes sense from about eight people. English-language tours are sold; book them in advance by e-mail rather than at the door.
• Language. The museum publishes no statement on exhibition-label languages, so if reading every caption matters to you, call +48 12 619 23 35 before you go. The core narrative works visually.
• December is a different museum. The palace hosts the annual Krakow nativity-scene competition, a tradition on the UNESCO intangible heritage list, and the winning szopki are displayed here afterwards.

Getting there

On foot: Rynek Główny 35, where Szczepańska street reaches the square - 15 minutes from the main railway station through the Planty park or along Floriańska street.

Tram: Teatr Bagatela or Stary Teatr stops, two to three minutes’ walk from either.

By car: the streets around the square are closed to traffic. Park outside the Planty ring and walk in.

Nearby

Rynek Underground sits under the same square and covers the same medieval centuries from below, which makes the two a natural pair for one day. The Sukiennice gallery is 200 metres away and adds the 19th-century Polish painting that Krzysztofory only gestures at. Three minutes along św. Jana street, the Czartoryski Museum follows the city story with a European collection and Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine.

Background

The name comes from a stone figure of St Christopher placed on the corner of the facade around 1380 and linked stylistically to the Parler workshop in Prague. A building stood on the plot from the 13th century, and one of Krakow’s oldest pharmacies traded here in the 16th. In 1644 the court marshal Adam Kazanowski bought the property and had it rebuilt in Baroque form to a design by Wawrzyniec Senes, giving it the L-shaped plan and the arcaded courtyard loggia.

The reconstruction of 1682-1684 for Jan Wawrzyniec Wodzicki brought in the stuccoist Baltazar Fontana. Later occupants included the abdicated king Jan Kazimierz, Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk in 1775-1782, and from 1929 the Kawiarnia Europejska. Tadeusz Kantor’s Cricot 2 theatre performed in the cellars from 1961 to 1980; its archive is now held by Cricoteka in Podgórze. Wacław Krzyżanowski’s restoration of 1912-1916 saved the palace from demolition, and the Museum of Krakow took it over in 1965.