Nowa Huta Underground - os. Szkolne 22

What to expect

Nowa Huta was built in the 1950s as a model socialist city, and beneath it the communist authorities built something the propaganda posters never showed: air-raid shelters, raised in the 1950s alongside the new city itself, which is why the district hides an unusually dense network of them underground. Nowa Huta Underground is the Museum of Krakow’s project devoted to this hidden layer of the district, and the branch at os. Szkolne 22 is its main site. Since June 2026 it has housed the permanent exhibition “Shelters in Nowa Huta - a Cold War legacy” (“Schrony w Nowej Hucie - dziedzictwo zimnej wojny”), shown partly in ground-floor galleries and partly inside an original 1950s air-raid shelter under the building.

The exhibition opens with the historical context - the Cold War and the construction of Nowa Huta - and then focuses on the shelters themselves: how and why they were built under communist rule, how they were engineered, and what makes the Nowa Huta shelters unusual. It does not stay safely in the past; the display also addresses present-day threats and civil-protection questions, and asks visitors about their own experience of feeling safe or unsafe. There is a separate visiting path for children about everyday safety, which makes this a workable family stop.

One practical distinction matters when planning: this is one of two shelters in the project. The sibling site at os. Szkolne 37, a few minutes away under a former school building, holds the permanent exhibition “Stan zagrożenia” (State of Emergency) about the human instinct to take cover and notable shelter structures worldwide. The museum recommends starting at os. Szkolne 22 with the main exhibition, then continuing to number 37.

Visiting in practice

The branch opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, and is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing for individual visitors and 60 minutes before closing for guided groups. A standard ticket costs 22 PLN, reduced 16 PLN, a family ticket 44 PLN, and group visitors pay 16 PLN per person. On Wednesdays admission is free; free-day tickets are available online at bilety.muzeumkrakowa.pl or, subject to availability, at the ticket desk on the day. A guided tour of the permanent exhibition costs 260 PLN per group, and the museum also runs a shelter-heritage walking tour of Nowa Huta for 390 PLN. Plan on about an hour inside. Announced closure dates are 1 and 11 November and 24, 25, 26 and 31 December. For booking questions write to schrony@muzeumkrakowa.pl or call +48 12 446 78 21.

Getting there

Os. Szkolne sits in the heart of the original 1950s Nowa Huta, a few minutes’ walk northeast of Plac Centralny, the district’s monumental central square. From the city centre, take any tram towards Plac Centralny (about 25-30 minutes from the Old Town ring) and walk in through the planned socialist-realist estates; the approach itself is a good primer for the exhibition. Nowa Huta is well outside the walking radius of Wawel and the Main Market Square, so treat this as a half-day trip rather than an add-on.

Nearby

The Nowa Huta branches of the Museum of Krakow combine naturally into one itinerary: the Museum of Nowa Huta covers the history of the district as a whole, and the second shelter of the project, Nowa Huta Underground at os. Szkolne 37 , is only a short walk away. Heading back towards the centre along aleja Jana Pawła II, the Polish Aviation Museum holds one of Europe’s largest aircraft collections on a former airfield.