Rynek Underground

What to expect

A few metres below the paving of the Main Square lies the level Krakow walked on around the time the square was laid out in 1257. That is the reason to go down. Everything else - the screens, the projections, the curtain of water vapour you step through on the way in - is packaging. Good packaging, but packaging.

The route runs through an archaeological reserve uncovered between 2005 and 2010. You walk past the foundations of medieval merchant stalls and the old city weigh house, over original paving, and through traces of settlement older than the charter itself. The finds on display were pulled from those layers: 14th-century coins, leather boots, bone combs, gaming dice, merchant seals and weights. The object that stays with people is a lead trade ingot weighing 693 kg - one lump of metal that says more about the scale of medieval commerce than a room of text panels.

The museum tells the story with equipment that was new in 2010 and still sets the tone: 37 touchscreens, dozens of projectors, five holograms, roughly 600 three-dimensional reconstructions, a mechanical theatre of Krakow legends, and five documentary films at the end. The display area is about 3,400 square metres.

This is the right choice on a first visit to Krakow, and a good one with school-age children - they react to the reconstructed dwellings and the exposed burials. It is the wrong choice if you want quiet cases and object labels: here the screens carry the narrative, and in high season the narrow passages get tight and loud. Reviewers consistently call it good value at the price and just as consistently warn about the crowds.

Tips

• Book a timed slot - numbers are capped and tickets are sold for a specific hour at bilety.mhk.pl. In summer the convenient slots go days ahead, and visitors who turn up without one report long queues outside the Cloth Hall and no guarantee of getting in.
• Free Tuesday comes with a catch - admission is free on Tuesdays, but you cannot book: tickets are handed out at the desk on the day and the branch closes at 15:00. The queue is what the free ticket costs you.
• Allow 75 to 90 minutes - the museum publishes no recommended duration. Last admission is 75 minutes before closing, and that is roughly what the route takes at an unhurried pace. Do not miss the lead ingot or the mechanical theatre; the five documentary films at the end are the part to skip if time is short.
• Find the right door - the entrance is inside the Cloth Hall, on the side facing St Mary’s Basilica, not from the open square. From the far end of the Cloth Hall you have to walk the whole building around.
• Labels and language - the museum does not publish a statement about label languages, and the exhibition is carried more by screens and reconstructions than by wall text. If you want the history explained rather than implied, book one of the English-language guided tours sold by Krakow operators; a standard ticket is 45 PLN and a guided tour costs considerably more, so decide before you buy.
• Second Monday of the month - the branch is closed. The museum also publishes a list of individual closure dates through the year; check it if this is the one thing you came to Krakow for.
• Step-free access needs a phone call - the branch is presented as barrier-free, but an out-of-service notice for the lift has appeared on its page. Call +48 12 426 50 60 on the morning of your visit rather than trusting the label.
• Bring a layer - it is cool and dim down there whatever the weather is doing on the square above.

Getting there

You are already there: the address is the middle of the Main Square, with the entrance inside the Cloth Hall on the St Mary’s Basilica side.

On foot: about 15 minutes from Kraków Główny railway station through the Planty park and Floriańska street. Around 20 minutes from Kazimierz along Grodzka.

Tram: the stops ring the Old Town on the Planty circuit - Teatr Bagatela, Poczta Główna, Stary Kleparz. Each is a 5 to 7 minute walk from the square.

Bus: Plac Wszystkich Świętych is the closest, five minutes up Grodzka.

By car: do not. The Old Town is a restricted traffic zone, and the nearest car parks are paid and usually full.

Nearby

One floor up in the same building hangs the Sukiennice Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art - a single staircase between the archaeology and Matejko, 35 PLN. Across the square, Krzysztofory Palace holds the Museum of Krakow’s flagship exhibition for 34 PLN and continues the same story above ground. If you have had enough of screens, Collegium Maius is two minutes away on Jagiellońska street: a guided walk through the oldest building of the Jagiellonian University for 17 PLN.

Background

Digging in the eastern part of the square began in mid-2005 and ran until 2010. Archaeologists went below the paving that had carried the stalls and the weigh house and reached layers older than the 1257 charter. Rather than fill the trench back in, the city roofed it over and opened it: the reserve under the square covers close to 4,000 square metres, and the whole excavated site exceeds 6,000.

The architecture is by Professor Andrzej Kadłuczka and his Archecon studio, the exhibition concept by Dr Cezary Buśko, the route by Mieczysław Bielawski, Marcin Pietuch and Tomasz Salwierz. The investment came to almost 38 million PLN. The branch opened on 24 September 2010, and the permanent exhibition “Following the Traces of the European Identity of Krakow” has run since 27 September that year.