Jaro Retro Auto Classic Garage - Automotive Museum in Lublin

What to expect

Is an automotive museum on the edge of Lublin worth a bus ride out of the Old Town? If old cars are your thing, yes; with only one day in the city, the castle and the Old Town come first.

Jaro Retro Auto Classic Garage calls itself an automotive museum, yet what you find is one Lublin collector’s garage opened to the public. It is a glass-walled hall of about 550 m2 in Zadębie, 4.8 km as the crow flies from the Kraków Gate. Budget 60 to 90 minutes inside, plus the ride and the wait for a bus back.

The owner, Jarosław Janowski, has nearly a hundred cars and puts around 30 of them on the floor at a time, spaced so you can walk right round each one. Every car on show runs. The line-up changes, so treat any list of models as a snapshot rather than a promise.

The car that gives this place its local meaning is a 1953 Lublin-51 truck, still in the early version with a wooden-framed cab. The model was a licence-built Soviet GAZ-51, assembled here in Lublin from 1951 to 1959.

Around it, Poland’s small cars face America’s big ones. A Mikrus MR-300, one of just 1,728 made in Mielec, is parked beside a Warszawa. Across the hall stand Model T Fords from 1916 and 1918, one of them unusually painted blue. Auto Świat’s 2023 list of the American cars adds a 1970 Camaro with a 7.5-litre engine tuned to 600 hp, a Corvette C3 and a Lincoln Continental Mark III.

Most visits are shaped by the talk. The curator, Jacek Wroński, or Janowski himself shows people round, and reviewers praise exactly that; if you would rather read the board beside each car, just say so. By the curator’s account the guests come from the US, France, Czechia and the Emirates, while people from Lublin itself are the rarest.

Best for car enthusiasts, for anyone curious about what Poles drove under communism, and for children who already know their makes. Nothing here may be touched or climbed into.

Tips

• Check before chasing one car. The museum’s website still lists Fiat 126p “Maluch” cars, but in March 2026 the curator told Radio ESKA they had been sold. In 2025 a Warszawa M 20 on display was up for sale too. If one model is the reason for your trip, phone first.
• English is not advertised. The website has “Eng” and “Rus” buttons that lead nowhere, and the museum says nothing about English boards or English-speaking guides. The talk is the heart of the visit, so ask by phone whether it can be done in English.
• No price list online. The museum publishes no admission prices. Tickets are sold only at the desk on site, cash or card. Groups of ten or more book by phone on +48 601 263 349 or +48 733 045 846.
• Split a big group. One visitor reported that in a party of 30 only those standing close to the guide could hear him. Ask for two rounds when you book.
• Allow 60 to 90 minutes. The curator puts a visit at 1 to 2 hours, depending on how much you want to hear; people who come by bus usually manage it in about 60 minutes.
• Ignore weekday-only listings. At the 2023 opening the museum ran Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 16:00, and directories such as automuseums.info still show weekday hours. The museum’s own hours today are Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, last entry 17:30, closed on Mondays.
• Hands off, eyes up. The owner forbids touching the cars or getting in. In 2023 Radio ESKA also described a wall of about 150 scale models high above the floor and two old cars with skeletons at the wheel.
• Accessibility: call first. The museum publishes no accessibility information - call before visiting.

Getting there

The address is ul. Jana Kasprowicza 32 in Lublin’s north-eastern Hajdów-Zadębie district, which is the name journey planners use. Timetables below are those of ZDiTM, the city transport authority, valid from 1 September 2026.

• Bus, Monday to Saturday: line 52 from the Brama Krakowska stop on ul. Lubartowska, or from Muzeum Narodowe - Zamek on al. Tysiąclecia. About 20 minutes later, get off at the request stop Kasprowicza - Zadębie next to the hall, so signal the driver. Line 52 does not run here on Sundays.
• Bus, Sundays and holidays: line 22, but only the 9:14 and 11:14 departures from Brama Krakowska go along ul. Kasprowicza. The other Sunday departures take ul. Turystyczna and miss the museum.
• Getting back: line 52 leaves for the centre at 18:15 and 19:50 on weekdays; the last Saturday bus is at 17:31, before closing time. On Sundays line 22 goes back at 10:13, 12:13 and 14:13, and the last of those is almost 4 hours before closing.
• By car or taxi: 6.5 km by road from the Kraków Gate, about 10 minutes without traffic. The museum has a large car park for individual visitors and groups.

Nearby

The easy one-day pairing is the National Museum at Lublin Castle : line 52 stops at Muzeum Narodowe - Zamek, so do the castle in the morning and ride straight out to the cars after lunch.

The Connector (Łącznica) in the Old Town is the same kind of story told with telephones and exchanges, a collector’s garage hoard turned into a display. The catch there is access: a single 13:00 guided tour on weekdays, in Polish only, where Jaro Garage opens six days a week without booking.

For communist-era daily life seen from the housing block rather than the driver’s seat, try the Museum of Housing Estates across town, 8.2 km away as the crow flies. It opens to walk-in visitors on Saturdays from 11:00 to 13:00.

Background

Janowski went to Lublin’s car-technical school and then to Lublin University of Technology, and made his living in the plastics business; he is a member of the Automobilklub Lubelski. His first classic was a 1980 Syrena 105 that he spotted standing by a road, and it still wears its original paint and upholstery.

The hall on ul. Kasprowicza opened on 26 May 2023 with a free-entry day on the 27th, concerts and a crowd of close to a thousand people over the two days. The city transport company parked a historic trolleybus and a Jelcz “ogórek” bus outside for the occasion.

In the museum’s own words, this is “the first permanent exhibition of historic vehicles in Lubelskie province” (our translation). The regional press has repeated that description, on the owner’s word.