One of the most striking royal residences in Europe, a flamboyant Renaissance-style Old Town and an atmospheric Jewish quarter combine to make Krakow an enticing city break destination, while the city’s dining and nightlife scenes are on the up, and pulling in a cocktail of locals and visitors. Join them with our guide to the best of what this pretty patchwork of a city has to offer.
1. Storm the castle
Step into a Polish history textbook at the Wawel, the hill where for over 500 years Polish kings were crowned, housed and buried. Enter the 14th-century Gothic cathedral to see their tombs, stroll the State Rooms and lavish Royal Apartments to discover how they lived and visit the Armoury for a hint at their powers. Most of the crown jewels were plundered by the Prussians in 1795 but you can see the dainty coronation slippers of Sigismund August, who was just 10 years old when he was crowned.
2. Go digging
For salt, that is. The precious crystals were found at Wieliczka as early as the 11th century and the salt mine here is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage monument. Take the Miners’ Route and you’ll don a grey boilersuit, descend into the darkness and find out how to dig for salt. Take the Tourist Route to see the jaw-dropping underground chapel, carved from the salt.
3. Bask in grandeur
Squares don’t come grander than this. Rynek Glowny is Europe’s largest medieval town square and its vast expanse (some 40,000 square metres) of flagstones is encircled by stately townhouses and lofty spires. The loftiest belong to St Mary’s, which dates from 1220, while the medieval Sukiennice cloth hall stands assured of its commanding position over the square with its imposing colonnades and Belle Epoque café, long a meeting place for the city’s elite though now more a tourist haunt.
4. Go underground
Hidden beneath the Sukiennice is Krakow’s past, literally. Descend from the square into the Historical Museum’s Rynek Undeground exhibition, four metres below current street level. You’ll explore the recently excavated merchant stalls that predate the cloth hall above you and see the remains of an 11th-century cemetery, where many of the corpses were buried with bricks in their mouths or stabbed through the heart to prevent them coming back as vampires. Yes, seriously.
5. Enter the ghetto
Krakow’s Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, was once a headily vibrant place, with a flourishing community. This perished at the hands of the Germans in World World II but they did not destroy the buildings and synagogues that today are once again home to an energetic community – and some of the city’s best nightlife. Cafes and bars abound here; try the bohemian Café Mlynek by day and head to retro-funky Alchemia by night.
6. Pay homage to Schindler
A humble enamel factory on the city’s outskirts would be an unlikely tourist site. If it weren’t for Oskar Schindler, that is. The factory he took over in 1939 is today a living historical monument, where you can see his former office and the very place where he saved the lives of hundreds of Krakow Jews from the gas chambers. The modern museum here tells the life stories of some of those he saved, as well as walking you through a reconstructed Krakow replete with scenes from history and confronting you with a ‘Hall of Choices’. Few museums are as evocative, or as challenging.
7. Let them eat cake
Krakow loves cake, and there are sweet treats on seemingly every corner in the city centre. Sink your teeth into towers of pink cream sandwiched in flaky pastry at Michalscy Cukiernia or tuck into cupcakes of all shades and flavours at Cupcake Corner. Want to sit down awhile? Head to Bunkier Café in the city’s Planty Gardens where transparent walls bring the garden inside even in winter and the cakes are laid out enticingly in the glass cabinet.
8. Go on a pub crawl
In 2010 the Father Bernatek bridge straddled the Wisla river for the first time and opened up the ultimate Krakow pub crawl. Start on the Podgorze side where Drukarnia Jazz Club has typewriters on the walls (Drukarnia means Printhouse) and a laidback New Orleans vibe, before moving on to CAWA Café & Wine for, you’ve guessed it, a glass of vino. Then head across the bridge to Kazimierz and Mostowa Art Café for microbrews and homemade vodka.
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