Old Town (Stare Miasto)

A look around

What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.

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Where it sits

The circle is Old Town and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.

How far is everything?

From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.

• Stary Kleparz market8 min walk707 m
• Zapiekanka at Plac Nowy15 min walk1.2 km
• Kazimierz after dark15 min walk1.2 km
• Jewish Kazimierz17 min walk1.4 km
• Ghetto Heroes Square26 min walk2.1 km
• Schindler's Factory museum28 min walk2.3 km

On your doorstep

What you’re living next to if you stay here.

• 1.Rynek Główny (Main Square) — The largest medieval square in Europe, and still the beating heart of the city — pigeons, flower stalls, cafés and carriages under the twin towers of St Mary's. Sit with a coffee and watch Kraków go by; it's the whole city in one place.
• 2.Wawel Castle & Cathedral — The royal castle and coronation cathedral on the hill above the Vistula — a thousand years of Polish kings, crowns and crypts, with grand state rooms and a hilltop to wander for free. The spiritual centre of the nation; the grounds and views cost nothing.
• 3.St Mary's Basilica — The soaring brick church on the square, with a jaw-dropping blue-and-gold interior and the vast carved Veit Stoss altarpiece. Every hour a lone trumpeter plays the hejnał from the tower — and stops mid-note, as legend says a Tatar arrow once cut him off.
• 4.The Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) — The Renaissance trading hall down the middle of the square, a covered arcade of stalls selling amber, lace and folk crafts as it has for 700 years. Touristy, yes — but a gorgeous place to browse, with a Polish art gallery upstairs and cellars below.
• 8.Collegium Maius — The 14th-century heart of the Jagiellonian University — one of Europe's oldest — around a beautiful arcaded Gothic courtyard where Copernicus once studied. A little museum of old globes and instruments, and a serene, storybook cloister to step into off the lanes.
• 9.The Barbican & Floriańska Gate — The round red-brick fortress and the last surviving city gate, guarding the northern entrance to the Old Town — the start of the Royal Route the kings processed down to Wawel. Walk in through the gate down Floriańska for the grand old approach.
• 10.The Wawel Dragon — At the foot of the castle by the river crouches a bronze dragon that breathes real fire every few minutes — the beast of Kraków's founding legend, and a guaranteed hit with kids. A fun photo stop and the start of a lovely riverside walk under Wawel.
• 11.Pierogi & a milk bar — Poland's comfort food done properly and for pennies — plump pierogi dumplings stuffed with cheese and potato, cabbage rolls, żurek soup, at an old-school 'bar mleczny' milk bar where a full meal costs a few euros. Cheap, hearty, and gone before you know it.
• 13.The Planty ring — The green belt of park that rings the entire Old Town where the medieval walls once stood — a shady two-mile loop of benches, chestnut trees and statues, the locals' morning stroll. The nicest way to circle the centre and see it from the edges.