Krakow Museums Free Days: Our Day-by-Day Timetable
Most Krakow museums are free one day a week. Our day-by-day timetable shows where to go, when, and how to get the limited free tickets.
Krakow is one of the few cities in Europe where you can visit almost every major museum without paying a single złoty. Nearly all of the big attractions, from Wawel Castle to Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory, have one free-entry day each week. The catch is that every museum picks a different day, and many only hand out a limited number of free tickets.
We lived in Krakow for several weeks and planned our sightseeing around those free days. By the end of our stay we had seen the city's best museums, the old synagogue of Kazimierz and the communist-era district of Nowa Huta, and we spent almost nothing on admission.
Below is the timetable we use, sorted by day of the week, so you can plan a free museum route for any day of your trip. You will also find our tips for getting the free tickets before they run out, and what is worth paying for when your dates don't match.
Quick answer: Monday is best for Wawel Castle, Schindler's Factory and the Old Synagogue. Tuesday is the big day: all National Museum branches (including the Czartoryski Museum with Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine), the Rynek Underground and Manggha. Wednesday covers the Eagle Pharmacy, Cricoteka and Collegium Maius; Thursday MOCAK. The Amber Museum is free every day.
Krakow free museum timetable
| Day | Museum | Free hours* | How to get in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | Wawel Royal Castle (selected routes) | 10:00–16:00 | Free pass at the ticket office on the day, max. 5 per person |
| Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory | 10:00–15:00 | No online booking, queue before opening | |
| Old Synagogue, Kazimierz | 10:00–15:00 | Book a free pass online in advance | |
| Town Hall Tower | 11:00–16:00 | At the entrance | |
| Tuesday | National Museum – Main Building, Cloth Hall Gallery, Czartoryski Museum, Matejko House, Mehoffer House and other branches (permanent exhibitions) | from 10:00 | Free timed pass at the desk on the day |
| Rynek Underground | 10:00–15:00 | Pass at the desk | |
| Manggha Museum of Japanese Art | opening hours | At the desk | |
| Krzysztofory Palace (permanent exhibition) | opening hours | At the desk | |
| Wednesday | Eagle Pharmacy (Apteka pod Orłem) | 9:00–17:00 | Book online the day before |
| Cricoteka | 11:00–19:00 | At the desk | |
| Collegium Maius (individual visit) | 13:30–17:00 | At the desk | |
| Nowa Huta Underground | varies | Book online the day before | |
| Thursday | MOCAK – permanent collection | 11:00–19:00 | At the desk |
| Podgórze Museum | 10:00–17:00 | At the desk | |
| Sunday | Home Army Museum | 10:00–17:00 | At the desk |
| Every day | Amber Museum | 10:00–20:00 | Just walk in |
*Free days and hours change every few months and are sometimes cancelled for holidays or special exhibitions. Free entry almost always covers permanent exhibitions only. Check each museum's official website before you go.
Monday: Wawel, Schindler's Factory and Kazimierz
Monday is the day to tackle Krakow's heavyweights, so get up early.
Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory is the most popular free ticket in the city. The museum tells the story of Krakow under Nazi occupation, not just Schindler's own story, and it is one of the most moving exhibitions we have seen anywhere. Free passes cannot be booked online, so join the queue before 10:00 and plan at least 90 minutes inside.
From the factory it is a short walk across the river to Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter. The Old Synagogue on Szeroka Street is the oldest surviving synagogue in Poland, and its free Monday passes can be reserved online in advance.
In the afternoon, head up to Wawel Royal Castle. On Mondays a selection of exhibitions is free; which routes are included changes with the season. Pick up passes at the ticket office on the day (one person can collect up to five). Don't leave without saying hello to the fire-breathing dragon statue at the foot of the hill.
Tuesday: National Museum branches, Rynek Underground and Manggha
Tuesday gives you the most free sights, so keep the whole day open.
The National Museum opens all of its branches for free, including the Czartoryski Museum, home to Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine. Arrive at 10:00, because the timed passes are limited. The main building on Aleja 3 Maja holds paintings by our favourite Polish symbolists, Józef Mehoffer and Jacek Malczewski, and there is a whole room of knights' armour. The Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art sits upstairs in the Cloth Hall on the Main Square, so you can combine it with the next stop.
Rynek Underground is a museum right beneath the Main Market Square. Long before the square became a market, it was a burial ground: archaeologists found medieval skeletons with tied hands and feet, a ritual meant to stop the dead from returning as vampires. You walk along stretches of a real medieval road and can weigh yourself on a giant market scale in old units of measure.
Cross the river for Manggha, the Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, founded by film director Andrzej Wajda. It reflects Wawel Castle in its wavy facade. The collection is small but lovely: ceramics, kimonos, Noh theatre masks and incredibly fine katagami paper stencils for dyeing fabric.
Wednesday: Eagle Pharmacy, Cricoteka and Collegium Maius
The Eagle Pharmacy in Podgórze was the only pharmacy inside the Krakow Ghetto, and its owner, Tadeusz Pankiewicz, helped many of its residents. Book the free pass online the day before.
Nearby, the Cricoteka is hard to miss: a rusty, cantilevered modern building grafted onto Krakow's oldest power station. It is dedicated to the theatre director and artist Tadeusz Kantor.
Back in the Old Town, Collegium Maius is the oldest building of the Jagiellonian University, where Copernicus studied. Individual visits are free in the afternoon; its arcaded Gothic courtyard is beautiful even if you only peek in.
Thursday: MOCAK and Podgórze
MOCAK, the Museum of Contemporary Art, sits right next to Schindler's Factory in the former factory buildings. On Thursdays the permanent collection is free. The temporary shows can be challenging; when we visited, one exhibition was about crime and included a real police interrogation recording.
Friday and Saturday: free things to do without a museum
There is no regular free museum day on Friday, which makes it the perfect day to explore outdoors:
- Walk the Planty, the green park ring around the Old Town (about 4 km). Along the way you pass the Barbican and St Florian's Gate, the old entrance to the city.
- Listen to the Hejnał. Every hour a trumpeter plays a short tune from the tower of St Mary's Basilica and stops abruptly mid-melody, in memory of a bugler said to have been shot by an archer during the Mongol siege of 1241.
- Browse the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) for Polish folk crafts and Bolesławiec pottery. Tip: the stalls and shops in the side streets often sell similar souvenirs for less.
- Spend the evening in Kazimierz around Plac Nowy, the liveliest area for bars, cafés and zapiekanka, Krakow's famous street-food baguette.
Day trip: Nowa Huta
Nowa Huta, the socialist-realist district built in the 1950s for workers at Poland's biggest steelworks, surprised us. Instead of grey tower blocks we found wide avenues, green courtyards and grand buildings inspired by the Renaissance. Start at the central Plac Centralny, look around the old-fashioned shops and cafés, and book a free pass for the Nowa Huta Underground (the former civil-defence shelters) for a Wednesday. Tram rides from the centre take about 30 minutes.
Worth paying for
Some of Krakow's highlights have no free day:
- Wieliczka Salt Mine, the underground salt cathedral outside the city. Book tickets in advance in summer.
- Kościuszko Mound has free entry only on a few specific dates a year.
- Auschwitz-Birkenau is free for individual visitors, but named entry cards must be booked online well in advance, and they sell out. If they are gone, a guided tour from Krakow with transport is the easiest option.
Tips for Krakow's free museum days
- Arrive at opening time. Free passes are limited and the popular ones (Schindler, Czartoryski) are often gone by late morning in summer.
- Book online where you can: the Old Synagogue, Eagle Pharmacy and Nowa Huta Underground all release free passes on the Museum of Krakow website.
- Bring your ID for timed or named passes.
- Avoid holidays and long weekends, when free days are sometimes suspended.
- Plan by area: Monday is Podgórze + Kazimierz + Wawel; Tuesday is the Old Town and Manggha.
Where to stay in Krakow
For free-museum hopping, stay in the Old Town or in Kazimierz; both are within walking distance of most free sights. We rented an apartment, which is the cheapest option for longer stays. Read more in our guide Krakow for First-Timers: Where to Stay, Eat and Go Out.
Sources checked for the timetable: muzea.waw.pl free museums in Kraków, Wawel Royal Castle, Museum of Krakow tickets.
About the authors
Dasza — Writer and photographer behind PTraveler. Polish-born, raised in Germany, happiest renting a flat in a new city for a month.
Tomek — Project manager, fixer and tour leader. Plans the routes, finds the free days and tests every street-food stall.