Scene under the Town Hall

Most of the Gothic / Renaissance Town Hall was demolished in 1820, but the tower survives, now a branch of the City Museum. You can climb to the observation deck on the top floor, and peer into the workings of the clock, now radio-synchronised.

In the centre of the square, this large trading hall was built in Gothic style in the 14th century and rebuilt in Renaissance style in the 16th. The ground floor is an arcade filled with souvenir shops: this is open 24 hours even when the shops are closed. Upstairs is the Gallery of 19th C Polish Art, a branch of the National Museum. The Enlightenment, Romanticism, early Nationalism, Realism and Impressionism are the main styles of the permanent collection; plus rotating exhibitions. There are also extensive underground galleries with changing exhibitions, enquire at the upstairs gallery.

Cinema in a beautiful palace with three screens. Similar to ARS with their selection of films. They have special screenings of Polish films with subtitles in English.

At the south corner of the square just before the start of Grodzka, this is one of the oldest churches in Central Europe, with a wooden church recorded from the 10th C. It was rebuilt in the 11th C in Romanesque style and enlarged in the 17th C in baroque style.

The main building. Usual historical museum stuff: armour, swords, etc. Every year after Christmas there is an exhibition concerning local tradition: Krakow szopka (characteristic nativity scene where historical buildings of Kraków are used as backdrop for the Nativity of Jesus.)

This is the oldest part of the university, built 1364-1400 in Gothic style. It has a beautiful courtyard and chambers such as the Assembly Hall and stuba communis - the professors' common room. Niclaus Copernicus, Jan III Sobieski, and John Paul II all studied here. In its museum are the scientific instruments of Copernicus, the first globe to depict America, and many other medieval artefacts. Oxygen was first liquified in a stable condition here in 1883.