Square in Krakow
Also known as Main Market Square Krakow
The Main Market Square in Krakow is the largest medieval town square in Europe, surrounded by townhouses, churches, and the Cloth Hall at its center. Free to enjoy at any hour. The trumpet call from St Mary’s Basilica sounds every hour and cuts off mid-phrase, a tradition dating back to a Mongol invasion legend. Street performers, flower sellers, and horse carriages fill the square. Budget travelers sit at the edge and watch the city happen.
Practical
On foot
Free and low-cost routes that stop at Main Market Square.
The Krakow Royal Way is the historic coronation route that Polish kings followed from the Barbican gate through the Main Market Square to Wawel Castle. Free. It passes the Florian Gate, the Planty Park, St Mary's Basilica, the Cloth Hall, and climbs to Wawel Hill in 1.5 to 2 hours.
The SANDEMANs Free Walking Tour of Krakow covers the Old Town, the Main Market Square, Wawel Castle, and the Jewish Quarter of Kazimierz. Budget travelers use it as their first Krakow walk.
Nearby
Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
The oldest surviving university building in Poland, dating to the 15th century. The arcaded Gothic courtyard is free to enter and is one of the most atmospheric spaces in Krakow.
A Gothic church famous for Stanislaw Wyspianski's spectacular Art Nouveau stained glass windows and polychrome wall paintings. Free to enter, the interior is one of the most colorful sacred spaces in Poland and sits directly on the Royal Way between the Main Market Square and Wawel Castle.
The Galicia Jewish Museum in Kazimierz documents the Jewish heritage of southern Poland through photography, personal stories, and rotating exhibitions. Entry is a modest fee.
Kazimierz is Krakow's former Jewish quarter, now the city's most vibrant neighborhood for nightlife, street art, cafes, and cultural venues. Free to wander.
The Krakow Barbican is a circular Gothic fortification at the northern entrance to the Old Town, one of the few surviving barbicans in Europe. The exterior is free to see.
Nowa Huta is a planned socialist-realist district east of Krakow's center, built in the 1950s as an ideal communist workers' city. Free to walk.
Working out what Krakow costs?
The whole of Krakow