The best museums Poland

The Museum of the History of the Polish Post is housed in the premises of the present Central Post Office, an imposing building constructed between 1926 and 1929, whose expressionist architectural forms are attributable to Neumann. The museum is dedicated to the history of the Polish postal system and telecommunications from the 16th century to the present day. Paintings, graphic art, stamps, mailboxes, uniforms and many other wonders for enthusiasts in this specialized museum.

It contains the collection of Henryk Tomaszewski, a famous Polish artist, creator of the pantomime theater in Wrocław. He died in 2001 and had been living in Karpacz since 1968. This collection is the result of many years of research and passion of the artist. On display, of course, are many toys, some from the artist's private collection whose pieces date back more than two hundred years. A nice visit especially in the company of children.

This museum is great fun to discover! It's best to visit with family or friends (although solo visits are also possible, although perhaps a little less fun). Located right in the heart of the old town, this museum opens the door to optical illusions, immersing you in settings that are sure to unsettle your senses, your sense of space and your sense of orientation. Its strong point is undoubtedly its interactivity.

Built in 1325, this is the oldest place of worship in the city. First of Gothic style, it was redesigned during the Renaissance after a fire in 1561, in the style of Lublin. Inside, the arch of the church is covered with geometric decorations, such as circles, squares, hearts, stars and rosaces. It houses an organ of 1620, among the oldest in Poland. It is closed outside offices, which are held twice a day at 9 a. m. and 6 p. m. The church was completely restored in the 2010 s.

Located on the banks of the River Brda in the Old Town, these grain silos are a symbol of the city and its commercial past. Due to their serious deterioration, renovation work began in 1993, and was finally completed in 2006. Today, they house the History Department, the Graphic Art Department, the Ethnography Department and the Music Department, as well as a fine regional museum dedicated to the city and its history.

In this large enclosure in the middle of a nature park, you can see European bison, which in Pomerania disappeared in the 14th century. In 1976, four bison were brought here from Podlaskie, where they still live in the wild, in order to restore the bison population on the island of Wolin. Since then, all the bison present in Wolin were born here (about a dozen). There are also sick deer, wild boar and eagles that are treated by the reserve staff and then released. Access is by foot only (about 1,300 m).

Just a stone's throw from the city center, in the Wesoła district near Kraków Główny station, MUFO is a new cultural landmark not to be missed. Opening in December 2022, it's the only museum in the country entirely dedicated to photography, with over 1,000 prints on display in the permanent exhibition alone. An opportunity to admire the work of Poland's greatest photographers. The temporary exhibitions are also of the highest quality. Don't hesitate to find out more when you're in Krakow.

The regional museum occupies the halls of a former monastery and is mainly concerned with contemporary painting. The museum has several branches, including the archaeological and ethnological section (ul. Lubelska 56), which exhibits various objects from the Stone Age onwards and houses temporary exhibitions. The historical section (ul. Lubelska 57) is devoted to the history of the city between 1392 and 1944. The Chapel of St. Nicholas (ul. Św. Mikołaja 4) exhibits religious art from the 18th to the 20th century. Classical music concerts are held here.

Located south of the city, beyond the Szczebrzeska Gate, in a wooded park, this 19th-century circular fort was part of the fortifications and served as a powder magazine. The red-brick fort became the site of mass executions by the Nazis during World War II. About 8,000 people were murdered. Today on the site, a cemetery honors the martyrs, and a museum recalls this painful period in the history of the city.

In the thirteenth century, Princess Kinga had built a convent for the order of the Clarisses, which she became the first ablose to the death of her husband, Boleslas le Pudique. The convent, which represents the city's main attraction, is still dedicated to its founder. In its interior, the church of the Trinity (Kościół Sw. Trójcy), of Gothic style, keeps many relics concerning the life of the princess. It is also rich in baroque paintings.

Nestled within Hel's oldest Gothic church, the museum is housed in a magnificent red-brick structure. Its exhibition traces the evolution of the links between man, fishing and the sea. Visitors explore ancient artifacts, period photographs and illustrations depicting regional history. Outside, a small open-air museum displays a variety of fishing boats. The observation tower offers a breathtaking view of the bay and town.

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It was rebuilt between 1567 and 1572 in Renaissance style on a ^12th-century Gothic base. In 1595, the tower was added, followed by a clock. On its southwest façade, you can still see the pręt chełminski, 4.35 m long, the town's unit of measurement from the Middle Ages until the ^19th century. Today, it houses a small regional museum(Muzeum Ziemi Chelminskiej). On display are a jumble of ancient crafts and modern art. The exhibition itself is modest, but the rooms are superb, so the museum is a good pretext.

The museum is housed in the former Gestapo prison, the "house under the clock". The exhibition is dedicated to the martyrdom of the Poles during the Second World War. It's a small exhibition, partly financed by the European Union. The building was the scene of the cruellest tortures. The cell windows were barricaded and covered with earth, and despite the thick walls, the screams of the tortured reached the cells. It is estimated that two hundred people were murdered in the two years of operation.

Located on the second floor of the Cloth Hall, this museum, a branch of the National Museum, boasts a fine collection of ^19th-century Polish paintings, including works by Jan Matejko, the national Romantic painter, and Piotr Michałowski, the great painter of horses and riders. There are also paintings by Malczewski, Gierymski, Witkacy and Chełmoński, representing the realist and impressionist currents. A café is located on the panoramic terrace.

The building itself is a magnificent example of Renaissance architecture, so its museum is a good excuse to visit the place. The beautiful façade is decorated with busts of members of the Piast family who lived there until the end of the dynasty in 1675. The exhibition presents the history of the region and of the Silesian Piast dynasties, as well as a beautiful display of Silesian sculptures and paintings, dating from the 15th to the 18th century.

The museum was founded in 1922 on the initiative of the Society for the Preservation of the Regional Tradition of the City of Zielona Góra. Since then, its aim has been to present the past and the specificity of the city. Today, north of the city center, this museum has a collection of contemporary works, and presents especially the wine history of the region. Finally, it houses the most important exhibition of works by the famous contemporary artist Marian Kruczek (1927-1983).

Opposite the Copper Museum, this baroque church replaced a gothic building. The interior, quite well decorated, is worth a visit. In 1677-1678, the remaining presbytery of the Gothic church was rebuilt to become the mausoleum of the Silesian Piast, which can still be visited. The interior of the mausoleum has the shape of a rotunda, the dome is decorated with a painting of Polish rulers: one of the most valuable Baroque monuments in Lower Silesia.

The museum is housed in a former Gothic church (with stained glass windows from Krakow, characteristic). There is a model of the famous battle, as well as various objects associated with it, with a very pleasant modern museography that recreates the issues and the disaster experienced by the Poles. The church was built on the exact spot where the body of Duke Henry the Pious, commander of the Silesian troops, crushed by the Tatars, lay.

This 43 m high tower is the only survivor of the Piast castle. In the 20th century, the authorities of the Opole district considered the castle to be of little use and expensive to maintain and decided to demolish it. Thanks to the strong opposition of the Polish bourgeoisie in Opole and the activists of the Union of Poles in Germany, only the castle tower could be saved. Today it is surrounded by any kind of buildings, but from its top it offers a view over the city.

The National Museum of Warsaw is one of the largest in Poland. It boasts a rich collection of ancient art, including Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, as well as a gallery of Polish and foreign paintings. Some of the paintings on display are from Adolf Hitler's private collection. The Oriental Art Department includes the country's largest collection of Chinese art. There is also a gallery dedicated to Polish and European medieval art.

Nicknamed the "Red Granary", this former medieval residence belonged to the Esken family in the ^mid-15th century. At the end of the 16th century, it was modified and transformed into a Renaissance palace. At the end of the ^19th century, it became a granary, then a reserve for the Prussian army. Today, it houses the history and archaeology department of the Regional Museum. There's an exhibition on life in Toruń from prehistory to the Middle Ages, and a display tracing the various stages of German rule in the ^19th century.

This is one of Toruń's most beautiful houses, where, in the late ^15th century, Filippo Buonacorsi, tutor to the sons of King Casimir Jagiellon, lived. When it was restored in the ^17th century, it lost its original Gothic appearance and became the Baroque edifice with a richly decorated facade featuring floral motifs that we see today. Today, it houses a fine little museum of Far Eastern art, whose collections include Japanese prints and ceramics, Chinese porcelain and paintings.

A gourmet journey through a ^16th-century gingerbread(pierniki) production workshop. After unveiling the secrets and history of gingerbread, the MUSEUM's master pastry chefs will help you make your own gingerbread, which you'll take home after baking in the MUSEUM's own oven, according to your preferred mold. An unmissable visit to the gingerbread capital, and a must for those traveling with children. The MUSEUM regularly organizes workshops in English, so we recommend you make a reservation by e-mail.

Housed in a castle dating back to the ^16th century, it exhibits both ancient and more recent objects significant to the society and art of this region. Among the exhibits are tin sarcophagi from the Dukes of Pomerania, and Poland's largest collection of works by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, known as Witkacy. Not far from the museum, you'll discover the Mill, now an annex, with its two permanent exhibitions on Pomeranian culture. The White Granary also houses other museum exhibitions.

Located 8 km south of Zielona Góra, on an area of 13 ha, this skansen presents several traditional houses from Wielkopolska and Lower Silesia. It has the particularity of being associated with a national museum and a university research branch. Today, almost eighty historical buildings and more than ten thousand artifacts are available for visitors to see in permanent exhibitions and in the company's premises. During the year, folklore events are regularly held here.

This small museum presents a collection of objects that recall the city's attachment to the copper industry. It gathers collections related to the extraction, transformation and use of copper (copper-bearing minerals, ancient and modern copper engravings, ancient and contemporary bronze sculptures, artistic and utilitarian products made of copper and its alloys, a collection of decorative art, contemporary Polish goldsmith's work). In total, about 30,000 pieces.

This Gothic cathedral is a bit of an unusual sight, overlooking blocks of brutalist buildings from the Soviet era. This church is undoubtedly the most beautiful in the city, redesigned in the 19th century in a neo-Gothic architecture. The bronze baptismal font from the 13th century is considered the oldest in Poland. It is a recent cathedral, originally a church, raised by John Paul II to the rank of cathedral for the new diocese of Gliwice.

This museum, housed in one of the two white buildings that face each other next to the village's paid parking lot, exhibits collections of geology, archaeology, zoology and botany of the park. From there, there are marked paths that lead to the different natural curiosities (rocks, caves, gorges). It is an entertaining stop for those who want to discover what they are dealing with in the park, but certainly not necessary to enjoy it.

In the castle's basement kitchens, you'll find an astonishing exhibition that aims to reconstruct what Wawel Hill looked like a thousand years ago. Models and computer representations illustrate parts of buildings that no longer exist, hence the unusual name of this museum. Also on display are the reconstructed foundations of the Rotunda of the Virgin Mary, the oldest stone church built on the hill in the early ^11th century.

This small and unusual museum offers an interesting collection of old objects used by pharmacists, some of which date back to the 16th century. Founded in 1946, it is located in a magnificent 15th century building. Among other things, it houses a reconstruction of a 17th century pharmacy and an apothecary's cellar. It is ideal for pharmacy enthusiasts who wish to discover the history of pharmacy from the Middle Ages to the present day. The others, you can pass your way without regrets, there is nothing here that is absolutely necessary to see.

Built by King Casimir the Great on the model of the Church of Our Lady on the Rynek, this church remains, despite its troubled history, one of the finest examples of Gothic style in Krakow. From the mid-15th to the mid-18th century, earthquakes, floods and fires followed one another until, in the first half of the 19th century, it was converted into an arsenal by the Austrians. This explains its bare interior. It has excellent acoustics and is therefore often used for concerts.

This place can amuse the curious and interest the passionate, who will find a wealth of references to fishing and the marine environment. The museum is housed in the Town Hall building, Świnoujście's oldest, dating from 1804-1806. It's an interesting educational venue for children and adults alike, featuring live specimens (e.g. piranhas or turtles) and inert ones (fossils, amber), as well as exhibitions on the history of Świnoujście, but also on the history of fishing in general.

Villa Kolyba, the first villa built by the creator of the Zakopane style Stanisław Witkiewicz, in 1892, is the must-visit in town. Superb Art Nouveau wooden realization inspired by motifs of Carpathian folklore, with a number of delightful sculptures and ornaments. The exhibition, which allows you to see the interior, presents the history of the style and the life of its creator. It also contains beautiful pastels by Stanisław's son, Witkacy.

The Cricoteka, one of the city's major cultural centers, occupies the buildings of the former Podgórze power plant. The permanent exhibition presents the work of Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990), one of the greatest theater artists and reformers of the 20th century. Sets, props, sketches, photographs and recordings of his performances show the successive stages of his theater's development. The café on the top floor offers a superb panoramic view of this stunning post-industrial complex.

This ^17th-century building, once a convent and then a prison, features a presentation of Little Poland from the Paleolithic to the early Middle Ages, as well as archaeological excavations at the Nowa Huta site before the industrial revolution. Another unusual object, and the museum's centerpiece, is the unique statue of a Slavic pagan god known as "Swiatowid Zbruczanski". This four-sided stone sculpture measures 2.50 meters and was found in the river Zbrucz, Ukraine, in 1848. The museum has a beautiful rose garden.

This superb museum, recently opened to the public, offers a very interesting and high quality collection of sacred art with an impressive collection of paintings and objects that belonged to the churches in the region.

However, what attracts the crowds is the pious reconstruction of the rooms in which Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) lived between 1952 and 1963, with his office, his personal belongings, and even a pair of skis: the man, before being Pontiff, was a great fan of this sport. It is a place of pilgrimage for many believers.

Opened in 1800, this cemetery, much larger than that of Remu'h and ransacked by the Nazis, is completely abandoned. Its overgrown alleys make the visit quite poignant. There are graves dating from the early 19th century, some with epitaphs in Polish or German, a sign of the increasing secularization and cultural assimilation of Krakow's Jews. Among the illustrious graves is that of the photographer Ignacy Krieger (1817-1889), whose photographs are a valuable record of Krakow's past.

The beautiful 17th-century house of the Szołayski family is home to the works of Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907), a local and also one of the most original artists of the early 20th century. A true jack-of-all-trades, he was a writer, playwright, painter, photographer and cabinetmaker. Among his drawings, canvases or pastels, are portraits, especially of children or peasant women, landscapes or flowers. A true prodigy, he produced numerous stained glass windows, notably for the Church of Our Lady, the Franciscan Church and the Wawel Cathedral.

Located in the southern part of the Jewish Quarter, in the former town hall of Kazimierz built in the 14th century, this museum is the largest of its kind in Poland. The museum exhibits life in the countryside in the past, pieces of Polish folk art, especially wood carvings, and a collection of traditional crafts and costumes. It also features reconstructions of rustic domestic interiors, especially from the southern regions of Poland. The annex located at ul. Krakowska 46 houses temporary exhibitions.

This museum is a branch of the Historical Museum. It takes its name from the merchant family who lived in this 14th century house from 1599. Often called the "bourgeois house", it presents the reconstruction of the interiors of a typical Krakow bourgeois house, from the 17th to the 19th century. The interior is perfectly reconstructed and is worth a visit: you really feel transported to another universe with logic and rules completely different from our world. A large number of period furnishings surprise and fascinate.

In the basement of the theater, the Interactive Theater Museum allows visitors to experience the main techniques of theatrical production. This is arguably the most technological museum in Krakow, with the tour taking place through interactive apps, touch screens, tablets and other digital exhibits. You can compose your own music for a production, change the lighting, sound and music on a stage, explore a "virtual dressing room" to learn about costumes. Amazing.

Beautiful 19th century building is only temporary exhibitions, engravings, paintings, but also of photos, all eras and all countries.

Housed in the former ^15th-century Arsenal, it features objects from prehistoric and medieval Silesia, including magnificent funerary urns, fibulae, axes, pottery and the tomb of a knight buried with his horse. Also in the same building is the Military Museum (Muzeum Militariów), with similar opening hours and prices. It displays an impressive collection of weapons, including European military helmets. It's more of an exhibition gallery than a museum.

Of its original Renaissance architecture, only the west wing remains. The other three wings surrounding an arcaded courtyard were destroyed by the Swedes in 1656. After the last partition of Poland in 1795, the castle was turned into a prison until 1959. Today it houses the Regional Museum. The exhibition traces the history of the city and the region. Of particular interest is the section devoted to the clothing, fabrics and traditions of the Poles of the early 20th century. From the courtyard there is a beautiful view of the city, the old port and the Vistula River.

Located behind the cathedral, this massive red-brick Gothic house was built under the orders of Jan Długos, the famous author of the first history of Poland, in 1476 who lived most of the time in the capital, Krakow. Today, it this building houses a collection of religious art from the thirteenth to the twentieth century that is not very extensive but complements the visit to the cathedral well. The exhibition also includes beautiful earthenware from the 16th to the 19th century. The garden is populated with beautiful carved wooden figures.

Established in 1979, this museum has a large collection of old and contemporary Polish and foreign toys. Among the collection: wooden horses, model airplanes, cars, sailboats or trains, porcelain dolls and the unmistakable representations of the witch Baba Jaga, a famous character of Slavic folklore. The whole is tasteful and interactive, children (and older children) love it. It is a good place to visit with the family and maybe even a good time to bring back useful souvenirs from Poland.