Historical Museum of the City of Kraków, History museum in Old Town, Poland.
The Historical Museum of the City of Kraków is a city museum in the Old Town, housed inside Krzysztofory Palace, a Baroque building on the main market square. Its rooms spread across several floors and display objects, documents, and photographs covering the city's story from its earliest days to the modern era.
The museum was founded in 1899 as part of the city archive and moved several times before settling at Krzysztofory Palace in 1964. The palace itself was built in the 17th century and had passed through the hands of several noble Kraków families before becoming a public institution.
The museum holds the collection of Kraków nativity scenes, presented each December on the main square before entering the permanent collection. These nativity scenes, built from cardboard and colored glass, follow the shapes of the city's Gothic and Baroque churches.
The entrance sits directly on the main market square, making it easy to find since it stands close to the Cloth Hall. Allow at least half a day, as the displays cover several floors and there is a lot to take in at a comfortable pace.
The main exhibition, called 'Kraków from the Beginning, without End', opened in December 2021 and is designed so that visitors can touch and interact with objects rather than simply view them from a distance. This approach is relatively unusual for a city history museum in Poland.
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