Our region attracts visitors with its diverse landscapes, UNESCO heritage sites and dazzling traditions. There’s something for everyone.
Marek Mikos
Kraków Culture
Local history
Małopolska abounds with living traditions and references to history. For example, the outside wall of the Carmelite Church bears a footprint allegedly set by Queen Jadwiga (ca. 1373–1399) – daughter of the king of Hungary – who contributed to the restoration of the flagging University of Kraków. Today the Jagiellonian University is one of Poland’s finest, acclaimed at home and abroad and teaching around 35,000 students every year.
Our region always attracted visitors. Just as Nicolaus Copernicus travelled from Toruń to study in Kraków, students from all over Europe have long been enrolling at the Jagiellonian University drawn by its reputation. Over the centuries, the university’s students have included architects, artists and sculptors such as Veit Stoss, Giovanni Maria Padovano, Bartolommeo Berrecci and Francesco Placidi, leaving indelible traces of their work throughout Małopolska. The city also welcomed peasants, artificers and tradespeople arriving in the hope of a better life.
You can see the impact they made at the Galicia Outdoor Museum, branch of the Regional Museum in Nowy Sącz. It recreates the daily life of inhabitants of this province at the turn of the 19th century; the market square is dominated by a town hall, with an inn, apothecary, a watchmaker’s shop, photography studio, pottery workshop, post office, bakery and fire station.
Famous people who chose Małopolska as their home include Nobel laureates Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska, the acclaimed futurist and sci-fi author Stanisław Lem, the Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda, and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Tadeusz Kantor, inspired pioneers of all aspects of theatre. Many other global stars were born in the region: the acclaimed American film director Billy Wilder, the most Cracovian of Cracovian artists Stanisław Wyspiański, the operatic diva Ada Sari, the great actress Helena Modjeska and the founder of the cosmetics empire Helena Rubinstein.
Explorers’ keys
If you’d like to discover Małopolska but have limited time, it’s best to follow certain keys. For example, UNESCO World Heritage Sites are a pride of the region, with half of all 28 listings in Poland found just here, in Małopolska. They include Kraków’s historic centre with the Kazimierz district, the Wieliczka and Bochnia salt mines, the monastery in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, and eight wooden churches in various villages scattered throughout region.
Another key to exploring Małopolska are flavours, including products granted regional protection such as the Cracovian obwarzanki, lisiecka sausage, oscypek cheese and local plum brandy. The best kremówka cream slices can be found in Wadowice – hometown of Pope John Paul II. Many restaurants serve local dishes and those inspired by traditional Polish cuisine. Kraków’s Bottiglieria 1881 was recently awarded its second Michelin star – the only restaurant in Poland to achieve this status! But you can also discover local flavours at more homely places: sample the sauerkraut soup at Kraków’s cult U Stasi, fortify yourself with pierogi at one of Poland’s highest eateries Bacówka (931 metres above sea level!), try trout from a local lake at U Danka in Roztoka Ryterska, or enjoy pork schnitzels with fried cabbage among stunning sculptures by the folk artist Antoni Toborowicz at the Siedlisko inn in Strzeżów.
Over half of Małopolska’s natural habitats are protected as natural parks, with the region home to six of them. If you follow this particular trail, you will visit the Tatra, Babia Góra, Pieniny, Gorce, Ojców and Magura national parks – each boasting different natural terrain, fauna and flora. The region is home to nature reserves dedicated to protecting endangered species, from bears, Poland’s largest predators and bison, Europe’s largest land mammals, to smaller beasts such as bats and butterflies. In the Tatra Mountains, you may encounter chamois goats, marmots and eagles, and the small, colourful birds wallcreepers (also found in Pieniny). The Tatra, Pieniny, Beskidy and Gorce mountain ranges are home to lynx. The successful reintroduction programme means you may be able spot the beautiful apollo butterflies fluttering over mountain meadows.
You could also draw up a trail of local castles. As well as the largest and most famous – Kraków’s very own Wawel, of course – you’ll find others in Niepołomice, Pieskowa Skała and Sucha Beskidzka. The Tenczyn, Rabsztyn and Lipowiec castles all lie on the trail of the Eagle’s Nests – a chain of mediaeval castles dating back to the reign of King Casimir the Great and fortifying the border of the Kingdom of Poland. The silhouettes of the fortifications in Czorsztyn and Niedzica are reflected in the waters of the reservoir on the Dunajec River.
Cultural trails
Another key to Małopolska is the region’s culture. Music, theatre, literature, folklore and visual arts festival aren’t just held in Kraków, Poland’s cultural capital! You’ll also find them in smaller towns: Nowy Sącz (Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition, Children of the Mountains Festival), Zakopane (International Mountain Folklore Festival, Zakopane Literary Festival), Stary Sącz (Omnia Beneficia Early Music Festival), Biecz (Kromer Festival Biecz), Lusławice (home of the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music and the composer’s beloved arboretum), and Myślec (Pannonica Festival). If you’d like to see a village where every cottage, hut and well is adorned with colourful flowers, visit Zalipie. Head to Lipnica Murowana on Palm Sunday to find out how to construct enormous Easter palms. The Świątniki Górne Ironworks Museum presents a collection of locks, padlocks and keys. You’ll find a collection of historic rolling stock, including Poland’s oldest preserved steam locomotive, at the outdoor museum in Chabówka. Krynica, the jewel of Poland’s spas, is a town full of stunning wooden architecture and a tiny museum dedicated to Nikifor – the Lemko 20th-century naïve painter.
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Grab a guide, or leave your maps and phone behind, and head into Małopolska! Open your eyes, prick up your ears and stride on – until you know it’s time to pause and contemplate your surroundings.
