Lesser Poland Region Guide

Lesser Poland holds the country’s most complete historic city, its only proper mountains, and the site that more people come to Poland to see than any other.

Krakow was the royal capital for five centuries and, almost uniquely among Polish cities, came through the Second World War physically intact. Its medieval centre is UNESCO-listed, built around one of the largest market squares in Europe, with Wawel castle and cathedral above the Vistula and the old Jewish quarter of Kazimierz just beyond.

Auschwitz-Birkenau is an hour west. It is not a sight and should not be treated as one, but it is the reason a great many people travel here, and it is properly preserved and explained.

South, the Tatra mountains rise abruptly to nearly 2,500 metres — alpine, compact, and reached from the highlander town of Zakopane.

And underground, the Wieliczka salt mine, worked for seven centuries and carved into chapels.

Krakow

The Main Market Square with the Cloth Hall and St Mary’s Basilica, where a trumpeter plays the hourly hejnal from the tower and breaks off mid-note. Wawel hill for the cathedral where Polish kings were crowned and buried, and the castle’s state rooms. Then Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, with its synagogues and cemetery, and Podgorze across the river where the ghetto was, with the Schindler factory museum.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

An hour and a half west at Oswiecim. Book a timed entry well ahead; take the guided tour; allow at least three and a half hours for both sites. Birkenau, the larger camp, is the one that conveys the scale.

Wieliczka

A salt mine worked from the thirteenth century, with chambers, underground lakes and the chapel of St Kinga carved entirely from salt, chandeliers included. UNESCO-listed and easy from Krakow.

The Tatras

Zakopane as a base, then the cable car up Kasprowy Wierch, the walk to Morskie Oko lake, and for the fit and unafraid the chained ridge route to Rysy or Orla Perc.

Elsewhere

The wooden churches of the Malopolska trail, the Dunajec gorge by raft, and Ojcow’s limestone valley.

Lesser Poland is the old royal heartland and the most traditionally Catholic part of the country, and it thinks of itself as the cultural centre regardless of where the government sits.

Krakow versus Warsaw

The rivalry is real and largely good-natured. Krakow was the capital until 1596, kept its buildings through the war, holds the oldest university in Poland and the royal tombs, and regards itself as the country’s cultural conscience. Warsaw regards Krakow as a museum. Both have a point.

Catholicism

This is the region that produced Karol Wojtyla, archbishop of Krakow and then Pope John Paul II, whose election in 1978 and subsequent visits were a decisive moment in the collapse of communism in Poland. Religious observance here remains higher than almost anywhere in Europe, and the pilgrimage sites at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Czestochowa draw millions.

The Jewish past

Kazimierz was a Jewish town in its own right for centuries, and Krakow’s Jewish community was one of the most important in Europe before 1939. Its remnants, its synagogues and its commemoration are central to the region’s identity now.

Gorale

The highlanders of the Tatra foothills have their own dialect, dress, architecture and music, and a strong sense of being distinct from lowland Poles.

Auschwitz-Birkenau requires a particular kind of seriousness. More than a million people were murdered there. It is a cemetery. Dress appropriately, do not take selfies, do not photograph yourself on the railway tracks, and follow the museum’s guidance without needing to be told twice. Entry is free but timed tickets must be booked well in advance, and a guided tour is strongly worth taking.

Krakow is genuinely overtouristed. The market square in July is at capacity, short-let flats have hollowed out the centre, and stag parties have made parts of it unpleasant for residents. Stay outside the ring, eat away from the square, and treat Kazimierz as a living Jewish quarter and a residential neighbourhood rather than a bar strip.

The Tatras are small, protected and extremely busy — the Morskie Oko path can carry thousands a day. Stay on the trails, take your rubbish out, and avoid the peak weekends if you can.

Air quality in Krakow in winter is among the worst in Europe; the city has banned solid-fuel heating, but the surrounding region has not.

May, June and September are the best months: warm, long days, everything open and the worst of the crowds either not yet arrived or gone.

July and August are hot, very busy and expensive in Krakow, though the mountains are at their best for walking — the high Tatra trails are reliably clear of snow only from about late June to September.

December brings one of Europe’s better Christmas markets to the Krakow market square, along with the nativity crib competition, and Zakopane fills for the ski season and New Year.

January to March is ski season in the Tatras, cold in the city, and the months when Krakow’s air is at its worst. It is also the cheapest and quietest time in the city itself.

Boze Cialo, the June feast of the Body of Christ, and the Lajkonik procession a week later are the distinctive Krakow events, and All Saints’ Day on 1 November fills the cemeteries with candles.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the region

Krakow is not as cheap as it was, and the central square carries a substantial premium. Two streets away the prices halve.