Kraków's Royal Route: a self-guided walk from the Barbican to Wawel, with what is open each day

One of 2 self-guided walks in Kraków. See every walk.

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: Start at the Barbican on Basztowa Street and finish on Wawel Hill: 2.1 km, about 30 minutes of walking, an hour at a stroll, and a full day with the tickets. Walk it Tuesday to Saturday: on Mondays the Barbican and the museums on the way are shut, and on Sundays St Mary’s opens to visitors only at 14:00. The Barbican and city walls close for the season on 30 October 2026. Book a Wawel Castle route online, a month ahead, and aim to reach the hill by 14:30: the two-floor route takes its last visitors at 15:00. Be inside St Mary’s at 11:50, when the altar opens. Or book a tour: Walkative’s Old Town and Wawel walking tourad (from £20.40, 2.5 hours) meets at the Barbican and walks the same route with a guide, but goes inside no church or museum.

The route

Map of the walk numbered stops in walking order

Open the whole route in Google Maps - all the stops in walking order, set to walking directions, which is the version to put on your phone.

The route follows the road that kings took to Wawel after a victory, that bishops took to take up office and that foreign envoys took to the castle, and the route of royal funeral processions. Prices are the adult rate in złoty (PLN) from each operator, at about 5.15 PLN to the pound.

Walk it with a guide

A guide adds the stories and finds the route for you, but none of these tours includes an entry ticket. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

• Kraków: Old Town & Wawel Castle Walking Tour in Englishad, by Walkative: from £20.40, 4.8 stars from 838 reviews, 2.5 hours. It meets at the Barbican and ends on Wawel Hill with the Cathedral and the Castle courtyard, and Walkative says it goes inside no churches or museums.
• Krakow: The Old Town Walking Tourad, by Kraków Explorers: from £13.57, 4.8 stars from 1,050 reviews, 2.5 hours, from St Mary’s Basilica to the Wawel.
• Krakow: Old Town, Wawel Castle, and Market Walking Tourad, by Discover Cracow: from £4.85, 172 reviews, 2.5 hours, from the Grunwald Monument by way of the Stary Kleparz market and Kanonicza Street to the Wawel.

Kraków walking tours compares the free pay-what-you-wish tours, the ghost walks and the bike tours.

1. The Barbican

22 PLN (about £4.25) with the city walls, 16 PLN reduced · Tuesday to Sunday 10:30 to 18:00, last entry 17:30 · 10 May to 30 October 2026, closed on Mondays

The Barbican on Basztowa Street. Photo: Strumyczek, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

A round brick fortress, built in 1499 outside St Florian’s Gate and once joined to it by a fortified passage. The Museum of Kraków, which runs it, counts 130 embrasures on four storeys, walls up to 3.65 m thick and a moat about 26 m wide round it. The inside was left almost empty, so that troops could gather in it.

• One ticket covers the Barbican and the City Defence Walls at stop 2, within three days, with a set start time. Buy it from the machine or the desk in the Barbican, at the walls or online from the Museum of Kraków.
• Bags: no rucksacks or luggage over 30 litres and no long umbrellas. There are no toilets or cloakroom, and no re-entry.
• No free day. The Museum’s “Medieval Kraków” ticket, 64 PLN, covers the Barbican and walls, the Town Hall Tower and the Rynek Underground, which cost 89 PLN bought separately.
• The City Gates Opening Ceremony, on the days the Barbican is open: the bugle call from St Mary’s at 10:00, a procession down Floriańska Street and through St Florian’s Gate, and the opening of the gate at the Barbican at 10:20.

2. St Florian’s Gate and the city walls

The gate is free · the walls are on the Barbican ticket, same hours · entrance on Pijarska Street

St Florian’s Gate from Floriańska Street. Photo: DamianButrym, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The 34.5 m tower is the only one of the city’s eight gates still standing, and it was the main one: the start of the Royal Route, called the Gate of Glory. Its Baroque cap went on after the Swedish wars of the 17th century. Walk through it and turn right into Pijarska Street for the stretch of wall that survived, where the walls ticket takes you into the Pasamonik Tower, once the haberdashers’, and along the guard gallery that joins it to the gate.

The Czartoryski Museum, home of Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, is on the same street at Pijarska 15: a timed ticket at 65 PLN, closed on Mondays.

3. Floriańska Street

Free · the Matejko House at No. 41: 18 PLN, free on Tuesdays, closed on Mondays

Floriańska Street, looking towards St Mary’s Basilica. Photo: Zygmunt Put, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The street runs from the gate to the square, with St Mary’s tower at the end of it. Coronation and funeral processions came down it, and most of its houses had been rebuilt in brick by the end of the 15th century.

• No. 45, Jama Michalika. Jan Michalik opened a pastry shop here in 1895, and from 1905 to 1907 it held Zielony Balonik, the “Green Balloon”, Kraków’s first literary cabaret. Its walls still carry the cabaret’s drawings and caricatures, with its puppets in glass cases. See where to eat.
• No. 41, the Matejko House. The painter Jan Matejko was born, lived, worked and died in this house. The National Museum shows his belongings, paintings and sketches, and his collection, which includes executioner’s tools from the town hall’s cellars: 18 PLN, Tuesday 10:00 to 18:00 (free), Wednesday to Sunday 10:00 to 16:00, last entry 20 minutes before closing.
• The bugle tower. St Mary’s tower is entered from Floriańska Street, though its tickets are sold at the basilica’s desk: see stop 4.

4. St Mary’s Basilica

20 PLN (about £3.90), 10 PLN reduced · Monday to Saturday 11:30 to 18:00, Sundays and holidays 14:00 to 18:00 · tickets on the day only, at Plac Mariacki 7

St Mary’s Basilica on the Main Market Square. Photo: Maksym Kozlenko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Veit Stoss carved the altar of the Dormition of the Virgin between 1477 and 1489, and its wings are opened at 11:50 from Monday to Saturday and at 14:10 on Sundays. Be inside with a ticket before then. Visitors see the chancel, the front of the nave and the chapels, and enter by the south door; the main door from the square is for prayer. The bugle call, the hejnał, is played from the taller tower every hour and stops mid-note.

• Tickets are sold only at the visitor desk at Plac Mariacki 7, beside the church, on the day. The desk closes 15 minutes before visiting hours end.
• The tower: 20 PLN, same-day tickets from the same desk, Tuesday to Saturday 11:00 to 17:30 and Sundays from 13:00, closed on Mondays. No children under 7, and it can close in bad weather.
• Not on the Kraków Card. St Mary’s Basilica tickets has the rest.

5. The Cloth Hall and the Rynek Underground

Stalls free · gallery 35 PLN (about £6.80), Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, free on Tuesdays · Underground 45 PLN (about £8.75), closed on the second Monday of the month

The Cloth Hall on the Main Market Square. Photo: Macieklew, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The covered market in the middle of the square was rebuilt after a fire in 1555, when it gained the long attic with carved grotesque heads designed by the Italian sculptor Santi Gucci. The ground-floor hall is still lined with stalls, now selling souvenirs, and needs no ticket. An iron knife hangs in the passage on the side facing the Mickiewicz monument: a sign of the medieval town law that cut off a thief’s ear.

• The gallery upstairs: the National Museum’s Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art, with Matejko, Michałowski, Siemiradzki and Chełmoński. Last entry 20 minutes before closing. A gallery ticket also admits you to the permanent exhibitions at the Matejko House (stop 3) and the Ciołek Palace (stop 10).
• The Rynek Underground: the museum of medieval Kraków under the square, entered at Rynek Główny 1, opposite Szewska Street. It takes about 75 minutes. Book a time online: the Museum of Kraków says visitors without a booking may not get in. Monday 10:00 to 19:00, Tuesday 10:00 to 15:00 (free, desk tickets only), Wednesday and Thursday 10:00 to 19:00, Friday to Sunday 10:00 to 20:00. No rucksacks over 30 litres. See Rynek Underground tickets.
• The rest of the square: the Main Market Square guide covers the Krzysztofory Palace and the order to see it all.

6. The Town Hall Tower

22 PLN (about £4.25), 16 PLN reduced · Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, Monday 11:00 to 16:00 (free) · last entry 30 minutes before closing

The Town Hall Tower. Photo: Maksym Kozlenko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The town hall is first recorded in 1316 and was pulled down in 1820; the tower is all that was kept. Two stone lions flank the steps up to the door. Inside, 110 steps of uneven height climb past a Gothic hall with a rib vault to the top floor under the spire, with views over the city and the old clock mechanism. The town clock went up in 1524.

• Closed on 1 and 11 November.
• Mondays are free: book online or take a ticket at the desk while they last.

7. Grodzka Street

Free · Bar Mleczny Pod Temidą at No. 43

Grodzka Street, looking south from the Main Market Square. Photo: Mach240390, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Leave the square at its south corner, beside the small domed church of St Adalbert, and Grodzka runs south towards the castle, with the towers of St Andrew’s at the far end. From Dominikański Square onwards you are in the oldest part of the walk: an early medieval settlement of merchants and craftsmen called Okół lay between here and the hill before the city was laid out in 1257. The milk bar at No. 43 is the cheapest lunch on the route.

8. Church of Saints Peter and Paul

Free · April to October Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00, Sundays 13:30 to 17:30 · November to March Monday to Saturday 11:00 to 15:00

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul on Grodzka Street. Photo: Zygmunt Put, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The first Baroque church in Kraków, begun in 1596 for the Jesuits and finished in 1619 by Giovanni Trevano, the architect of King Sigismund III. The plan follows the Jesuits’ mother church in Rome, Il Gesù. The twelve apostles on the railings in front date from 1723. Inside, gilded statues of the four Evangelists stand in the drum of the dome, and the Jesuit preacher Piotr Skarga, who died in 1612, is buried in the crypt under the chancel. The crypt also holds the National Pantheon, where the writer Sławomir Mrożek was the first to be buried, in 2013.

• The Foucault pendulum is demonstrated on Thursdays at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00. The parish asks visitors to ring the office the day before to check it is running: +48 12 422 65 73.
• Plac św. Marii Magdaleny, the square on the church’s north side, has the outline of a demolished medieval church marked in the paving, and a statue of Skarga.

9. St Andrew’s Church

Free · Mass daily at 07:00, and at 07:00 and 10:00 on Sundays

St Andrew’s Church on Grodzka Street, behind the apostles of Saints Peter and Paul. Photo: Pymouss, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Built between 1079 and 1098, and built to be defended: thick stone walls with no windows low down. According to the chronicler Jan Długosz, the people of Kraków held it against the Tatar raid of 1241, with the poor and the sick sheltering inside. The Baroque caps on the two towers were added in 1639, and the interior was redone in Baroque around 1700, with stucco by Baltazar Fontana and a pulpit in the shape of a boat. Poor Clare nuns have lived beside it since 1316, in an enclosed convent, and they publish Mass times rather than visiting hours.

10. Kanonicza Street

Free · Archdiocesan Museum at Nos. 19-21: 10 PLN, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:15 · Ciołek Palace at No. 17: 18 PLN, closed on Mondays

The Dean’s House at Kanonicza 21, home of the Archdiocesan Museum. Photo: Luxetowiec, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

From St Andrew’s, walk back to Plac św. Marii Magdaleny, cross it and turn left down Kanonicza. The canons of the Wawel Cathedral built their houses here from the second half of the 14th century, and many were turned into Renaissance palaces in the 16th, with arcaded courtyards and carved portals.

• The Archdiocesan Museum, Nos. 19-21. The Dean’s House at No. 21 has its sgraffito front and a portal inscribed Procul este profani, “keep away, the uninitiated”. Karol Wojtyła, later Pope John Paul II, lived on the street in the 1950s and 1960s, and the museum, named after him, is in his house. The Wawel Cathedral ticket also admits you here: bought online, it is valid for 14 days, so buy it before Kanonicza and use it twice. Closed on Mondays.
• The Ciołek Palace, No. 17. Built in 1501-1503 for Bishop Erazm Ciołek, it holds the National Museum’s medieval and early modern Polish art and its Orthodox icons: 18 PLN, Tuesday 10:00 to 18:00 (free), Wednesday to Sunday 10:00 to 16:00.
• Długosz House, No. 25. The chronicler Jan Długosz lived here in the 15th century and wrote his Annals in it.

11. Wawel Hill

Hill and Arcaded Courtyard free · Cathedral 26 PLN (about £5) · Castle routes 47 to 95 PLN, timed tickets · hill open from 06:00, until 18:00 in October

The west front of Wawel Cathedral. Photo: Jorge Láscar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Kanonicza ends at the foot of the hill, and a ramp climbs to the castle. The hill itself, the Cathedral’s outside and the Castle’s Arcaded Courtyard cost nothing; the courtyard opens at 07:00 and closes half an hour before the hill’s gates.

The Arcaded Courtyard of Wawel Castle. Photo: Zygmunt Put, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

• The Cathedral: 26 PLN covers the Cathedral, the Sigismund Bell, the Royal Tombs and the Cathedral Museum, plus the Archdiocesan Museum on Kanonicza. Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00 and Sundays 12:30 to 17:00 from April to October, closing at 16:00 from November to March, with the last tickets sold 30 minutes before closing. The Castle does not sell it: buy it at the Cathedral’s office or its online shop.
• A Castle route, booked ahead: every route is its own timed ticket. Online tickets go on sale a month ahead at bilety.wawel.krakow.pl, and every route has a daily limit, so buy yours when your date opens; if they run out, the windows in the Visitors Centre may still have some. Both floors are 95 PLN with an audio guide and take about 110 minutes, with the last visitors admitted at 15:00; one floor is 57 PLN.
• Bags: nothing larger than 55 x 40 x 23 cm on the hill, and rucksacks go to the checkroom in the Arcaded Courtyard before any exhibition. No bicycles or scooters. The Castle takes złoty only.
• To 31 October 2026: the Dragon’s Den (15 PLN) and the viewing tower (19 PLN). Both close for the season after that.

Wawel Castle tickets compares every route, the free Mondays and Free November.

Where to eat

Jama Michalika

Floriańska 45 · daily 09:00 to 22:00, Fridays and Saturdays to 23:00

The café of the Green Balloon cabaret, opened in 1895, with the cabaret’s drawings and puppets still on the walls. It serves Old Polish cooking and its own cakes, among them a Wawel and a Barbakan. Stop here between the gate and the square.

Bar Mleczny Pod Temidą

Grodzka 43 · daily 09:00 to 20:00

A milk bar, a cheap self-service canteen, halfway down Grodzka. Pierogi ruskie, filled with potato and cheese and topped with fried onion, are 31 PLN, and żurek, the sour rye soup with sausage and potato, 18.90 PLN. Order at the counter; the menu is on the wall.

Pod Nosem

Kanonicza 22 · book a table

A Polish restaurant at the foot of the Wawel, listed by the Michelin Guide, cooking traditional dishes in a new way. It is the sit-down dinner at the end of the walk. See where to eat in Kraków for more.

The best day to go

The timing that works, Tuesday to Saturday: be at the Barbican for the gate ceremony at 10:20 and go in when it opens at 10:30, walk down Floriańska and be inside St Mary’s for the altar at 11:50. Take the Cloth Hall and the Town Hall Tower, eat on Grodzka, and reach Wawel by 14:30 for a Castle route; the Cathedral closes at 17:00.

What closes:

• 30 October 2026: the Barbican and the walls close for the season, and the gate ceremony stops with them.
• 31 October 2026: the Dragon’s Den and the viewing tower at Wawel close.
• 1 and 11 November: public holidays. The Castle, the Town Hall Tower and the Rynek Underground are closed, and St Mary’s keeps its Sunday hours.
• November to March: the Cathedral closes at 16:00, and Saints Peter and Paul opens to visitors from 11:00 to 15:00, Monday to Saturday.
• 24 and 25 December: the Cathedral and the Rynek Underground are closed.

What does not close: the streets, the Main Market Square, the stalls in the Cloth Hall, St Andrew’s from the outside, the hill and the Arcaded Courtyard. A Monday still makes a good walk: the gate, the square, the churches and the hill are all there, St Mary’s opens at 11:30 with the altar at 11:50, the Town Hall Tower is free, and Wawel lets you into selected Castle exhibitions for nothing, with passes from the windows while they last. Only the museums and the Barbican are missing.

Getting there and back

• To the start: the Barbican is on Basztowa Street, about 800 m, or 10 minutes on foot, from the platforms of Kraków Główny, where the airport train arrives. See Kraków airport to the city centre.
• From the end: the nearest tram stops to Wawel are Wawel and Stradom, and the train and bus station is about a 20-minute walk. Kraków public transport has the tickets.
• In reverse: the route works uphill from Wawel too, but then you reach St Mary’s after the altar has opened and the Barbican after the gate ceremony.

What to do with the rest of the day

• Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter, is the next district south of Wawel: the Kazimierz and Podgórze walk starts at Plac Nowy, 1.2 km (about 15 minutes) from Wawel Hill, and Kazimierz and the Jewish Quarter has the synagogues’ hours.
• The river: Vistula river cruises leave from the pier below Wawel Hill.
• An evening concert: Chopin concerts in Kraków.
• The whole trip: Kraków in one day and 3 days in Kraków build the days round the bookings, free museum days in Kraków lists every free day, and what to book before you go to Kraków has the rest of the tickets. To sleep on the route, hotels near the Main Market Square lists the hotels beside it.

Common questions

What is the Royal Route in Kraków?

The road kings, bishops and foreign envoys took through the city to Wawel, and the route of royal funeral processions: from St Florian's Gate down Floriańska Street, across the Main Market Square, then down Grodzka and Kanonicza Streets to Wawel Hill. The Barbican stands just outside the gate.

How long is the Royal Route walk?

2.1 km from the Barbican to Wawel Cathedral, measured along the streets: about 30 minutes of walking, and about an hour at a stroll without going inside anything. With the basilica, the Rynek Underground and a Wawel Castle route it fills a day.

Is the Royal Route walk free?

The streets, the Main Market Square, the stalls in the Cloth Hall, the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Wawel Hill and the Castle's Arcaded Courtyard cost nothing. The Barbican and walls are 22 PLN, St Mary's Basilica 20 PLN, the Town Hall Tower 22 PLN, the Rynek Underground 45 PLN, the Wawel Cathedral 26 PLN and a Castle route from 47 PLN.

What do I need to book for the Royal Route?

A Wawel Castle route, as a timed ticket online: tickets go on sale a month ahead and every route has a daily limit. The Rynek Underground sells timed tickets online too. St Mary's Basilica sells tickets only at its visitor desk on the day.

Which day is best for the Royal Route walk?

Tuesday to Saturday. On Mondays the Barbican, the Cloth Hall gallery and the museums on Floriańska and Kanonicza are closed, and on Sundays St Mary's opens to visitors only at 14:00. On Tuesdays the Cloth Hall gallery, the Matejko House, the Ciołek Palace and the Rynek Underground are free.

When does the Barbican close for the winter?

Its 2026 season runs from 10 May to 30 October, Tuesday to Sunday from 10:30 to 18:00. The City Gates Opening Ceremony, at 10:20 at the Barbican, runs only on the days it is open.