Wyspianski Museum (Old Granary)

Stanislaw Wyspianski was a painter, graphic artist, designer, poet and playwright, and he shaped how Krakow still looks and sees itself. This branch of the National Museum in Krakow is the only museum devoted to his life and work.

The building

The museum occupies the Old Granary (Stary Spichlerz) at pl. Sikorskiego 6, an 18th-century building put up outside the city walls. It belonged to the Wielopolski and then the Jablonowski families, passed to the city in 1905, and has since been a granary, a carriage factory, a warehouse, a dairy, a shop and, between the wars, the seat of the Association of Architects of the Republic of Poland. After 1945 the National Museum used it as a store. A refit in 2009 to 2013 turned it into the Europeum, a centre for European culture, and since 2021 it has housed the Wyspianski Museum.

What you see

The National Museum holds the largest collection of Wyspianski's work in Poland, more than 1,100 objects. The exhibition spreads over three levels (ground floor, first floor and the lower ground floor) and covers his pastel portraits and landscapes, his designs for the decoration of Krakow's churches and public buildings, including the Franciscan church, the cathedral and the Medical Society House, applied art, typography and his theatre work, along with family mementoes and the artist's own library. Because works on paper fade, the display is shown in two versions that alternate year by year, so a return visit can show different pieces.

Visiting

Open Tuesday 10:00-16:00, Thursday and Friday 10:00-16:00, Saturday and Sunday 11:00-16:00; closed Mondays and Wednesdays. Tickets are 18 PLN (reduced 14 PLN), and the permanent exhibition is free on Tuesdays (National Museum price list, read 11 October 2026).

Insider tip

Finish at the Franciscan Basilica, a short walk away, where Wyspianski's stained glass and wall paintings fill the church his designs here were made for.