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Krakow Free Museum Days: Which Museum, Which Day

6 min read29 October 2026

Which Krakow museums are free on which day of the week, what the free day covers, and the limits and closures that catch people out, from the museums' own pages.

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Tuesday is the day to plan around. Every branch of the National Museum lets you into its permanent exhibitions for nothing that day, and so do Manggha, the Ethnographic Museum, the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Engineering and Technology, the Aviation Museum and the Rynek Underground. Monday is the other useful day, for a different reason: many museums are shut, but three Museum of Krakow branches open and charge nothing, Schindler's Factory among them.

What follows is a week laid out day by day, built from each museum's own ticket and opening-hours pages as they read on 12 October 2026. Two rules hold almost everywhere. Free admission covers the permanent exhibition, not the temporary shows. And free tickets are often limited, sold only at the desk on the day, or both.

Monday: Schindler's Factory, the Old Synagogue and the Town Hall Tower

Monday is when the National Museum, Manggha, the Aviation Museum, the Home Army Museum and the Museum of Engineering and Technology are all closed. The Museum of Krakow fills the gap with three free branches.

Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory is the big one. A normal ticket costs 60 PLN, reduced 45 PLN, and on a Monday it costs nothing. The catch is in the small print: on free admission days the museum does not let you book in advance, the free tickets are limited, and the ticket office sells Schindler tickets only on the day of the visit, for the next available entry, with a limit of 5 tickets per person. Monday opening is also short, 10:00 to 15:00, against 9:00 to 20:00 on other days. If the factory is the reason you came to Podgorze, queue early and have a fallback for the afternoon.

The Old Synagogue on ul. Szeroka 24 is free on Mondays too, and here the rules are kinder: the museum says you can reserve a free ticket in advance as well as pick one up at the box office. It opens 10:00 to 15:00 on Mondays. The Town Hall Tower on the Main Square is free on Mondays as well, from 11:00 to 16:00.

Watch the second Monday of the month. The Rynek Underground closes that day, and it is listed as closed on 9 November and 14 December this year.

Tuesday: the National Museum and most of the rest

If you can only do one free day, make it this one. The National Museum states that all permanent exhibitions in its branches are free every Tuesday. That covers the Main Building on al. 3 Maja 1, the Sukiennice branch on the Main Square, the Czartoryski Museum, the Arsenal, and the smaller house museums: Matejko, Mehoffer, Szolayski, Czapski, Ciolek and Wyspianski. On an ordinary day the Czartoryski alone is 65 PLN, the Main Building's permanent exhibitions 45 PLN and the Sukiennice 35 PLN.

Two things to know about the Czartoryski. Its tickets are sold for a specific date and time, and the museum encourages booking ahead. Free day or not, expect timed entry rather than walking straight in. Hours differ by branch: the Main Building, Sukiennice, Czartoryski and Arsenal run 10:00 to 18:00 on Tuesdays, and on Tuesday the smaller houses keep the same 10:00 to 18:00 before dropping to 10:00 to 16:00 for the rest of the week. The Wyspianski branch shuts at 16:00.

The rest of Tuesday's list:

  • Rynek Underground, under the Main Square: free, but no advance booking on free days; tickets from the box office on the day, limited, up to 5 per person. Tuesday is also its shortest day, 10:00 to 15:00. Go at opening.
  • Manggha Museum: admission free of charge on Tuesdays. It opens daily except Mondays, 10:00 to 18:00.
  • Ethnographic Museum: Tuesday is its free day for the permanent exhibition in the town hall building on plac Wolnica 1; temporary shows are discounted that day rather than free.
  • Archaeological Museum on Senacka Street: free on Tuesdays, for the permanent exhibition only.
  • Museum of Engineering and Technology (MIT): free entry to the permanent exhibition every Tuesday, but places are limited. The museum guarantees a place only with a free entry pass collected in advance at the ticket desk or through its online ticket shop.
  • Polish Aviation Museum: free admission on Tuesdays. Its timetable shows 09:00 to 17:00, Tuesday to Sunday, and closed on Mondays.

One Tuesday trap: Schindler's Factory closes on the first Tuesday of every month. This year that falls on 3 November and 1 December. The Eagle Pharmacy is closed every Tuesday.

Wednesday: the Eagle Pharmacy and Collegium Maius

Wednesday has fewer options but two good ones. The Eagle Pharmacy, the Museum of Krakow branch named after the pharmacist Tadeusz Pankiewicz, is free on Wednesdays. It opens Wednesday to Sunday only, 9:00 to 17:00, and is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. If you have already paid for Schindler's Factory, keep the ticket: the museum says it also admits you to the Eagle Pharmacy within 7 days of the date printed on it.

At Collegium Maius, the Jagiellonian University Museum, the self-guided route through the main exhibition has no admission fee on Wednesdays, between 13:30 and 16:00, with the last tour starting at 15:30. The morning guided tours are listed at their usual prices.

Cricoteka, whose permanent exhibition is built around Tadeusz Kantor, lists free entrance on Wednesdays on its English price page. That page still shows exhibitions from 2024, so check the current rule at the desk before building a day around it. The Wyspianski branch of the National Museum is closed on Wednesdays.

Thursday and Sunday: MOCAK and the Home Army Museum

On Thursdays entry to the MOCAK Collection, the display on Level -1 of the Museum of Contemporary Art at ul. Lipowa 4 (the same address as Schindler's Factory), is free; temporary exhibitions are sold at a discount that day. MOCAK's ticket page currently gives its opening as Thursday to Sunday, 11:00 to 19:00, so do not count on it earlier in the week.

On Sundays the Home Army Museum (Muzeum Armii Krajowej) makes its exhibitions free for the whole of its opening day. It opens 10:00 to 17:00 and is closed on Mondays.

Friday and Saturday have no regular free day among the museums in this guide. They are the natural days for sights with their own ticketing outside this list, such as Wawel or the salt mine at Wieliczka, each with its own rules on the attraction pages.

Holidays that cancel a free day

The free days are weekly, but the closures are not. Several museums publish lists of days they will be shut, and two public holidays this autumn wipe out free slots:

  • 1 November (Sunday) and 11 November (Wednesday): the Museum of Krakow lists Schindler's Factory, the Rynek Underground, the Eagle Pharmacy, the Old Synagogue and the Town Hall Tower as closed on both days, and the Aviation Museum's 2026 closure list has both as well. 11 November takes out the Eagle Pharmacy's free Wednesday.
  • 24 and 25 December: Schindler's Factory, the Rynek Underground, the Eagle Pharmacy and the Old Synagogue all list both days as closed, and the Aviation Museum closes on 24, 25 and 26 December.

The Old Synagogue's list also includes 12 November and 10 December, and it closed for Yom Kippur in September. Each branch's page carries a short "closed days" list near the opening hours. It is worth a look the night before.

A three-day plan that uses the free days

For a Monday to Wednesday stay, the free days line up neatly. Monday morning at Schindler's Factory, in the queue before 10:00, then the Old Synagogue on ul. Szeroka in the early afternoon before it shuts at 15:00. Tuesday is National Museum day: the Czartoryski at a booked time, the Sukiennice gallery above the Main Square, the Rynek Underground underneath it when it opens at 10:00, and Manggha or the Ethnographic Museum after lunch if you still have legs. Wednesday afternoon goes to Collegium Maius after 13:30, with the Eagle Pharmacy in the morning.

Arriving on a Thursday instead? MOCAK on Thursday, the Home Army Museum on Sunday, and pay for the Friday and Saturday sights. The free days elsewhere in the week are not worth rearranging a trip for unless you plan to see several National Museum branches; the saving there adds up quickly.

The one rule to remember: a free ticket is still a ticket. Pick it up at the desk, keep it with you, and where the free tickets are limited (Schindler's Factory on Monday, the Rynek Underground on Tuesday) arrive at opening rather than mid-morning.

Sources

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