Stara Synagoga

What to expect

The Old Synagogue on Szeroka street is the oldest surviving synagogue in Poland and one of the landmarks of Kazimierz, Krakow’s historic Jewish quarter. Today it houses a branch of the Museum of Krakow with an exhibition on the history and culture of Krakow’s Jews: religious ritual, festivals, family life and the everyday world of the pre-war community. The heart of the building is the Gothic-Renaissance prayer hall with the bimah at its centre, which is really the main exhibit in itself.

Be clear about what this place is not. It is not a working synagogue (services are held at the nearby Remuh Synagogue), and it is not a large narrative museum with multimedia. The display is intimate and traditional: Judaica, textiles, silverware and documents shown in historic interiors, with English captions alongside the Polish ones. If you are looking for the story of the Holocaust, that is told elsewhere in the city; here the subject is above all the centuries of Jewish life that came before the war.

During the occupation the Germans ransacked the building and looted its furnishings; after the war the synagogue was rebuilt and handed over to the museum in 1959. That history is quietly present throughout the exhibition, though it is not its main thread.

Visiting in practice

An hour is enough to see the exhibition at a comfortable pace. A standard ticket costs 22 PLN, reduced 16 PLN, and on Mondays entry to the permanent exhibition is free; free-Monday tickets can be collected online at bilety.muzeumkrakowa.pl or at the door while they last. Watch the hours: on Mondays the synagogue opens for a shorter day, 10:00 to 15:00, and on other days 9:00 to 17:00, with last entry for individual visitors 30 minutes before closing. The museum has announced closures on 13 and 15 August and 10 September. There is a small ticket office at the entrance; this is a compact venue, so no advance booking is normally needed.

Getting there

The synagogue stands at the southern end of Szeroka street, the main square of Jewish Kazimierz, about a fifteen-minute walk from the Main Market Square. The nearest tram stops are Miodowa and plac Wolnica, served by lines running along Starowiślna and Krakowska streets. If you walk from the Old Town, the pleasant approach is along Szeroka from Miodowa street, past the restaurants and the Remuh cemetery.

Nearby

Kazimierz works best as a walking route: a few minutes away, the Galicia Jewish Museum tells the story of Jewish Galicia in photographs, and by the river the Museum of Engineering and Technology occupies a former tram depot. Across the Old Town, Krzysztofory Palace, the main seat of the Museum of Krakow, covers the history of the city itself.