Free museums in Kraków on Tuesday - hours, free passes and a route

On Tuesday, 21 museums in Kraków let you in for free. The list includes every open branch of the National Museum, the Czartoryski Museum with Leonardo’s “Lady with an Ermine” among them, plus the Rynek Underground, the Archaeological Museum and Manggha. No other day of the week comes close to half of that, so if you are planning a day trip from Warsaw, make it a Tuesday.

Free does not mean you can just walk in, though. The free day usually covers the permanent exhibition only, the Rynek Underground closes earlier on Tuesday than on any other day, and at several places the free pass is handed out only at the ticket desk, on the day, until the pool runs out. Below: every Tuesday address with its hours, then how to get the pass, then a route you can walk between two trains.

Old Town: thirteen addresses within walking distance

The last column is the regular ticket on the other days of the week, which is what you save by coming on Tuesday. Euro amounts are rounded.

Five small National Museum branches, Matejko House, Mehoffer House, Ciołek Palace, Szołayski House and the Czapski Museum, stay open until 18:00 (6 PM) on Tuesday and close at 16:00 from Wednesday to Sunday. For them Tuesday is both the free day and the long day. At Matejko House, Mehoffer House and the Czapski Museum the last visitors go in 20 minutes before closing, at 17:40.

Beyond the Old Town: eight addresses, each its own trip

Manggha and the Europe - Far East Gallery share one address on the Vistula, across the river from Wawel. The Ethnographic Museum and the Museum of Engineering and Technology are both in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter. MuFo, Rydlówka and the Aviation Museum each sit in a different part of the city and each needs its own tram ride.

How to get the free pass

Entry on Tuesday is free, but not always open to whoever turns up. Museums hand out free passes in three ways.

• At the ticket desk, on the day, nowhere else. The Czartoryski Museum issues free Tuesday passes only at its own desk, each with a set entry time; there is no online booking for Tuesday. The Rynek Underground works the same way. The Archaeological Museum also hands out its passes at the desk. At Krzysztofory Palace the free passes are gone early in the day.
• Online, in advance. The Museum of Engineering and Technology has a limited number of places, and only a pass booked online beforehand makes you certain of getting in. Rydlówka gives out its free passes on bilety.muzeumkrakowa.pl; the desk has some only if places are left.
• Groups of more than ten must book a slot on Tuesday at the Ethnographic Museum and the Archaeological Museum.

The Aviation Museum publishes neither an entry limit nor timed booking, but Tuesday is its busiest day. If your dates allow, go on a Thursday and pay.

What Tuesday covers and what it does not

The general rule: the permanent exhibition is free. The exceptions run both ways.

• Temporary exhibitions are paid at the National Museum Main Building, Krzysztofory Palace (“Kunszt i fach”), the Wyspiański Museum and the Ethnographic Museum, where they cost 15 PLN, 10 PLN reduced, on Tuesday. At the Czapski Museum, ask at the desk about the temporary show.
• At MuFo only the main exhibition, “Co robi zdjęcie?” (“What does a photograph do?”), is free.
• Manggha and the Europe - Far East Gallery work the other way round: there, Tuesday covers all the temporary exhibitions.
• At the Arsenal both galleries are permanent, so Tuesday covers everything.
• The reserve under St Adalbert’s Church and the building on Senacka are one museum with the same free Tuesday. The reserve opens only from May to October.

A one-day Tuesday route from Warsaw

The whole Old Town is walkable. A realistic plan is six or seven museums, not twenty-one.

1. Before 10:00, the Czartoryski Museum. From Kraków Główny station it is about an eight-minute walk through the Planty park. Take a pass at the desk for the earliest free slot.
2. While you wait for your slot, the MNK Arsenal on the same street, Pijarska 8, open from 10:00.
3. The Czartoryski Museum. An hour and a half to two hours covers the whole museum; the Leonardo alone takes a quarter of an hour.
4. By 13:00 at the latest, the Rynek Underground. On Tuesday the route closes at 15:00 (3 PM), and you still need to get a pass at the desk and queue. Afterwards go one floor up, to the Cloth Hall gallery.
5. Krzysztofory Palace, on the Main Square at number 35.
6. Down Grodzka Street towards Wawel: the Archaeological Museum on Senacka until 16:30, or Ciołek Palace on Kanonicza, open until 18:00.
7. Finish at Matejko House on Floriańska, on your way back to the station, open until 18:00 on Tuesday.

A variant for those who already know the Main Square: in the morning the Ethnographic Museum and the Museum of Engineering and Technology in Kazimierz, in the afternoon across the Vistula to Manggha and the Europe - Far East Gallery. Book the Engineering Museum pass online the day before.

The other days of the week, Wawel and Schindler’s Factory on Monday, and the museums with no tickets at all are in the guide Free museums in Kraków.

Sources

Hours, prices, what the free day covers and how passes are issued come from the museum profiles on muzea.org.pl linked above, which in turn draw on the museums’ official websites: mnk.pl, muzeumkrakowa.pl, ma.krakow.pl, etnomuzeum.eu, mit.krakow.pl, manggha.pl, mufo.krakow.pl, muzeumlotnictwa.pl. Checked on 25 September 2026. Free days are sometimes cancelled for events, so check the museum’s own website on the day you travel.