A View of the Krakowianki - the Phenomenon of the Wisla Krakow Women's Basketball Team

From 1 July to 30 September 2026, the Museum of Krakow’s Krzysztofory Palace showed a small display on the Wisla Krakow women’s basketball team, built around the career of Patrycja Czepiec.

The Museum of Krakow on the exhibition (our translation of the museum’s Polish text; the museum published no English page for this display):

The display is devoted to the history of the women’s basketball section of TS Wisla Krakow, and its main protagonist and central figure will be Patrycja Czepiec - a Wisla Krakow product, European champion in 1999 and an Olympian at Sydney 2000, one of the most outstanding basketball players to come out of Krakow.

Her sporting path is an example of the continuity of generations in the Wisla community - from family tradition (her mother, Wiesława Lech-Czepiec, was a Wisla Krakow gymnast and competed at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics), through training at Wisla, to success on the international stage. Patrycja Czepiec won the gold medal at the 1999 European Championship and represented Poland at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

The exhibition will present exceptional mementoes of her career, among them her shirt from the Sydney 2000 Olympics and other personal items. These will be complemented by memorabilia connected with Ludwik Miętta-Mikołajewicz, including the trophy commemorating his induction into the FIBA Hall of Fame, as well as archival photographs and historic pennants signed by the Wisla players.

What to expect

The display had no room of its own. Its memorabilia were shown inside the permanent exhibition “Krakow from the Beginning, Without End”, so the story of the basketball section sat alongside the story of the whole city. One thread was the team’s record haul of titles. The other was the life of one player, whom the museum presented as part of the sporting identity of Krakow and of the Biala Gwiazda (“White Star”, the club’s nickname).

Context

The women’s basketball section of TS Wisla Krakow was founded in 1946 and won the Krakow championship almost immediately, which opened the way to top-flight play from 1950 onward. Since then it has won 25 Polish championship titles, more than any other club in Polish women’s basketball. The display was therefore a story about record holders rather than a single good season.

The section’s history splits into two golden eras. The first ran from 1963 to 1982 under coach Ludwik Miętta-Mikołajewicz, when the team collected title after title. The second ran from 2003 to 2017, when sponsorship from the CANPACK Group backed eight further Polish championships and a Euroleague semi-final in the 2009/2010 season.

The odd-sounding title is the name of a series. Under the “A View of the Krakowianki” banner (a Krakowianka is a woman from Krakow) the museum mounts successive small displays inside its permanent exhibition, each devoted to one woman of the city. From 22 January to 29 March 2026 it was the painter Maria Eleonora Tałasiewiczówna-Politalska (the museum’s announcement, in Polish ).

Tickets and time

The exhibition was included in the ticket for the permanent display “Krakow from the Beginning, Without End” at the Krzysztofory Palace - the museum ran no separate pricing for it. That ticket cost 34 PLN, or 29 PLN reduced.

Admission to the permanent exhibition was free on Tuesdays. The museum did not say explicitly whether that covered this display, but it sat inside the permanent exhibition, so a free Tuesday ticket should have included it (prices and rules on the branch page ).

The branch was open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00, with last admission at 17:00 for individual visitors and 16:45 for organised groups.

Given the modest scale of the display (memorabilia supplementing the permanent exhibition), an extra ten to thirty minutes on top of a Krzysztofory Palace visit was enough. It was aimed chiefly at Wisla Krakow fans and anyone interested in the history of Polish women’s sport. For everyone else it was an add-on to the main city-history exhibition rather than a reason to come on its own.

English on site: the museum published nothing about English labels or tours for this display, and its web page for it existed only in Polish.

What the press says

Radio Krakow (22 Jul 2026, Grzegorz Bernasik): a studio interview with Patrycja Czepiec alongside the museum’s announcement - listen (in Polish; no English coverage found).

See also

• Krzysztofory Palace - the permanent exhibition “Krakow from the Beginning, Without End” - the exhibition that housed the basketball display. The museum stages each new instalment of the “A View of the Krakowianki” series inside it.
• Podgórze Museum - another Museum of Krakow branch, where recorded eyewitness accounts fill out the district’s history; for anyone who liked hearing the city’s story through the lives of particular people.

After the show

“A View of the Krakowianki - the Phenomenon of the Wisla Krakow Women’s Basketball Team” closed on 30 September 2026, as the museum had announced. The museum gives no sign that the display will travel. No catalogue was found, either on the exhibition page or on the branch page.

The only press coverage found was a Radio Krakow broadcast of 22 July 2026 featuring Patrycja Czepiec. No critical review was found, and the museum has published no attendance figures.

Two temporary exhibitions are now on at the Krzysztofory Palace, both until 25 October 2026:

• “Art and Trade. Krakow of Craftsmen” - Krakow’s guilds and workshops from the 15th to the 20th century; another story of the city told through people and their work, on a separate ticket.
• “Krakow Bobbin Lace - A Living Heritage” - work by Krakow lacemakers, ten years after the lace was entered on Poland’s National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Beyond the palace, two shows on related themes:

• “Hotel Forum” at the Podgórze Museum (until 10 January 2027) - as in the basketball display, the city’s history is carried by the mementoes and memories of particular people, here the hotel’s former staff.
• “Warrior Women: Japanese Herstories” at the Manggha Museum (until 11 November 2026) - another story of women’s strength and resolve, told in Japanese woodblock prints.

Museum profile: Krzysztofory Palace - Museum of Krakow .