Polish Aviation Museum
Twenty-two planes fled Berlin's bombs during WWII and ended up here — Germany still wants them back.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Krakow offline.
The museum sits on one of the world's oldest airfields, opened by Austria-Hungary in 1912, and holds over 200 aircraft. Its most charged exhibits are 22 planes evacuated from Berlin's Deutsche Luftfahrtsammlung before Allied bombing destroyed that museum. The German restitution claim remained unresolved as of 2009. CNN ranked it among the world's best aviation museums.
What to look for
- The 22 Berlin evacuee aircraft at the center of an unresolved German restitution dispute
- World-scale unique sailplanes alongside roughly 100 aircraft engines
- The four original 1912 Austro-Hungarian airfield hangars that housed the collection for its first half-century
The new main building opened September 2010, replacing inadequately heated original hangars — visit then rather than counting on the old hall experience.
Polish Aviation Museum is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Krakow, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Krakow pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Krakow
- Wieliczka Salt MineSeven centuries of miners carved chapels and statues out of grey rock salt — 327 metres underground.
- Wawel CathedralPolish kings were crowned here for centuries, and a young priest named Karol Wojtyła said his first Mass in its crypt on 2 November 1946 — thirty-two years before becoming Pope.
- Wawel Royal CastlePolish monarchs were crowned and buried here — the limestone hill above the Vistula is where a nation kept its memory.
- St. Mary's BasilicaEvery hour, a trumpeter plays from the taller tower and stops dead mid-note — commemorating a 13th-century trumpeter who was shot in the throat mid-signal before a Mongol attack on the city.
- Wawel CastlePolish monarchs were crowned and buried here — and their palace now holds Europe's largest collection of Ottoman tents.
- National Museum in KrakówPoland's largest museum holds 780,000 objects — and a Bruegel the Nazis stole in 1939 that never came back.