Town Hall Tower
The only piece of Kraków's demolished Town Hall still standing — and it has been leaning 55 centimetres since a storm hit in 1703.
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Built in the late 14th century, this 70-metre Gothic tower is all that survived when the Town Hall was razed in 1820 to open up the Main Square. Climb to the top-floor observation deck for a panoramic view over Kraków, with a surviving clock mechanism sitting at the centre of the platform. The cellars beneath once served as a city prison with a medieval torture chamber.
What to look for
- Stone lions flanking the entrance — carved in the early 19th century and relocated from the Morstin family's Classicist palace in Pławowice during 1960s renovations
- The original Gothic portal above the door, bearing Kraków's coat-of-arms and the emblem of Poland
- The old clock mechanism at the centre of the top-floor observation deck
The top-floor observation deck is open to visitors; the tower is managed as a branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków and includes a permanent Market Square photo exhibition.
Town Hall Tower 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.