Literary Kraków Bookshop Trail

Jama Michalika features a series of narrow, interconnected rooms filled with thick, dark wooden furniture and walls covered from floor to ceiling in original caricatures of turn of the century artists. It began as a simple coffee shop…

Księgarnia pod Globusem occupies a building on Długa Street marked by a large, ornate metal globe perched above the entrance. This bookstore opened in nineteen twenty-eight in a space designed by architect Franciszek Mączyński. During the…

Wisława Szymborska Park features a series of tall, iron trellises draped in climbing hydrangeas and star jasmine that bloom in shades of white and cream. Before the city transformed this empty lot into a public garden in twenty…

The Gowna Ksigarnia Naukowa on Podwale Street bears a facade of simple, clean masonry, but its interior shelves hold the weight of decades of academic life in Krakow. It opened in nineteen fifty-one, during a time when the state strictly…

The Pałac Potockich features a long, pale yellow facade and an ornate stone portal that interrupts the steady rhythm of the Main Market Square. This building served as the grand residence for the Potocki family, one of the most powerful…

The black-painted storefront on Władysława Rajskiego Street holds a collection of books bound by a singular aesthetic of bold, minimalist design. Karakter began as a small independent publishing house, run by Małgorzata Szczurek and…

Massolit Books and Café occupies a narrow, long space on Felicjanek Street, defined by dark wooden bookshelves that climb from the floor to the high ceilings. It began in two thousand two as an English language bookstore, started by David…