Two Special Krakow Museums

We saw two special Krakow museums during our April 2018 visit.

While Krakow boasts many museums–it is, after all, a major university town and has been for at least 800 years–these are the two we liked the best.

We began our sight-seeing at the Rynek Underground Museum.

That describes it perfectly. It’s under the Cloth Hall market square!

For us, it served as an excellent overview of Polish history.

Following the end of Communism (Romanian friends refer to 1989 as the “beginning of Capitalism”), Krakow authorities dug up the Market Square for needed renovations.

While they were down there, they unearthed all sorts of historical artifacts.

Part of the museum tour took us through that archaeological dig–we saw where the market stalls were 1000 years ago, for example.

We learned about medieval Krakow’s history, which is what made me want to visit Krakow in the first place.

Why visit foreign museums?

Even the floor proved insightful at the Rynek.

I didn’t quite understand why Krakow was such a center of commerce in medieval times.

As with anything, the location made the difference, as this three-dimensional map showed.

(The red lines marked the trade routes. See the mountains to the west?)

You learn so many interesting things you never thought to ask in foreign museums.

For example, who worries about how to prevent a body from vampires after burial?

Yet one exhibit explained how 11th century Poles prevented the threat.

Europeans are not as squeamish as American about showing bones. We saw many.

The museum obviously was experienced with confused visitors!

Overview of Polish history

I appreciated stopping at five brick rooms toward the end of the tour which presented short films outlining different periods of Krakow’s history.

That put the whole city into historical context and helped us understand what we saw over the next few days.

It ended with a 15-minute film called “Krakow Chronicles,” which provided a sweep of Polish history.

Poland stands at the crossroads of central Europe on the western end of plains that stretch to Russia’s Ural Mountains.

It’s no surprise so many nations invaded the country.

The 19th and 20th century, in particular, were grim; tears filled my eyes watching the film.

And then, just at the last 23 years of the 20th century, Karol Józef Wojtyła took the world’s stage.

I whispered, “thank God for Pope John Paul II.”

Pope John Paul II brought hope to Poland–and the rest of the world.

Knowing the history found at the Rynek Underground Museum, helped us put the other major museum into historical context the next day.

Schindler’s Factory Museum

Most people have heard of the film Schindler’s List.

I couldn’t bring myself to watch yet another gruesome Holocaust movie, but my husband read the book–and didn’t like Schindler at all.

For my part, I read a book about writing the book by author Thomas Keneally called Searching for Schindler’s List: A Memoir.

(A fascinating story for this writer about all the twists Keneally went through to write the original book–including a very pushy muse who lived it!)

It’s a gorgeous museum a 30-minute walk from the Cloth Hall Market Square.

Located inside the refurbished actual factory, the museum uses authentic items from the time to set the tone.

We followed the war through the exhibits, seeing what a bookstore looked like in the late 1930s, for example.

Note how the bookstore only sells Hitler-related items.

Full-size photographs made us feel as if we were in the Krakow streets 80 years ago.

(Note a silhouette of the trumpeter at the top).

The museum doesn’t try to interpret but allows the historical record to speak for itself.

Uneasy, unstable, difficult, yet important

Dread grew as we walked through the brick hallways, papered with pertinent information and copies of actual documents from the time.

We moved through a claustrophobic basement shelter where too many people hid during the war and rejoiced when it all ended.

But then, the museum took us down an almost black corridor lit by a few exhibits tucked into the wall.

It shocked me because the floor moved beneath my feet.

As Rick Steves explained in his Rick Steves’ Eastern Europe:

“The squishy floor evoked how life for anyone was unstable and unpredictable during the Nazi occupation.”

A perfect description.

The last thing I remember was a simple sign:

“And then the Russians came.”

The museum was done.

“What?” our daughter said. “What happened when the Russians came?”

The Cold War warrior explained–pretty much for the rest of the trip.

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