Rynek Glowny (Main Market Square)
Dating from 1257, this was one of the largest market squares in medieval Europe. Occupying the centre of the square, the 15th-century Sukiennice (Cloth Hall) is filled with souvenir stalls in its vaulted-ground-floor passages. Along the sides of the building, pavement cafes draw locals and tourists alike. The Malopolska Contemporary Art Collection (Malopolskie Kolekcje Sztuki Nowoczesnej) is upstairs.

Surrounding the square are impressive period houses and two of the city's most important churches. Kosciol Sw Wojciecha (St Adalbert's Church) dates from the 11th century and is the oldest extant church in Cracow, but it is the gothic Mariacki (Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady), with its twin spires, that really catches the eye. Within this church is the 15th-century Chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa and Wit Stwosz's large stone crucifix and wooden pentaptych, The Dormition of the Virgin, dating from 1489. It is the largest gothic altarpiece in Europe. Above the organ loft, the church also boasts excellent 14th-century stained glass as well as art nouveau glass Stanislaw Wyspianski and Jozef Mehoffer. The taller of the two towers was the city's watch-tower; and every hour, the traditional hejnal is played by the town trumpeter, who cuts off the last note to commemorate the death of a trumpeter killed by a Turkish arrow.

Also on the square is the Wieza Ratuszowa (Town Hall Tower), the only surviving part of the town hall, which dates from the 15th century.

Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady
Rynek Glowny

Malopolska Contemporary Art Collection
Rynek Glowny 1/3
Tel: (012) 422 1166.
Website: www.moma.pl

Zamek Krolewski (Royal Castle)
Perched atop Wawel Hill, the Royal Castle was the seat of Poland's kings from the early 11th to the late 16th centuries. The majority of the castle is Renaissance in style (1504-35), although Romanesque and gothic elements remain. Today, it is a museum complex, and among the treasures in the historic interior of the Royal Chambers (or State Rooms) is a collection of 16th-century Flemish tapestries, paintings and period furniture. Other separate sections of the castle open to the public include the Royal Private Apartments and the Crown Treasury and Armoury. The Oriental Art Exhibition has an excellent collection of Near- and Far-Eastern art, including important 17th-century Turkish items. Also worth a look is The Lost Wawel exhibit, which showcases the excavated remains of Wawel's original buildings, including the foundations of the oldest-known church in Poland, the early 11th-century Rotunda of SS Felix and Adauctus. More whimsical is the Dragon's Den, a karst cave reached by a spiral staircase, where the legendary Prince Krakus (thus Krakow or Cracow) supposedly killed the Wawel dragon.

Wawel Castle
Wawel 5
Tel: (012) 422 5155.
Website: www.wawel.krakow.pl

Katedra Wawelska (Wawel Cathedral)
Part of Wawel, this cathedral (also known as the Archcathedral Church of SS Venceslaus and Stanislaus or the Royal Cathedral) is the coronation site and burial place of almost all of Poland's monarchs and rulers. It was built in the early-11th century by King Boleslaw the Brave after Cracow was made a bishopric. The relics of St Stanislaw, the patron saint of Poland, are kept in a chapel here. Of the many royal chapels, the Renaissance Sigismund Chapel stands out. You can climb the tower to see the 9,979kg (11-tonne) Sigismund Bell and enjoy the fine view.

Wawel 3
Tel: (012) 422 2643.
Website: www.katedra-wawelska.pl (Polish only)

Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie (National Museum in Cracow)
The museum's large collection is located in a number of separate buildings, including the Princes Czartoryski Museum (see below). The so-called Main Building houses a collection of decorative art, weapons and 20th-century Polish art, in addition to staging temporary exhibitions.

aleja 3 Maja 1
Tel: (012) 295 5600.
Website: www.muzeum.krakow.pl

Muzeum Ksiazat Czartoryskich (Princes Czartoryski Museum)
A large collection of ancient art from Greece and Egypt, as well as Oriental artefacts, weapons and Turkish carpets can be found here. European (mainly Italian, Dutch and Flemish) paintings and sculptures cover the 13th to 18th centuries - the most famous works here are Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt's Landscape with the Good Samaritan.

ulica Sw Jana 19
Tel: (012) 422 5566.
Website: www.muzeum-czartoryskich.krakow.pl  (Polish only)

Stara Synagoga (Old Synagogue)
Founded in 1335 by King Kazimierz Wielki on the southern fringe of Cracow, Kazimierz was for centuries a separate town, only merging with Cracow in the late-18th century. Reminders of the Jewish community, who lived in the Kazimierz district for centuries up till the Holocaust, are everywhere. Part of the Cracow City History Museum, the Old Synagogue (or Alte Shul in Yiddish) houses a permanent photographic exhibit on Jewish Cracow and the Holocaust. The synagogue was built in the late-15th century and reconstructed in Renaissance style by the Florentine architect, Matteo Gucci, after a fire in 1557. The only two functioning synagogues in Cracow - the Remuh Synagoga, ulica Szeroka 40, with cemetery attached, and the Isaak Synagoga, ulica Kupa 18, are located nearby.

ulica Szeroka 24
Tel: (012) 422 0962.

Collegium Maius
Housed in the oldest building of the Cracow Academy (the forerunner of today's Jagiellonian University) and dating to the mid-15th century, this museum is home to an eclectic collection of rare 16th-century astronomic instruments (used by star pupil Copernicus), a fascinating alchemy room, old rectors' sceptres and the oldest existing globe (1510) showing the American continent. 

ulica Jagiellonska 15
Tel: (012) 422 0549.
Website: www.uj.edu.pl/muzeum (Polish only)