Year 2025

Winds of Change

We have been implementing the Kraków Culture programme since 2021, showcasing our city’s extensive programme of events and festivals – a city where notable and fascinating things happen all the time. We are focusing on the material and intangible heritage whose mementos and manifestations abound everywhere in Kraków.

16 stories about Krakow

Discover KrakówCulture

We admire culture in its festive and everyday manifestations, from the largest festivals, loudest concerts and monumental exhibitions to hundreds of monthly meetings and artistic discoveries. This impressive vision is backed by countless sources of Kraków’s cultural heritage and tales which continue to inspire and serve as a reference point for contemporary artists.

Obviously we must maintain the high quality of Kraków’s brand: on one hand Kraków is a city of heritage, a UNESCO City of Literature and a capital of culture, while on the other it is an innovative, creative city and home to thriving start-ups. We need to attract visitors who know Kraków to be a centre of business, innovation and state-of-the-art technologies.

Aleksander Miszalski

Mayor of the City of Kraków

We want to build a modern city, shaped by the coexistence of different values and norms while remaining loyal to local historical processes and rules which have been developed here, by the Vistula, based on regional and national heritage. A city which is complex and diverse in the cultural sense.

Dr. Bożena Gierat-Bieroń

Instytut Studiów Europejskich

Kraków’s long, rich history makes the entire city into a museum, but it is also constantly changing and evolving in response to the latest needs and challenges. The very concept of cultural heritage – which shapes Kraków’s identity – is fluid, since it means using the past to reach contemporary goals.

Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska

Instytut Studiów Europejskich

The Greek philosopher Sallust explained stories told by people to help them make sense of the world around them by saying, “Now these things never happened, but always are”. Cracovian tales come from a melting pot of legends, the departed, the sacred, anniversaries and anecdotes. The city boundaries are marked by mounds of Krak, Wanda, Kościuszko and Piłsudski.

Dr Antoni Bartosz

Kongres Kultury Regionów

Festivals are celebrations of culture and a manifestation of the city’s potential. To understand Kraków is to understand their annual rhythm, to notice how they reach for Cracovian identity and heritage to build new meanings and become an indelible part of the contemporary city life.

Robert Piaskowski

Director of the National Cultural Centre