Calendar

Winter doesn’t have to be bleak and grey, especially in the Garden of Lights which once again welcomes visitors to the Stanisław Lem Science Garden. This time, the dazzling trail tells the story of Snow White, the Evil Queen, the Seven Dwarfs and the gallant Prince. The dozens of light installations and multimedia attractions are the perfect setting for one of the most popular fairytales by the Brothers Grimm.

Exploring the Main Market Square’s mercantile traditions: stalls bearing regional arts and crafts, beautiful souvenirs and delicacies, accompanied by a festive artistic programme… The Christmas Fair draws crowds of visitors from home and abroad to Kraków’s city centre.

Wawel Royal Castle presents an exhibition of 31 paintings from its own collection and loaned by the National Museum in Gdańsk. The panorama of works from the days of the great masters of the Renaissance and Baroque, Bruegel and Rubens, also serves as a review of the tastes of the increasingly wealthy burghers of Northern Europe and the shaping of the European art market.

The Children’s Literature Festival, organised by the Burza Mózgów Foundation, encourages young readers and their parents to reach for books. The event features literary workshops, meetings with authors, reading sessions, exhibitions and walks in the footsteps of local authors.

Cracovian nativity scenes once again set into the city space: the project prepared jointly by the Museum of Krakow and KBF brings them to almost thirty locations. The theme of this year’s trail is the 1920s and Cracovian avantgarde.

Traditionally held towards the end of the year at Pod Baranami Cinema, the event takes audiences on a journey to the early days of cinematography. Just like in the olden days of the early 20th century, screenings are accompanied by live music, frequently in exciting new arrangements.

The international theatre festival presents the finest productions by Polish scenes from the last season. The audience gets a chance to see the most fascinating plays from all over Poland, competing for the grand prix awarded by an international jury. The event is organised by the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre in Kraków.

The exhibition at the Raven Gallery recalls one of the main motifs of the works by Zbylut Grzywacz who passed away in 2004: people and their deep need for independence and dignity. We will see cycles from the 1960s and 1970s and later paintings through which the artist spoke out against the objectification of women and their social exclusion and isolation. Grzywacz paints his subjects with humility and admiration, with a desire to understand them and with a more sensual desire. The exhibition will also be available on the Bon Galerie’s website (www.bongalerie.pl) from 10 December.

The temporary exhibition at the Museum of Photography’s new branch at Rakowicka Street is a kaleidoscope of the most fascinating phenomena in the world of visual arts since the start of the millennium. It’s also the perfect opportunity to present the collection of contemporary Polish artists the museum has been assembling since 2017 – one of the most extensive collections of its kind in Poland.

A great celebration of mountains and extreme sports! The event has been held in a hybrid form since 2020: in person at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre (4, 5 December), and online on the PLAY KRAKÓW VOD platform (all December). The festival features lectures and meetings with acclaimed alpinists, hikers, climbers and more from Poland and abroad, workshops and an outdoor fair, as well as two film competitions for Polish and international films, showcasing the best documentaries on mountaineering and sport from the past year.

After a few years away, the post-competition nativity scene exhibition returns to the freshly renovated Krzysztofory Palace. The exhibition presents all constructions entered in the 2021 competition.

Prepared by the Artemis Gallery, the exhibition at the Nowa Huta Cultural Centre presents over 40 surrealist and subtly erotic paintings by the artist who reached peak popularity during the 1960s and 1970s.

The exhibition of the Toy Museum in Kraków at the former hospital at 15a Kopernika Street presents toys awaiting conservation, repair or reconstruction. It explores important themes such as ecology and recycling, and is the perfect opportunity to reminisce on our own favourite toys.

Events recalling festive nativity plays and religious processions have long been held in cities all over Poland, but it is here in Kraków, the city of Polish kings and saints, that the Epiphany cortege takes on a special meaning.

Poland’s largest review of the latest films from beyond our western border, covering myriad genres and topics explored by German cinematographers. Screenings are traditionally held at Pod Baranami Cinema.

The event resounds with rarely performed operas, frequently revived after years in obscurity. Capella Cracoviensis, organiser of the festival and directed by Jan Tomasz Adamus, also presents songs, oratorios and contemporary compositions, frequently in avantgarde interpretations. The Opera Rara Festival is a true carnival for fans of opera and vocal music!

The exhibition of artworks by Jacek Malczewski at the Main Building of the National Museum in Krakow was inspired by the fact that 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Adam Mickiewicz’s Ballads and Romances, widely seen as the manifesto of Polish Romanticism. The 150 works by the acclaimed Symbolist painter, originating from museum and private collections, introduces the main themes in his art rooted in traditions of Romanticism.