Hotels near Kazimierz

Kazimierz was a separate town from 1335 until 1800 and became Krakow's main Jewish quarter from the 16th century onward. After WWII the district stood largely empty for fifty years; since the late 1990s it has come back as the city's most atmospheric neighbourhood, where surviving synagogues, Jewish cemeteries, and prewar tenements share the cobbled streets with art galleries, vintage shops, and some of the best bars in Poland.

The Jewish heritage core is along Szeroka Street. The Old Synagogue (Stara Synagoga), now a museum of Krakow Jewish history, is the oldest surviving synagogue in Poland and dates to the 15th century. The Remuh Synagogue and its Renaissance cemetery, the High Synagogue, and the Tempel Synagogue are all within a few minutes' walk. Plac Nowy, the small octagonal market square with its central rotunda, is the heart of the modern scene - eat a zapiekanka (open-faced baguette with mushrooms and cheese) from one of the rotunda windows for the most local possible lunch.

After dark Kazimierz turns into Krakow's bar district. Courtyards behind unmarked doors hide some of the city's best craft-beer pubs, vodka rooms, and live-jazz cellars; the atmosphere is rougher than the Old Town and considerably more interesting.

Pro Tip: Buy a single combined ticket for the Old Synagogue and Galicia Jewish Museum if you want to do the main Jewish-history sites - they sit within a 10-minute walk of each other and pair well with a Schindler's Factory visit across the river in the afternoon.