Kazimierz: Six Centuries of Jewish Kraków

Zaplanuj wizytę Heritage Journeys

Kazimierz was founded in 1335 by King Casimir the Great as a separate town south of Kraków, divided from the capital by an arm of the Vistula. For its first century it functioned as an autonomous royal civitas with its own market square (today Plac Wolnica) and two churches — Corpus Christi and Saint Catherine. The Jewish community settled here in larger numbers after 1495, when King John I Albert expelled the Jews from Kraków’s Old Town following a fire blamed on arson. The eastern part of Kazimierz, walled off from the Christian quarter, became the oppidum Iudaeorum — a Jewish town within the town.

Kazimierz’s golden age ran through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of the synagogues that survive today were built in this period: the Old Synagogue (Poland’s oldest masonry synagogue, rebuilt in the Renaissance style in 1570), Remuh (1553), the High Synagogue (1556-1563), Popper (1620), Isaac (1644) and Kupa (1643). On Szeroka Street, Rabbi Moses Isserles (Remuh, 1525-1572) taught and wrote the Mappah — his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, recognised as the foundation of Ashkenazi halacha. His grave at the Old Jewish Cemetery beside the Remuh Synagogue remains a place of pilgrimage. In the same generation, Maharshal (Solomon Luria, 1510-1573) and the Bach (Joel Sirkis, 1561-1640) — Kraków posekim — issued responsa that shaped Jewish law across the Crown.

Under Habsburg rule from 1772, and after incorporation into Kraków in 1791, Kazimierz lost its status as a separate town. During the nineteenth century the wall between the Jewish and Christian sides came down and the community entered a period of transformation. The Tempel Synagogue (Reform, 1862) was built, Tarbut Hebrew schools opened, the dailies Nowy Dziennik and Dziennik Żydowski circulated, and the Maccabi and Jutrzenka sports clubs took shape. Before 1939, Kazimierz remained the cultural and religious centre of a Kraków community of sixty-five thousand — with hundreds of shops, workshops and law practices, prayer shtiblach, and full religious life across every current: Orthodox, Hasidic (Bobov, Belz, Ger) and Reform.

The Kraków Ghetto, established by the Germans in March 1941, was not located in Kazimierz. It was placed across the Vistula, in the Podgórze district. The Jews of Kazimierz were forced over the river, and their homes, shops and prayer houses were taken by German and Polish families. The liquidation of the ghetto in March 1943 marked the end of the Kraków community — most were murdered at Bełżec, Auschwitz and the Płaszów labour camp. After the war some 4,500 survivors returned to Kraków, but successive waves of emigration between 1956 and 1968 (the Polish communist anti-Zionist campaign) reduced the community to a few hundred.

The renaissance of Kazimierz began in the early 1990s. The 1993 release of Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List — much of it filmed on Szeroka and Józefa Streets — drew international attention. The Jewish Culture Festival (founded 1988), the Galicia Jewish Museum (2004), the JCC Kraków (2008), the Cheder Club and the kosher restaurants Hamsa and Olive Tree followed. The Remuh, Tempel, Kupa, Isaac and High Synagogues are again in use or regularly open to visitors. Kazimierz remains one of the best-preserved historic Jewish quarters in Central Europe — and a place where Jewish life is once again taking shape under the care of the Jewish Religious Community of Kraków.

A full walking visit to Kazimierz takes five to six hours and naturally folds into a loop from Plac Nowy through Szeroka Street to Plac Wolnica. We recommend starting at Plac Nowy at nine in the morning, when the Okrąglak (the former kosher butchery, now a small market hall) opens for breakfast and the first flower stalls appear. From there, Estery Street leads to the Kupa Synagogue (1643, now a cultural centre), and Warszauera Street to the Isaac Synagogue (1644, with surviving frescoes and an exhibition on the Kraków Ghetto).

The middle stretch of the walk follows Szeroka Street — the historic heart of the quarter. At number 24 stands the Old Synagogue (Poland’s oldest masonry synagogue, now a branch of the Museum of Kraków). Opposite, at number 16, is the Popper Synagogue of 1620. At number 40, the Remuh Synagogue of 1553, still in use, and the adjoining Old Jewish Cemetery (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries) with the grave of Rabbi Remuh. On the east side of the square stands the memorial to the sixty-five thousand Kraków Jews murdered in the Holocaust — six monumental stone chairs.

The second part of the walk follows Józefa Street toward Plac Wolnica, the historic market square of Kazimierz. Along the way are the High Synagogue (1556-1563, now a gallery and bookshop) and the Galicia Jewish Museum founded by the photographer Chris Schwarz, documenting the remnants of Jewish life across Galicia. The route ends at the New Jewish Cemetery on Miodowa Street — established in 1800, still the active burial ground of the Kraków community, with more than ten thousand surviving matzevot.

For meals afterwards, Szeroka, Plac Nowy and Józefa Street offer Jewish and kosher cuisine: Hamsa (Israeli), Olive Tree (kosher dairy under the supervision of the Community), Klezmer Hois (traditional Polish-Jewish with klezmer concerts) and Cheder Café (vegetarian, at the JCC).

Contemporary Jewish life in Kraków centres on the JCC Kraków at Miodowa 24, opened in 2008 with the patronage of the then Prince of Wales, today King Charles III. The JCC runs daily Hebrew classes, history courses, a seniors’ club, a children’s Sunday school and a kosher kitchen. The Jewish Religious Community of Kraków numbers around six hundred registered members, but the broader community engaged through the JCC reaches more than fifteen hundred — including many discovering Jewish roots in the third or fourth generation.

The Jewish Culture Festival in Kraków, held every July since 1988, is the largest event of its kind in Europe. A week of klezmer concerts, lectures, culinary workshops and prayers culminates in the Shalom on Szeroka concert, which draws an audience of more than fifteen thousand. The Galicia Jewish Museum, the Old Synagogue (Museum of Kraków), the Schindler Factory and the Eagle Pharmacy together form a deep educational infrastructure for those researching the history of the Kraków community.

A visit to Kazimierz needs to be paced. Five hours on foot with breaks is the minimum for a considered visit. Shorter formats — two to three hours — require choosing a single thematic key (synagogues, cemeteries, or the Holocaust across the river in Podgórze). We recommend a split: morning for the synagogues and the Old Cemetery; late afternoon for the New Jewish Cemetery and the crossing to Podgórze (Ghetto Heroes Square, the Schindler Factory, the Eagle Pharmacy).

Etiquette in active synagogues (Remuh, Tempel, Kupa): men cover the head with a kippah (available at the entrance, donation welcome). Women in skirts or trousers below the knee, with shoulders covered. On Shabbat (Friday evening to Saturday evening), most synagogues are closed to visitors, but Remuh welcomes guests at Shabbat services by prior arrangement with the gabbai. Photography of those at prayer is permitted only with explicit consent.

Kosher kitchens under supervision of the Kraków Community: Olive Tree (dairy, Brzozowa 6) and the JCC Cheder Café (parve, Józefa 36). Hamsa serves Israeli cuisine without a kosher certificate but with strong vegetarian and vegan options. For strict observance, we arrange meals through the JCC with at least two days’ notice.

Kazimierz lies within walking distance of most Old Town hotels — twenty minutes on foot from the Main Market Square, ten minutes from Hotel Stary or Copernicus. Mercedes V-Class from hotel to Plac Nowy or Szeroka is five to ten minutes depending on traffic (peak hours around Wawel can add time). For older guests or those with limited mobility, we recommend door-to-door drop-off at a specific synagogue, with the driver waiting nearby.

V-Class parking in Kazimierz: the largest paid zone is on Estery Street (opposite Plac Nowy, fifty spaces), the lot on Bawół Street (behind Plac Wolnica), and the municipal lot on Halicka Street. All accommodate a standard V-Class. For guests combining Kazimierz with the Schindler Factory and Podgórze — the Bernatek Footbridge links the two sides on foot in eight minutes, and the V-Class can meet you at Ghetto Heroes Square from the Limanowskiego side.

Recommended day format: departure from your hotel at 8:30, Kazimierz until 13:00, lunch on Szeroka or at Olive Tree, Podgórze in the afternoon (14:30-17:30), return to the hotel around 18:00. For strictly observant guests we can split this over two days, with each day focused on sites open during synagogue working hours.