Home Army Museum in Krakow: opening hours and what to see

Behind the main railway station, in a former supply depot of the Austrian Krakow Fortress, the Home Army Museum in Krakow shows the history of the Polish Underground State and its armed force, the Home Army. In Polish it is the Muzeum Armii Krajowej. The museum stands on Wita Stwosza Street, about 1000 m in a straight line from Florian Gate, and it is closed on Mondays.

• Address: Wita Stwosza 12, Krakow (the old address was Bosacka 13).
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00; closed on Mondays.
• Accessibility: the whole exhibition is free of architectural barriers.

Home Army Museum opening hours and last entry

As listed in October 2026, the Home Army Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:00, and closed on Mondays. Last entry to the exhibition is no later than 60 minutes before the museum closes, and the ticket desk does not sell tickets in that last hour either. Opening hours can change; check the current details on the Muzeum Armii Krajowej website before your visit.

The exhibition also has objects intended for people with disabilities: uniforms and a contour map in the form of a jigsaw puzzle. The museum is a local-government cultural institution run by the Municipality of Krakow and the Małopolska Province.

Inside the Home Army Museum: ground floor and cellars

The permanent exhibition is on two floors. The ground floor begins with the Second Polish Republic, as Poland between the two world wars is known, and the geopolitical situation on the eve of the Second World War. It continues with the defensive campaign of 1939, the German and Soviet occupation, and daily life in a country at war.

On level -1, in the cellars of the listed building, the subject is the Polish Underground State itself. The themes there include sabotage and diversionary operations, intelligence work and the information activity of the Home Army. The aim of the exhibition is to show the life of a nation that continued the existence of its state, in the form of the Polish Underground State, under German and Soviet occupation.

Several thousand objects are on display. Among them are pages of Witold Pilecki's report and the uniform of the Home Army commander, General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. Numerous mementoes of the museum's patron, General Emil Fieldorf "Nil", are also on show, including decorations, documents, family photographs and a coffee grinder. Replicas and models show a Vickers E tank, a V2 rocket and the interior of a Halifax aircraft.

The exhibition also shows Klęska wrześniowa (The September Defeat), a collage that the artist Tadeusz Kantor gave to the Museum of Home Army History. According to the museum, it is his last work, made before his death in December 1990.

The collage shows the figure of a soldier stretched out on a cross, in a horizontal position. The boards that form the arms of the cross reach beyond the frame of the picture. The cloth appliqué sewn onto the collage consists of a uniform jacket, breeches and a tall boot of black leather.

History of the Home Army Museum since 1989

After 1989, Krakow veterans in the Home Army Soldiers' Association (Związek Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej) began to create the first Museum of Home Army History in Poland. Its exhibition was to be based on the veterans' mementoes and personal belongings from the Second World War and from earlier years. These things had been hidden because of the political system in Poland after 1945. Former Home Army soldiers gave mementoes, documents and weapons from their private archives.

On 12 February 1990, members of the association in Krakow entered the Lenin Museum in the Pałac Mańkowskich on Topolowa Street. They moved the large statue of Lenin and the exhibits about the leader of the revolution into storerooms. In April 1990 a new exhibition, Nasza droga do Niepodległości (Our Road to Independence), opened in the palace. The Home Army soldiers who organised it paid for it themselves, without any material help from outside.

Early in 1992 the Pałac Mańkowskich was returned to its owners as part of reprivatisation. The decision was then taken to move the exhibition to a former military building at 13 Bosacka Street, now 12 Wita Stwosza Street, where the Museum of Home Army History opened officially on 16 May 1992. A resolution of the City of Krakow and the Małopolska Province on 21 February 2000 was the last step in creating the Home Army Museum as an institution. The museum officially began its work on 27 September 2000, the anniversary of the founding of the Polish Underground State.

The museum's patron: General Emil Fieldorf "Nil"

In September 2001 a resolution of the Krakow City Council made General Emil Fieldorf "Nil" the patron of the museum. Fieldorf was born in Krakow on 20 March 1895. His family lived first on Lubicz Street and later on Bosacka Street, the former name of the street where the museum stands. In November 1942 he became the first commander of Kedyw, the diversion directorate of the Home Army High Command, and he held this post under the pseudonym "Nil" until March 1944.

After the war, the communist security services, the Soviet NKVD and the Polish UB, arrested Fieldorf twice. He was sentenced to death, and the sentence was carried out on 24 February 1953 in Warszawa-Mokotów prison. The museum's collections include the Cross of the Order of the White Eagle, which President Lech Kaczyński awarded to Fieldorf posthumously on 27 July 2006.

Supply depot of the Austrian fortress, opened in 1911

The museum occupies building no. 4, a former supply building of the Austrian Krakow Fortress that was opened for use in 1911. It was part of a large supply complex, the Verpflegs Etablissement, between the railway station and Rakowicka Street. The complex was built in 1884-1887 and extended in 1892-1915. Railway tracks connected it with the main station and the freight station of Krakow.

The two floors above ground served as barracks. Below them, on a third, underground level, were extensive high cellars under a ribbed ceiling of reinforced concrete. Their walls, floors and ceilings were lined with cork. The cork was meant to give the right conditions, above all the right temperature, for storing food such as grain, flour, rice, potatoes, sugar, wine and rum.

On 31 October 1918, Polish conspirators took control of the logistics base of the Krakow Fortress, including building no. 4. The food stored there was set aside for the people of the city, which, according to the museum, prevented hunger and social unrest in liberated Krakow. During the German occupation, the Wehrmacht used the complex. The Polish Army used it until the early 1990s.

The present form of the building comes from an international architectural competition decided in 2005 and won by an architects' office from Katowice. Construction work finished in 2011. The floor area grew from 1300 m² to 6500 m². The permanent exhibition opened on 27 September 2012. In 2007, building no. 4 (the museum), building no. 10 (a former cannery) and building no. 12 (a former bakery) were entered in the register of monuments.

The rebuilt building received a distinction in the SARP Award poll for 2011 and the Brick Award Polska in 2013. In 2013 it was also nominated for the European architecture award named after Mies van der Rohe.

Near the museum: Stary Kleparz Market and the Barbican

All distances here are in a straight line from the museum. Stary Kleparz Market is about 800 m away, and the Grunwald Monument is also about 800 m away. The Krakow Barbican is about 950 m from the museum.

Home Army Museum: questions visitors ask

Where is the Home Army Museum in Krakow?

At Wita Stwosza 12, in the former storage and service complex of the Krakow Fortress behind the main railway station. The street used to be called Bosacka.

Who is the patron of the Home Army Museum?

General Emil Fieldorf "Nil". He was the first commander of Kedyw, the diversion directorate of the Home Army High Command, and he became the museum's patron in September 2001.

Can you see Witold Pilecki's report in the Home Army Museum?

Yes. Pages of his report are shown in the permanent exhibition, together with the uniform of General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski.

How do I buy tickets for the Home Army Museum?

At the museum ticket desk, which stops selling tickets 60 minutes before the museum closes. Current prices are on the museum website.

Is the Home Army Museum accessible?

Yes. There are no architectural barriers in the exhibition, and some objects, such as uniforms and a contour map made as a jigsaw puzzle, are intended for visitors with disabilities.

Photo: Lowdown, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.