Attraction

Planty Park in Krakow: the green ring around the Old Town

The Planty is the park that rings the whole of Krakow's Old Town, laid out where the city walls and moat used to be. It is about 4 km long, admission is free, and the line of the old walls is marked along the way.

The Planty is the park that surrounds the whole of Krakow's Old Town in a green ring, on the site of the old city walls, moat and earth ramparts. Its manager, Krakow's Municipal Greenery Authority (Zarząd Zieleni Miejskiej), describes it as the oldest and one of the largest city parks in Krakow. Admission is free.

What is Planty Park?

The official name is Park Planty Krakowskie, and the city's tourism portal also calls it the Planty Garden Ring. The park is about 4 kilometres long and from 40 to 120 metres wide, and it covers more than 20 hectares. It is made up of eight gardens named after the buildings and places beside them: Barbakan, Dworzec, Florianka, Gródek, Pałac Sztuki, Stradom, Uniwersytet and Wawel. The word planty means grounds laid out where city fortifications were removed, and the name is linked to the levelling of the ground.

The city walls were pulled down at the beginning of the 19th century because they were falling into ruin and the moats, full of waste, were a health hazard; a section of the walls with St. Florian's Gate and the Barbican was kept. The Planty was laid out from the 1820s on the site of the demolished walls and the filled-in moat. The idea came mainly from Feliks Radwański, and Florian Straszewski, after whom one of the streets beside the park is named, carried the work on. In the second half of the 19th century small squares with fountains and ponds, flowerbeds and lighting were added, at first gas lamps down the middle of the main avenue. At the end of the 1980s the decision was taken to restore the park; the work took over a decade and followed a design by Professor Janusz Bogdanowski.

The Planty lies within the historic centre of Krakow, which was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1978 and has been a Monument of History since 1994. The park itself is entered in the register of monuments.

What to see in Planty Park

Traces of the walls: since 1992 commemorative plaques have been placed where gates and towers once stood, and a low wall about half a metre high shows the line of the fortifications.
Monuments: among them Michał Bałucki, the lyre player Bojan, Jadwiga and Jagiełło, Lilla Weneda, Artur Grottger, Grażyna and Litawor, Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński and Nicolaus Copernicus. The Copernicus monument at the end of ul. Gołębia was put up at the beginning of the 20th century, first stood in the courtyard of Collegium Maius and was conceived as a fountain.
Smaller sights: the Chopin's Piano fountain, the Tree of Liberty, and the lantern of the dead, also known as St. Gertrude's shrine, at the end of ul. św. Sebastiana.
Trees: 40 species of trees and shrubs, among them ash, horse chestnut, maple, lime, poplar and elm. The plane tree at the end of ul. Wiślna is a natural monument.
Literary benches: under the Kody Miasta project many benches have literary patrons, such as Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Stanisław Lem and Joseph Conrad. A QR code on the plaque leads to a passage of text and a recording.
Buildings along the ring: from the Planty you see Collegium Novum, Pałac Sztuki, the Słowacki Theatre, the Barbican and St. Florian's Gate.

Planty Park entry, rules and playgrounds

The Planty is a public park; admission is free (according to the city's tourism portal). The park regulations give no opening hours, and quiet hours apply from 22:00 to 6:00. The same portal marks the park as barrier-free. Smoking tobacco and e-cigarettes, barbecues, fires and camping are not allowed, and you may not feed wild animals. Bicycles and electric scooters may be ridden slowly, giving way to pedestrians, and rental vehicles may not be left in the park.

There are two playgrounds: Plantuś by ul. Poselska and Dzikie Planty by ul. św. Gertrudy. Three of the park's old kiosks, which once sold sweets and soda water, survive, at the ends of ul. Szewska and ul. Sławkowska and next to the Słowacki Theatre, where there is now an InfoKraków information point. Details checked in October 2026; the park's page is on the Municipal Greenery Authority website (in Polish).

Where is Planty Park?

The Planty surrounds the whole Old Town, so from the Main Market Square you reach it along any street leading out of the square, in about five minutes on foot. From Wawel Castle the walk to the ring takes about ten minutes. There are public transport stops around the Planty. We run an electric cart tour of the Old Town, the district the park encloses.

Planty Park and the surviving city walls

In the surviving section of the walls beside the Planty, the Museum of Krakow has run its City Defence Walls route since 2007. It is ticketed and seasonal; hours and prices are on our pages about St. Florian's Gate and the Barbican. Until the end of 2027 part of the Barbican is covered by scaffolding. For more ideas that cost nothing, see our list of free things to do in Krakow.

Frequently asked questions

Is Planty Park free?

Yes. It is a public park and admission is free, according to the city's tourism portal.

Is Planty Park open at night?

The park regulations give no opening hours. Quiet hours apply from 22:00 to 6:00.

How long is Planty Park?

About 4 kilometres. Its width varies from 40 to 120 metres, and it rings the whole Old Town.

Why is it called Planty?

The word means grounds laid out where city fortifications were removed, and the name is linked to the levelling of the ground. The park stands on the site of Krakow's old walls and moat.