Wawel Cathedral

Wawel Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

The cathedral has its own ticket, sold in the house across the courtyard rather than at the door, and it is separate from the castle tickets entirely. The basic cathedral ticket covers the nave and the side chapels. The fuller one adds the three things worth climbing or descending to: the Sigismund Bell in the tower, reached by wooden stairs among the beams, the royal tombs in the crypt, and the cathedral museum. Buying the fuller version is the obvious choice; the price difference is small.

Guided tours of Wawel Hill sold in Krakow generally cover both castle and cathedral and cost several times the entry fees, which buys you commentary and a booked slot rather than a shorter queue, since the cathedral rarely has one. If you are choosing between castle and cathedral and have two hours, take the cathedral: the royal apartments are fine, but the church is where Polish history is buried. Photography inside requires a small permit, sold with the ticket.

Visiting Wawel Cathedral: what to see

This is the third cathedral on the hill, begun in the 1320s after fire destroyed its Romanesque predecessor, and almost every Polish monarch was crowned and buried here. The interior is a collection of chapels rather than a single design, each added by a different king or bishop, which is why Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque sit side by side. The Sigismund Chapel under its gilded dome is the finest Renaissance interior north of the Alps.

In the centre stands the silver sarcophagus of St Stanislaus, the bishop murdered in 1079 whose cult made this a national shrine. The crypt below holds kings, and beside them Kosciuszko, Pilsudski and, since 2010, the presidential couple killed at Smolensk. Up in the tower hangs the Sigismund Bell, cast in 1520 and nearly two metres across, rung only on the greatest occasions by a team of twelve; touching its clapper is said to bring luck in love. Karol Wojtyla, later John Paul II, said his first mass in this crypt in 1946.

Wawel Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Opening is in the morning, later on Sundays, with closing in the late afternoon and shorter hours from November to March. The cathedral closes to visitors during services, which are frequent, and on major religious holidays. Krakow's tour groups reach the hill by mid-morning and the chapels are narrow, so the first hour after opening is the best time. The tower stairs are steep, wooden and one-way, and a queue builds on them in summer;

go up first if the bell is your priority. The crypt is cool and dry year-round. Photography inside needs the permit and no flash. Wawel Hill itself is free to walk, and the terrace above the Vistula is the place for the view; the Dragon's Den cave below the hill is a separate small ticket and mainly for children. Allow ninety minutes for the cathedral with the tower and crypt.