Visiting the Podgórze district and memorial sites around the former Jewish ghetto of Krakow

Today, I'm taking you to the Podgorze district, in the south of Krakow, a place deeply marked by the Second World War and by the memory of the Jewish ghetto. It's an area you rarely pass through by chance, but one that truly deserves a visit if you're interested in the history of the city, the Shoah, and memorial sites.

There you'll find what remains of the former Krakow ghetto, Ghetto Heroes Square, the Eagle Pharmacy, and also, in the neighboring Zablocie area, Oskar Schindler's Factory. Depending on how much time you have, you can also extend this route to the site of the Plaszow camp, the Krakus Mound, or MOCAK.

In this article, I'm offering you a complete itinerary around Podgorze, with all the practical information you need to organize your visit, understand what you're seeing, and make choices based on how much time you have on site.

How to get to Podgorze and plan your itinerary

Podgorze is very easy to reach from central Krakow and can be visited on your own or with a guided tour, depending on how much historical context you're looking for.

To get to Podgorze from central Krakow, the easiest way is to take a tram to the Plac Bohaterow Getta stop. In 2026, it is served by several tram lines, including lines 3, 9, 13, 24, and 69. The ride from the Old Town usually takes less than 15 minutes. From this square, you can walk to most of the key sites of the former ghetto, then continue your visit toward Zablocie, where you'll find Schindler's Factory and MOCAK.

To plan your visit, you can:

• Follow a self-guided route, simply linking the different memorial sites one after another.
• Choose a guided tour of the Jewish ghetto available in English, ideal if you want to understand the history of the district in 1 hour through Bohaterow Getta Square and the remnants of the ghetto wall.
• Opt for a more comprehensive guided tour that covers the ghetto, Bohaterow Getta Square, and Schindler's Factory.
• Come back another day to explore the Plaszow camp in more depth, as it requires a bit more time and emotional energy.

Podgorze, the former Jewish ghetto of Krakow

Podgorze was originally an ordinary neighborhood, with no particular connection to the Jewish community, before becoming the site of the Krakow ghetto during World War II.

Podgorze was never meant to go down in history... and certainly not in this way. It was a fairly unremarkable district, located on the other side of the Vistula River, south of the Old Town. Before the war, Krakow's Jewish quarter was in Kazimierz, right next to the historic center (Stare Miasto). At that time, Jews made up about a third of the local population, more than 70,000 people on the eve of World War II.

When the Nazis invaded Poland, some Jews managed to flee or leave before the situation fully deteriorated. Then the mass deportations began. The Governor-General of Poland, Hans Frank, decided to drive the Jews out of Kazimierz and "herd" them into Podgorze, a neighboring district separated from the city center by the Vistula.

Kazimierz, considered more "valuable" from a historical standpoint, was, according to Nazi logic, to be "cleansed" of its Jewish population so it could be "returned" to those the regime regarded as "acceptable." The ghetto officially opened on March 3, 1941. To give you a sense of scale, the authorities requisitioned housing that had been occupied by around 3,000 non-Jews... to cram more than 45,000 people into it for the entire existence of the ghetto. Overcrowding and lack of privacy were extreme.

If you visit Oskar Schindler's Factory (I'll talk about it a bit further down), you'll hear a detailed account of living conditions in the ghetto, from food to restrictions on movement.

From the very first spring, the Nazi authorities forced the ghetto's residents to build walls all around it, as if they were sealing themselves in alive. The symbolism went even further: the shapes of the walls echoed tombstones, and some of them were literally built from tombstones torn up, particularly in Kazimierz's old Jewish cemetery.

Today, at 29 Lwowska Street, you can see the remains of the former ghetto wall. It is a surprisingly discreet wall, with a simple commemorative plaque, on a street that looks like any other. This contrast between the ordinary surroundings and the weight of history left a deep impression on me.

Ghetto Heroes Square and the Eagle Pharmacy, from shadow to light

Ghetto Heroes Square (Bohaterow Getta) and the Eagle Pharmacy (Apteka pod Orlem) are the symbolic heart of the former Krakow ghetto, at the crossroads of deportations, acts of resistance, and remembrance.

As the months went by, living conditions in the ghetto became harsher. The perimeter shrank, and it was split into two parts (as you see in the film Schindler's List): on one side, Ghetto A, for people deemed fit for work; on the other, Ghetto B, where it quickly became clear that the residents were destined for a tragic fate. A few Romani (Gypsy) families were also imprisoned in the ghetto.

Ghetto Heroes Square, a place of departure and waiting

Bohaterów Getta Square (formerly Zgody Square) is now the main memorial site of the Kraków ghetto, associated both with deportations and with acts of mutual aid.

The ghetto existed for about 2 years. Its main square, then called "Zgody," was the scene of major roundups and departures to the camps. This is where the inhabitants of the ghetto were assembled before deportations, in an atmosphere of terror and chaos.

The Nazis never intended ghettos to be a long-term solution. They saw them as a temporary step before finding a way to get rid of Jews on an industrial scale. In Kraków, the first liquidations took place in June and October 1942. Jews were gathered on Zgody Square, sorted, and deported. These operations led to brutal shootings right in the streets of the ghetto, killing hundreds of people.

The ghetto was completely liquidated in March 1943: more than 2000 people were killed on the spot, 3000 were deported to Auschwitz and around 2000 were sent to the Plaszow labor camp.

For a long time, the square itself remained rather nondescript. It was only in 2005 that it was renovated and given its current name, "Bohaterów Getta", Ghetto Heroes Square. Today, this vast paved space is home to a very powerful art installation: metal chairs, arranged at regular intervals.

These chairs symbolize at once the departures, the endless waiting, the obligation to abandon one's former life at this spot… and the fact that there was no return. The chairs are empty, like the apartments left behind, like the lives cut short.

On my first visit, I had the same impression I felt at Plaszow: recognition of this tragic history is relatively recent, and there is still work to be done to preserve these sites and fully explain them.

The Eagle Pharmacy, a discreet place of resistance

Apteka Pod Orłem, the Eagle Pharmacy, is a small museum but a major memorial site, where you discover acts of resistance and mutual aid at the heart of the ghetto.

On Bohaterów Getta Square stood the ghetto's only pharmacy, Apteka Pod Orłem, which you can visit today.

At the time, the pharmacist, Tadeusz Pankiewicz, was Polish and not Jewish. He was therefore allowed to enter and leave the ghetto freely, which gave him room to maneuver that he used to help the imprisoned population.

He secretly passed on medication, parcels, and messages, becoming a discreet but essential support for many residents. After the war, he recounted his experience in a testimonial book.

I describe this visit in detail in another article: visiting the ghetto pharmacy in Kraków. The museum layout is quite interactive: you are encouraged to open drawers, rummage through boxes, and discover testimonies, photos, and letters. Despite the small size of the place, I found the visit very striking. I also bought the book by Tadeusz Pankiewicz there; he was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.

Oskar Schindler's Factory, an immersive look at Krakow at war

Among the sights often linked with Podgórze, Oskar Schindler's Factory holds a special place. Just a stone's throw from the former ghetto in the Zabłocie district, it fits naturally into a memorial itinerary in this part of Krakow. It is not just a movie location or a preserved historical site: today it is an immersive museum dedicated to the lives of Krakow's residents during World War II.

This is indeed the same Oskar Schindler who inspired Steven Spielberg's film. If you don't remember all the details, Oskar Schindler is a German businessman, a member of the Nazi Party, who ran the Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik, an enamelware factory established in this area south of the Vistula River.

At first, his main goal is to profit from the war and get rich by exploiting low-cost Jewish labor from the Plaszow labor camp. As he gradually discovers the appalling living conditions of the Jews and the brutality of Nazi abuses, Schindler's attitude changes and he organizes a large-scale rescue operation. He manages to save the lives of more than 1,000 Jewish workers by having them "protected" as employees deemed essential to war production.

Spielberg's film inevitably simplifies certain aspects. If you're interested in the subject, I recommend reading Thomas Keneally's Schindler's List and Mietek Pemper's The Road to Freedom, who himself helped to compile the famous "list."

Today, the factory can be visited as a museum about the city of Krakow during the occupation. On my first visit, I have to admit I was surprised: I was expecting a fairly typical industrial building, with a few machines, offices, and perhaps some documents from the period. In reality, the first rooms left me feeling a bit puzzled, until I realized that we were in an immersive museum of urban history.

The museum traces the lives of Krakow's inhabitants from the pre-war period through the post-war years, covering:

• The Nazis' rise to power and the first exclusion measures.
• The creation of the ghetto and daily life inside it.
• The occupation of the city, propaganda, resistance.
• The role of Oskar Schindler and the paths followed by some of his employees.

The museum layout is very carefully designed, sometimes highly immersive: reconstructed settings, period sounds, photographs, documents. There is, of course, a section directly dedicated to Schindler, but it is not the museum's sole focus. In my opinion, it's an essential visit if you want to understand everything you will later see in Podgórze, in Plaszow, or in Auschwitz.

Podgorze and the Plaszow Camp Today

Around the Podgorze district, several memorial and walking sites echo one another: the Krakus Mound, a former stone quarry, and the site of the Plaszow camp.

Three places that allow you to extend your visit:

• The Krakus Mound, an unusual artificial hill that offers a beautiful view of Krakow. Access is free and lets you take a step back after emotionally intense visits.
• A former stone quarry, with a very distinctive landscape that was used as a filming location for several scenes in Schindler's List. I talk about it in more detail in the article dedicated to the filming locations of Schindler's List.
• The former Plaszow forced labor camp, which also served as a concentration camp and execution site.

I have devoted an in-depth article to the Plaszow camp. From a very personal point of view, my visit to the camp deeply shocked me, not so much because of what you can see there, but because of what you cannot see. During my first visit, the place struck me as being in a state of neglect: local residents were walking their dogs in the middle of the remains, where several tens of thousands of prisoners had endured horror and where several thousand people had been executed.

At the time, there were very few information panels. You more or less had to figure things out for yourself to understand what you were looking at. This absence of interpretation raised a lot of questions for me.

Since then, things have fortunately started moving in a better direction. A KL Plaszow museum has been launched to organize the site, improve signage, preserve what can still be preserved, and better explain the history of the camp. A few local agencies now offer guided tours of the camp remains in English at an affordable price, which I am genuinely very pleased about.

It has to be acknowledged that this project comes late, too late in some respects, because many elements have already been damaged or have disappeared. But it is still better than nothing, and I encourage you to discover the site if you are interested in the history of the Holocaust and memorial sites.

Podgorze, a neighborhood slowly rebuilding itself

Today Podgorze is still a neighborhood of stark contrasts: deeply marked by its past, still somewhat off the main tourist trail, yet full of promise, with clear signs of renewal here and there.

The first image I had of Podgorze, from the other side of the Vistula, was this: a gray neighborhood, with façades sometimes in poor condition, standing in sharp contrast to the colorful fronts of Kazimierz, the historic Jewish quarter.

Podgorze has not yet experienced the same strong artistic and tourist revival as Kazimierz. Jozefinska Street, once one of the district's main arteries (and during the war home to the headquarters of the "Jewish police" responsible for maintaining order in the ghetto), now looks rather run-down. Yet if you lift your eyes, you can clearly see the potential behind some of the façades, the remains of beautiful pre-war architecture.

Public authorities are nonetheless starting to invest more in Podgorze and the surrounding area. I mentioned this in connection with the recent renovation of Bohaterow Getta Square. You can also see it in the opening, in 2011, of MOCAK, Krakow's Museum of Contemporary Art, right next to Schindler's Factory. MOCAK offers exhibitions that are generally very accessible, combining Polish and international art, and is well worth a visit if you enjoy contemporary art or if you're looking for a lighter interlude in your day.

MOCAK is usually open from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day except Monday, but I recommend checking the latest opening hours before you go, as they may vary depending on the season or the exhibitions.

The pedestrian bridge between Kazimierz and Podgorze

The Kładka Ojca Bernatka pedestrian bridge directly links Kazimierz and Podgorze and, in its own way, symbolizes the desire to better connect the two districts.

In 2010, this pedestrian bridge was inaugurated over the Vistula to make it easier to walk or cycle between Kazimierz and Podgorze. The goal is clear: open up Podgorze and allow it to benefit a bit more from the impact of tourism, which is very concentrated around Kazimierz and the Old Town. Since Spielberg's film was mainly shot in Kazimierz for aesthetic reasons, it is that district which first benefited from the renewed worldwide interest in the Jewish history of Krakow.

The bridge quickly became a lovers' bridge, like the ones you see in other major cities: couples attach padlocks to it, then symbolically throw the key into the Vistula. You'll also find sports sculptures suspended in the air, which give some viewpoints an almost aerial feel.

The bridge is not unanimously appreciated in Krakow: some residents feel that it duplicates another nearby bridge that already has a pedestrian lane, and that the money could have been invested in renovating certain streets in Podgorze. It's a sentiment I can understand when I see the overall state of the district, even if, for visitors, this bridge makes getting between Kazimierz and Podgorze particularly pleasant.

Where to eat and take a break in Podgorze

Even if people primarily come to Podgorze for its history, it's nice to take a break in a café or restaurant between two visits.

The district has a few nice restaurants such as Mr Lobster, Mazi, and Bacchus Grill, where you can stop for lunch or dinner without blowing your budget. Prices are generally lower than in many European capitals, which lets you treat yourself to a dish or dessert without worrying too much.

For a coffee break, Tworzywo is a pleasant spot, especially if you need to catch your breath for a while. In the evening, the area also has some popular bars such as Salute! (on the Zablocie side) and Spoko (on the Podgorze side), frequented just as much by locals as by curious visitors.

Saint Joseph's Church, a landmark in Podgorze's skyline

To end your visit on a more architectural note, you can make a detour to Saint Joseph's Church, which dominates Podgorski Square and is easy to spot from the banks of the Vistula.

It is a relatively recent church (early 20th century), but its neo-Gothic style, with its tall spire and richly decorated façade, makes it a strong visual landmark in the Podgorze cityscape.

While people often come to Kazimierz as much for its atmosphere, street art, and cafés as for its history, I have the feeling that people mainly go to Podgorze for its history and its memorial sites. Admission prices are generally affordable, which makes it possible to discover a lot without spending too much.

For my part, I hope the district will gradually be able to benefit from a broader revival: more extensive restoration of its façades, more cultural venues, and more spaces dedicated to historical interpretation. The stakes are high: keeping alive the memory of the ghetto and the Plaszow camp, while allowing today's residents to live in a more harmonious neighborhood that looks toward the future.

Traveler's Memo for Visiting Podgorze in Krakow

Before you start planning, here are a few concrete reference points to help you organize your visit to Podgorze.

To conclude, Podgórze is a modest but fascinating district that helps you understand an essential part of Krakow's history. Between Bohaterow Getta Square, Apteka Pod Orłem, Schindler's Factory, and the Plaszow camp, you have here a dense remembrance route, which you can adapt to the time you have available. By taking the time to go there, you also give a particular meaning to your trip to Poland: that of an encounter with places that, for a long time, remained in the shadows.