Schindler's Factory Museum

The building was an enamelware factory, run in the 1940s by Oskar Schindler, and since 2010 it has held a branch of the Museum of Krakow. The permanent exhibition covers the city between 1939 and 1945 and is built as a walk-through rather than a display of cases: reconstructed streets, a tram interior, a barber's shop, a apartment, with documents and film between them. Schindler's own office is preserved at the end of the route. The surrounding district has turned from industry into galleries and studios.

What you actually see

• The walk-through exhibition - reconstructed streets, shops and rooms rather than glass cases.
• Schindler's office - the preserved room at the end of the route.
• The documents and film - archive material and recorded accounts throughout.
• The building - the surviving factory frontage in a former industrial district.

When to go

Year-round; it is entirely indoors. Book a timed ticket online, because walk-up entry regularly sells out by mid-morning in season. Allow two hours at a steady pace, three if you watch the film material. Later slots are quieter.

Honest expectations

The subject is heavy and the exhibition does not soften it - this is not a light stop between other sights. It is far broader than the film that made the building famous, and visitors expecting a film location leave disappointed. The route is narrow and one-way, which makes it slow when full. Labelling is bilingual but dense; the audio guide is worth it.

Nearby

The Kazimierz quarter is over the footbridge; the old town is twenty-five minutes on foot.