Christmas Fair on the Small Market Square in Kraków 2025

Monday, December 1, 2025 - Thursday, January 1, 2026

  • Monday, December 1, 2025 - Thursday, January 1, 2026
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Christmas goods, arts and crafts created by lace makers and embroiderers, ceramic artists, wood carvers, stained glass artists, weavers, calligraphers, makers of wooden and textile toys, jewellers, paper and graphics studios, candle and ornament makers, textile studios and authors of Kraków nativity scenes - the Small Market Square Christmas Fair is more than just a marketplace. Here, every stall and every booth tells the story of the creators, their studios and the traditions passed down from generation to generation. The stalls offer hand-crafted objects made in small studios and manufactured in short series, with respect for raw material and technique. As the organisers, the location chosen for the fair is also not a coincidence - taking place in the shadow of the towers of St Mary's Cathedral, the event becomes a contemporary variant of the historic indulgences and church fairs, where the exchange of goods was combined with the exchange of values, stories and experiences. Even the very Polish word for a fair (kiermasz, from German Kirchmesse/Kirmes - church consecration mass combined with a fair) hints at its communal, festive nature.

For whom: for children, for families
Other: open air event, free admission

Small Market Square

Small Market Square

In the Middle Ages, the air over this charming corner was suffused with the aroma of meat and fish, and later also of printing ink!

The Small Market Square provided ancillary space for the Main Market Square from the Middle Ages onwards. It was here that goods that did not look or smell great were sold: mostly meat and fish. The trade (later also with previously enjoyed goods, fruit, etc.) disappeared from here with the advent of modern technology: early in the 20th century a tramline to the Main Market Square crossed the centre of its smaller partner.

Most worthy of mentioning of all the houses standing on the Small Market Square is Szoberowska House (No. 6) with a late Gothic façade. It is here that the first Polish paper, Merkuriusz Polski, was printed in 1661. Malicious tongues add that it was published for not much longer than six months before the publishers moved to Warsaw, yet no one dares to doubt that no other city but Kraków is the cradle of the Polish media.

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