The Planty is said to be the green lungs of Krakow. In reality, they are at most one lung. The other, scattered among the monastery walls, is breathed today by only a few hundred of the nearly 30,000 residents of the inner city. The monastery gardens are one of the largest, albeit hidden, complexes of greenery within the Second Ring Road. For centuries, however, they have remained closed behind blind gates and historic walls. The city has been trying to open them up for years - the question is whether it has been successful.
Although Krakow comes out impressively in rankings of the amount of green space, the reality is less green than the statistics show. Most parks and forests lie on the outskirts - in the form of the Bielany-Tyniec Landscape Park, Zakrzowek or Wolski Forest, for example. In the center, especially in Piasek and the Old Town, greenery is scarce. Small, public parks that can be reached in a few minutes are a scarce commodity here. Or maybe just few have access to them?
Krakow's Planty is the largest park within the Second Ring Road - its area is 21 hectares
Photo: Maksym Kozlenko © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
second green lung
It turns out that the second-largest owner of green areas within the 1st district in Krakow is the Church. The monastery's gardens cover a total of about 15 hectares - almost as much as the Planty Park (21 hectares) and much more than Jalu Kurka Park (2 hectares) or Wislawa Szymborska Park (0.8 hectares). The garden at the Visitation Nunnery alone is 2.8 hectares, and the Church of the Congregation of Missionary Fathers on Stradom Street is on a plot of 3.3 hectares, most of which is green space. The problem is that these, as well as almost all other green spaces located within the monastery buildings, remain inaccessible.
Only in the Sand area are monastery gardens of several hectares in size
krakow horti conclusi
Since June 2022, it has been possible to enter the half-hectare meadow next to the Pauline Fathers' monastery on Skalka, walk on the lawn around the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, or use the Jalu Kurka Park - made available only after the city bought it from the Salvatorians for PLN 12 million.
Efforts to give residents of Krakow access to the closed gardens at the monastery were carried out years ago, and the opening of the closed green areas was fought for in 2011 as part of the "Remember the Gardens" campaign. During the ArtBoom festival, which was running at the time, those involved in the initiative tried to organize a walking tour along the route of 9 monastery gardens. Unfortunately, the tour of none of the monastery greens succeeded, as their administrators and rulers refused to let activists and participants in. Two years later, similar demands were made by Krakow councilors, but again, no real change was achieved. After making part of the Pauline Fathers' garden on Skałka available in 2022, earlier this year Krakow's magistrate launched a campaign to increase the amount of green space available to city center residents.
The St. Francis de Sales Church in Krakow - Visitation Garden has an area of almost 3 hectares. It is enclosed behind an 8-meter high wall
Photo: Zygmunt Put © CC BY SA-4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
gardens open in Krakow
Back in February of this year, a letter of intent was signed, which reads:
"The agreement includes the organization of an 'Open Gardens' program to make available to the residents of Krakow the areas of landscaped gardens under the authority of parishes and other ecclesiastical legal entities and their bodies subordinate to the authority of the Archbishop of Krakow (the Ordinary of the place), both in the formula of occasional and permanent
Silence fell around the subject for some time, but in July the city returned with new information. The light at the end of the tunnel is the agreement on the implementation of the "Open Gardens" project, which Krakow signed with the Archdiocese of Krakow on June 30, 2025. As we read on the website of the Cracow magistrate:
The initiative aims to make the green areas located next to churches and church institutions available to Krakow residents. Under the program, residents will gain occasional access to spaces such as the garden at St. Florian's parish and the gardens at the seminary of the Krakow Archdiocese at 8 Podzamcze Street.
St. Florian Church in Krakow - The garden at St. Florian Church in Krakow will become available on August 9, 2025.
Photo: Zygmunt Put © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
On Saturday , August 9, 2025, the first "sharing" will take place - for the first time, as part of an event organized jointly with Krakow's ZZM, residents will be able to attend a picnic in the garden at St. Florian Church. The second of the announced gardens - adjacent to the Theological Seminary at 8 Podzamcze Street - has still not been made available as part of the announced events. And summer, although not one of the warmest, at times can be a real pain.
The garden at the Carmelite Church in Cracow
Photo: Bartek444 © CC SA 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons
green capital
Are the Open Gardens turning Krakow into a green capital? To a small extent at this point. In the face of large, enclosed stretches of green space and the scarcity of parks in the inner city, the declarations sound like half-measures. While residents fight for every scrap of biologically active area (as in the case of Wislawa Szymborska Park) in the public space, carefully tended gardens, full of shade and birdsong, are hiding behind walls (for example, almost opposite the aforementioned park. across Karmelicka Street). In a city that turns into a heated island on hot days, this is a priceless capital - and yet still available only to a select few.
