A new high-tech building for the Polish Aviation Museum accommodates the world’s aviation heritage and has significantly contributed to the promotion of tourism and culture in the region.
Construction of the Cultural Aviation Park in Kracow
- 05 November 2015
In this place visitors can feel the spirit of aviation all around them.
The Polish Aviation Museum showcases old aircrafts and aircraft engines. It was first opened at the no-longer functional Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Airport in 1964, located three kilometers from the city’s Old Town.
The shape of the new building resembles a spinning propeller. It includes several exhibition areas, an educational room, cinema, and a research library with a reading room. In 2014 it was recognised as the world’s eighth best aviation museum by CNN television.
Museum with life and soul
The project combines a museum with recreational and educational functions. The main exhibition area includes 21 aircrafts including France’s Bleriot XI that made the first flight across the English Channel in 1909.
The education hall is outfitted with a flight simulator, multimedia presentations, interactive toys, information booths, and rows of recliner seats mimicking an airplane cabin. The museum also has dozens of books, photo albums, memoirs and brochures devoted to aviation history.
The museum’s collection consists of 100 aircraft engines and over 200 aircrafts, including unique planes. One of the most extraordinary and unique exhibits are 22 rare airplanes that once were part of the personal collection of Hermann Göring. Before World War II they were displayed in the Deutsche Luftfahrtsammlung museum in Berlin. These planes were evacuated during the war to rescue them from Allied bombing and were found abandoned in Polish territory after the war. In addition, the museum has a complete collection of all airplane types developed or used by Poland after 1945.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “Construction of the Cultural Aviation Park in Cracow, including the Main Building of the Polish Aviation Museum” is EUR 14 618 767, of which the EU’s European Regional Development Fund is contributing EUR 9 209 000 from the Operational Programme “Lesser Poland” for the 2007 to 2013 programming period.