Kazimierz and the Jewish quarter: from the Tempel to Schindler's factory

Kazimierz was a separate town before Kraków swallowed it, and for centuries it was where the city's Jews lived, prayed and worked beside their Catholic neighbours. This walk stays in that district, then crosses the river to the place where the story turned. It is a quiet, serious route: some of the buildings are museums, others are still places of worship, and the last two stops deal with the Second World War.

Start in the north of the quarter and let the streets lead you south and east. Come with a morning free and leave time to sit down between stops.

Begin on Miodowa Street at the Tempel Synagogue. It was built between 1860 and 1862 to a design by Ignacy Hercok, modelled on a synagogue in Vienna, and it belongs to the Reform tradition rather than the Orthodox one you will meet next. The plain street front gives little away. Inside, the walls and ceiling are painted in many colours and gold leaf, and the dome over the Ark echoes the one in a chapel at Wawel Cathedral. The Nazis stored ammunition here during the war, and it was restored with money from donors around the world between 1995 and 2000.

Admire the facade first, then go in if it is open to visitors. Afterwards, walk a few minutes towards Szeroka Street.

The Remuh Synagogue is small, and you could walk past it. The foundation tablet dates it to 1553, and it was finished in 1557 after a wooden first building burned down. It is named after Rabbi Moses Isserles, known as the Remu, a scholar whose commentaries on Jewish law are still studied. The synagogue is still in use by an Orthodox congregation, so treat it as a place of worship, not a sight.

Next to it lies the old cemetery, laid out as the synagogue was built. Together they are the quietest corner of Kazimierz. Leave by Szeroka Street, which leads on to the next stop.

Near the end of Szeroka stands the Old Synagogue, a fortress-like building from the 15th century. Sources give 1407 or 1492 for its start, so take either date with care. In 1570 Mateo Gucci rebuilt it, adding the thick walls and loopholes that give it its fortress look. Since 1958 it has been a museum of Kraków's Jewish history, run by the city's Historical Museum.

Go inside. The old women's prayer room is used for temporary exhibitions, so look in there as well as in the main hall. When you leave, head south-west through the streets towards Corpus Christi.

In 1335 King Casimir the Great founded Corpus Christi Church. Building started around 1340 and went on in stages into the 15th century. In 1404 King Władysław Jagiełło gave it to the Canons Regular of the Lateran. It began as a Gothic church; the Swedish invasion of 1655 left the inside badly damaged, and the Baroque fittings followed, including a gilded high altar and a pulpit shaped like a boat, from 1750.

The church shows that Kazimierz was never only a Jewish quarter. Spend a few minutes inside, then walk east towards the river and the bridge.

On the far side of the Vistula you are in Podgórze, where the Nazis created a ghetto for Kraków's Jews in March 1941. On its square, now Ghetto Heroes Square, stands the Eagle Pharmacy. Tadeusz Pankiewicz, a Pole, ran the shop and was the only non-Jew allowed to stay and work inside the ghetto. He kept the Polish sign over the door, gave out medicines that helped people avoid deportation, passed on messages and kept valuables for people who were taken away.

The pharmacy closed in 1967. A small exhibition opened here in 1983, and a permanent one in 2003. Go in and take your time. It is a short walk east from here to the last stop.

The walk ends at Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory on Lipowa Street, in the Zabłocie district. Since 2007 the site has housed a museum of Kraków during the Nazi occupation, 1939 to 1945. You will see a reconstructed ghetto apartment, a reconstruction of a basement where Jews hid, and the desk and stairs from the film Schindler's List. The former workshops hold a contemporary art museum.

The exhibition is about the city and its people, not only about Schindler himself, so allow plenty of time.

You began with a Reform synagogue and an Orthodox one, passed a medieval church that stood in the same town, and ended at two places that record how the community was destroyed. Return by tram or on foot, and keep the Old Town for another morning.