Sądecki Ethnographic Park (Nowy Sącz open-air museum)

The Sądecki Ethnographic Park (Sądecki Park Etnograficzny) in Nowy Sącz is the largest open-air museum in the Małopolska region. Across roughly 20 hectares on the edge of the city stand several dozen wooden and brick buildings brought from all over the Sącz Land: peasant farmsteads, a noble manor house, a manor farm, craft workshops, a windmill and three 18th-century places of worship — a Roman Catholic church, a Greek Catholic church and a Protestant church. The museum opened in 1975 and is run by the Museum of the Sącz Land (Muzeum Ziemi Sądeckiej, formerly the District Museum in Nowy Sącz).

What makes this skansen special is that it tells the story not of one people but of everyone who lived in the valleys of the Dunajec and the Poprad. Separate sectors are devoted to three Polish ethnographic groups — the Sącz Lachs, the Pogórzanie and the Sącz Highlanders — as well as to the Lemkos, the German colonists and the Carpathian Roma. The houses show how poor and wealthy families lived and how everyday life changed from the 18th to the early 20th century.

What to see

• The Lemko sector — an 18th-century church from Czarne and cottages from Lemko villages; there is an exhibition on Lemko tar trading, a craft based on selling tar and lubricants that the Lemkos carried far beyond the Carpathians.
• The 17th-century manor house from Rdzawa with rare painted interiors, and the manor farm next to it.
• The church from Łososina Dolna with its painted ceiling, and the Protestant church from Stadła (1809), moved here after a fire in 2003.
• The German colonists' sector — brick farmsteads from Gołkowice Dolne, built by the descendants of settlers invited to Galicia by Emperor Joseph II at the end of the 18th century.
• The Roma settlement at the edge of the forest, the village school from Nowy Rybie, a smithy, an oil mill, apiaries, wayside shrines and wells.
• The Galician Town (Miasteczko Galicyjskie) — a reconstruction of a small market square with a town hall, pharmacy, post office, tailor's workshop, fire station and inn; opened in 2011, it is now a separate branch of the museum.

In summer the skansen hosts demonstrations of old crafts and regional cooking, workshops and folk festivals, so it is a good place to visit with children.

Practical information

Since 1 May 2026 the only entrance to the skansen is from ul. Lwowska 226 — through the Galician Town or the German colonists' sector (the entrance from ul. Długoszowskiego is closed because of construction work). Next to the Galician Town there is a large free car and coach park, and tickets for the skansen are sold there too. City buses nos. 25 and 27 stop nearby.

From 1 May to 15 October the park is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00 (interiors until 17:45, last entry 16:30). From 16 October to 30 April it opens Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–15:00 (last entry 14:00), but only as a walk around the grounds without entering the houses. Closed on Mondays and on some public holidays.

A high-season ticket costs 23 zł (reduced 17 zł, family 69 zł); a combined ticket for the skansen and the Galician Town costs 32 zł. Off season it is 13 zł, or 27 zł combined. On Tuesdays entry to the grounds is free. A guided tour in Polish or English costs 150 zł per group. A smartphone audio guide is available. Information as of October 2026.

The grounds are hilly and the paths unpaved; the houses have high thresholds and low doors, so prams and wheelchairs will find it difficult. An accessible entrance, ticket office and toilet are on the Galician Town side. Allow at least two to three hours for the visit.

Nearby

A few kilometres to the south lies Stary Sącz with its historic market square and the Poor Clares' convent, and the Poprad valley leads to the ruins of Rytro Castle and the spa town of Krynica-Zdrój. To the west, in the Pieniny, are Szczawnica and the Dunajec raft trip.

Official website: muzeum.sacz.pl

Photos: MOs810, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; mik Krakow, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons; Przykuta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Krzysztof Stadnik, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; Pesell, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Gorofil, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.