Rain over Wrocław doesn't have to mean a day spent in a hotel room or flat. The city has more than a dozen places where you can spend several hours entirely under a roof: from major museums, through historic church and theatre interiors, to educational centres built with children in mind. Below are suggestions grouped so they are easy to match to the weather and to how much time is left until evening.

Large museums for a longer visit

If it rains all day, it is worth setting aside a few hours for one of the city's larger museums. Panorama of the Battle of Racławice is an attraction built around a single exhibit: a huge cyclorama painting depicting the Battle of Racławice, painted in 1893-1894 by Jan Styka, Wojciech Kossak and a team of other painters. Visitors view the painting from a viewing platform set in the middle of the hall, surrounded by the painting on all sides, so a visit takes longer than walking past individual exhibits.

The National Museum in Wrocław on Plac Powstańców Warszawy holds more than 200,000 objects, mainly Silesian painting and sculpture, in an imposing building that on its own provides shelter for several hours regardless of the weather. Closer to the Market Square, in the Under the Golden Sun tenement house, is the Pan Tadeusz Museum, part of the Ossolineum, opened in 2016. The main exhibition shows the only surviving manuscript of Adam Mickiewicz's poem, surrounded by several hundred manuscripts, early printed books and prints, accompanied by multimedia commentary - this is a shorter option than a visit to the National Museum, but a good way to fill the middle of a rainy afternoon right by the Market Square.

The portal has a separate set of descriptions devoted to Wrocław's museums, so anyone looking for a full list with details of the collections will find it in the individual entries for each institution - here we focus on which of them work best specifically on a rainy day.

Places for children under a roof

Families with children have a separate, broader guide to attractions suited to the youngest visitors in Wrocław - here are just a few suggestions that work best in the rain, because they are entirely indoors. Hydropolis is an environmental education centre devoted to water, set up in a former underground drinking-water reservoir on Na Grobli street, built back in 1890-1892 as part of the municipal waterworks. It is the only centre of its kind in Poland, and the exhibition is entirely underground, so the weather makes no difference here.

Afrykarium on the grounds of the Zoological Garden, opened in 2014 as the first oceanarium of its kind in Poland, presents the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems of African fauna in a building designed in the shape of a ship. The main part of the visit takes place indoors, which makes Afrykarium one of the few attractions for children in Wrocław that can be enjoyed in full regardless of what is happening outside. For older children and teenagers, the Museum of Games and Computers of a Bygone Era in the Świebodzki Station building also works well - the first institution in Poland devoted to the history of games and computers, with a collection of more than 200 computers and consoles and hundreds of games from six consecutive generations of hardware.

Historic interiors, whatever the weather

Some of Wrocław's historic buildings are worth visiting specifically from the inside, and then rain outside the window doesn't matter at all. Centennial Hall in Biskupin, designed by Max Berg and built in 1911-1913, has a reinforced-concrete dome 67 metres in diameter, the largest structure of its kind in the world at the time it was built, today inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The interior itself, holding up to 10,000 people over an area of 14,000 square metres, is impressive regardless of whether an event is taking place there at the time.

Wrocław Opera on Świdnicka street is a historic theatre building erected in 1839-1841 to a design by Carl Ferdinand Langhans, rebuilt twice after fires in 1865 and 1871. The Church of the Holy Name of Jesus on Plac Uniwersytecki, a baroque church built by the Jesuits in 1689-1698, today serves as the university church and is open for visits regardless of the weather outside. Right next door, in the main building of the University of Wrocław, the Museum of the University of Wrocław gives access to several historic ceremonial halls, among them the baroque Aula Leopoldina (Leopoldine Hall) - a tour of interiors that takes place entirely under a roof, so rain makes no difference here.

Themed museums that are easy to forget about

Alongside its biggest institutions, Wrocław has several museums with a narrower theme, which on a rainy day are a good idea for an hour or two without the crowds. The Museum of Architecture on Bernardyńska street, the only institution of its kind in Poland, is housed in a historic former Bernardine complex and holds more than 20,000 exhibits related to architecture, set up in the rebuilt interiors of the monastery and former church. The Wrocław Contemporary Museum in the Szczepin district shows contemporary art in Poland's only above-ground air-raid shelter from 1942, with walls more than a metre thick - one of those places where the architecture of the building itself is part of the visit.

For someone who prefers movement and shopping to exhibitions, a good idea for a rainy morning is the Market Hall on Piaskowa street, a historic trading hall from 1906-1908, still in use today as a venue for a daily market. A walk between the stalls under one roof, close to Piasek Island and the Piaskowy Bridge, is a way to break up a rainy day without having to step into another cultural institution.

A plan for a whole rainy day

It is worth starting the day near the Market Square, since several options are close together from there. In the morning, the Mickiewicz manuscript in the Under the Golden Sun tenement house works well, followed by a short walk to the university church and the halls of the University of Wrocław - both places are a few minutes' walk from each other. Around lunchtime, a good idea is a break under the roof of the Market Hall, from where it is a short distance to Piasek Island and the bridges leading towards Ostrów Tumski.

The afternoon is worth devoting to one larger exhibition - the National Museum or the Panorama of the Battle of Racławice, depending on whether you are closer to Plac Powstańców Warszawy or to Szczytnicka street. Families with children can head to Hydropolis or Afrykarium at the same time, both entirely under a roof. The evening, if the rain still hasn't let up, is a good time for a performance at Wrocław Opera or a concert in the building on Plac Wolności - both venues perform regardless of the weather outside, and the visit to a historic interior is itself part of the attraction, not just an add-on to the programme.