Krakow Szopka Contest

A szopka krakowska is a nativity crib built as a fantasy of Kraków's own buildings. The classic form is slender and symmetrical with three towers, and makers cover it in thin metal foil coloured red for the city's brick and green for its old copper domes. The tradition began in the late 19th century as a portable puppet theatre, and mechanical figures later took the place of the amateur players.

The Muzeum Krakowa (Museum of Kraków) runs the contest. Its jury sorts the entries into four groups by size, from miniatures to large cribs, and looks at architecture and proportion, the decoration and the figures, and how closely each maker keeps to tradition. After the judging the museum puts the cribs on public show from December into February.

UNESCO inscribed the Nativity scene (szopka) tradition in Krakow on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2018, crediting about forty of the most active makers who build new cribs each year. Many work in family lines, and the museum names the Malik and Gillert families among those who have built szopki for generations. Each crib is its maker's own design, so credit the maker by name when you share a photo.