The National Museum in Krakow is revealed and the largest museum with the adjective “national” in its name in Poland. It was established in 1879 by a resolution of the Krakow City Council. Until the end of the war, it was possible, available to the museum on Polish soil and to this day it remains an institution with an expanded collection, buildings and a permanent gallery. The collections managed by the Museum number over 900,000 exhibits, and its mission is to provide Polish and foreign art.
The National Museum in Krakow has twelve branches. The headquarters is the Main Building, located at Aleja 3 Maja 1, where the Artistic Crafts Gallery and the XX + XXI Gallery of Polish Art are located. In the exhibition halls, which contain temporary exhibitions, there are also educational activities for children, teenagers and adults, as well as conferences, seminars and training. The residential facility also houses management and administration offices, a library and some museum studios and workshops.
The oldest branch of the National Museum in Krakow is the Cloth Hall at Rynek Główny 3, which was chosen as the seat of the emerging museum in 1879. The Gallery of 19th-century Polish Art arranged there is one of the most famous museum sciences in Poland.
A museum of three interactions dedicated to the great Polish artist: Jan Matejko’s House at ul. Floriańska 41 (the home of the greatest Polish historical painter) and Józef Mehoffer’s House at ul. Krupnicza 26, together with the garden restored in 2004 after more than six years by Józef Mehoffer, which was then considered the most beautiful Young Poland garden in Krakow. The third branch is located outside Krakow, in Zakopane, at 19 Kasprusie Street. It is a biographical museum of the great Polish composer – Karol Szymanowski, located in the wooden villa “Atma”.
In the Szołayski Tenement House, at 9 Szczepański Square (former Stanisław Wyspiański Museum), in addition to mandatory and temporary exhibitions, there are lectures, concerts, theater performances and educational activities. There is also a museum shop and a café.
In the Bishop Erazma Ciołek Palace, at 17 Kanonicza Street, there are two permanent galleries with the NMK collections. On the first floor – the “Art of Old Poland” gallery. XII–XVIII centuries”, where you can see works of Polish medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art. To cover it – the “Orthodox Art of the Former Polish Republic” gallery. In the restored basements you can store 800 fragments of the most valuable architectural sculptures from all over Poland, including: from St. Mary’s Church, Krakow Cathedral or Gniezno Cathedral – as part of the project “Kraków at your fingertips. Architectural sculpture with the scientific National Museum in Krakow.
The National Museum in Krakow has a priceless collection of 100,000 numismatic items, including the best collection of Polish numismatic items in the world. It is the basis for over 11,000 items in the collection of the universal numismatist and traditional collector of souvenirs, Count Emeryk Hutten-Czapski (1828–1896). The collection, along with the museum’s electric drive, was donated to the National Museum in Krakow. Keep it up, Museum. Emeryk Hutten-Czapski, which are located at 10-12 Piłsudskiego Street. In 2016, the Józef Czapski Pavilion was established in this complex – a new museum dedicated to Emeryk’s grandson, an outstanding painter, writer, and witness of Katyn.
In the Old Granary building at Sikorski Square there is a biographical museum of Stanisław Wyspiański, the most outstanding artist of Polish modernism.
Wyspiański’s work, extremely versatile, contains various technological solutions that are complementary. The artists’ painting achievements include stained glass, portraits and landscapes; in the field of applied art, they designed furniture and interior decorations, and also dealt with typography and editing. He is the author of many literary works – dramas, tragedies, rhapsodies, poems. He was also a director and set designer of equipment and produced plays on theater stages by others.
Since December 29, 2016, the Princes Czartoryski collection has been an integral part of the National Museum in Krakow. After completing the renovation of the buildings of the Princes Czartoryski Museum at św. Jana 19, at the end of 2019, this priceless collection, considered one of the most important in Poland, the most important of 86,000 museum objects, is again made available to the public.
In the spring of 2021, the restored and modernized Princes Czartoryski Arsenal will again include the Gallery of Ancient Art, the most important of 1,000 exhibits. The Czartoryski Collection also contains 250,000 manuscripts, old prints, books and documents, which are available in the Princes Czartoryski Library, located in the tenement houses at Św. Mark 17.
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