125 Years of the National Museum in Cracow
Open Day at Cracow's Museums - Saturday 23rd October 2004
All the main branches of the National Museum in Cracow will throw open their doors tomorrow to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the museum.
Entry will be free to the seven museums involved in the event - doors will open at 10 and close at a very uncharacteristic 7 in the evening. A range of one-off lectures and events have been organized to chime in with the celebration.
Cracow's most famous museum first came to the city in the wake of a change in political fortunes for the then Austrian governed city. With the coming of Polish autonomy in Galicia in 1868, Prince Ladislas Czartoryski judged it safe to bring his famed collection home from exile in Paris, and Poland's oldest museum found a new home in Cracow. The Czartoryski Museum re-opened in 1879, and today it remains amongst the most popular attractions in the city, not least because of its possession of a rare painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
A major new exhibition opens tomorrow at the Czartoryski Museum entitled 'Napoleon and the Poles', and visitors will get an early peak at this much-anticipated show.
Art lovers can also enjoy the treasures of six other distinguished Cracovian museums. The main department at ul. 3 Maja has a magnificent exhibition on at the moment displaying Polish art from the collections of the Polish Library in Paris. (See our events calendar for more info).
The nineteenth century gallery of painting in the Cloth Hall is also taking part, as are the two enchanting museums of Jan Matejko and Jozef Moheffer, two giants of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The newly re-opened Stanislaw Wyspianski Museum, dedicated to the star of Poland's fin-se-siecle is also well worth a look.
Last but not least is the Manggha centre, an inspirational modern museum by the river which is hosting a splendid exhibition celebrating five years of the National Geographic magazine in Poland. All events are discussed in more depth in our events calendar - please click on the source link below!)