The cafe of the University's Collegium Maius has many aces up its sleeve. First, their iced coffee is arguably the best in town (ask for a dollop of ice-cream....), second, you can sit outside in one of the most attractive courtyards in Cracow, third, they have a highly amusing metal cloakroom that's straight out of 2001 Space Odyssey, and fourth, nobody seems to know that the cafe even exists, so you rarely have to fight for a seat.
Equally as congenial as all of these perks is the cafe's commitment to hosting unusual little exhibitions. There's a fine one on at the moment, and if you're taken by Cracow's art nouveau architecture, it's well worth dropping by.
However, as it goes, the current exhibition is not specifically about Cracovian architecture at all. The pictures on show present turn of the century architecture from Poland's former lands in the East, the so-called 'Kresy' (Borderlands). The towns included all lay within the province of Galicia a hundred years ago, which at that time was an autonomous region under the Habsburg crown. Lemberg (Lviv today, Lwow between the wars) was the capital and Cracow was its second city.
The art nouveau era saw an unparalleled flowering of Polish art, in painting, stained glass and architecture, and there are plenty of glimpses of this in UJ's little exhibition. What's more, the goodly President Yushchenko has waived visa requirements for EU citizens this Summer (1st May-1st September) so if you're inspired to see the places in the flesh, it's never been easier. Hurrah for Yushchenko!
Secesja Lwowa i Kresow (Secession from Lwow and the Borderlands): A photographic exhibition by Zdzislaw J Zielinski, Collegium Maius, U Pecherza Cafe, ul. Jagiellonska 15 - until 26th June, 2005.
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