Historical Museum of Kraków

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Historical Museum of Kraków a.k.a. Historical Museum of the City of Kraków (Polish: Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa ) at the Krzysztofory Palace, originally opened in 1899 as the division of the Old Records Office of Kraków. It was not until 1945 that the present-day museum was granted the status of an independent institution.

Krzysztofory Palace at the Main Market Square, Kraków

"Portrait of Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz" by Wojciech Stattler, at the Historical Museum of Kraków

The Museum's main location is Krzysztofory, the work of an architect Jakub Sollari who combined three Gothic houses in the Old Square and redesigned them as a Baroque palace. The building features fine stucco work by Italian architect Baldassare Fontana working in Kraków at the time.

The Historical Museum is made up of several divisions, which preserve and display artifacts of the history of the city, including the history of Jews: at the Old Synagogue, the history of the theatre: at the House under the Cross, and history of the Shooting Fraternity: at the Celestat.

The Museum holdings include sixteenth through twentieth century city maps; paintings, prints, photographs; guild objects and works by Kraków artists and artisans; portraits of nobility from the sixteenth to the twentieth century; fourteenth through twentieth century weapons; a collection of sixteenth through twentieth century clocks; famous Kraków nativity scenes (szopka); artifacts related to theatre; Judaica; items commemorative of the Polish uprisings of the nineteenth century and of World War I and II.

The Museum houses a permanent exhibit of the History and Culture of Kraków, a collection of the militaria (projectiles, firearms, defense and sharp weapons), clocks and watches. The Town Hall Tower in the Main Market Square is the venue of the Photographs of the Market Square exhibition.

Since 1999, under the Museum's jurisdiction is the Barbakan, one of the best known examples of medieval defense structures in Poland, made accessible for tourism in the summer.

[edit] Museum Divisions

Town Hall Tower
Barbican (Barbakan)
Szołayski Museum
The Silesian House
Under the Cross Manor (History of Theatre)
Jewish Museum at the Old Synagogue
Hipolit Manor
Celestat, the Residence of Sharpshooters’ Society
Artistic Salon of the District of Zwierzyniec
Museum of National Remembrance at "Under the Eagle Pharmacy"
History of Nowa Huta Museum

Main branch location: Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) 35, Kraków

Opening hours: Thursday 11am-6pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and the second Tuesday of each month 9am-3pm; Closed: Monday and every other Tuesday, and the second Saturday of the month.