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Czartoryski Museum

The Czartoryski Museum (Muzeum Czartoryskich) is one of the places no Krakow visitor should miss. The most famous exhibit is of course the Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci, but the Czartoryski family have obtained numerous other valuable works of art, dating from antiquity to the 19^th century.

Czartoryski Museum – the oldest Polish museum

The history of the museum is closely linked to the twists and turns of Polish independence. It was established by princess Izabela in 1796 in Pulawy, a town in eastern Poland, then a residence of the Czartoryski family. At that time – a year after Poland lost its independence – the princess felt that she should preserve Polish heritage for future generations – so the first exhibits were linked to one of the proudest episodes of the country's history – the victory against the Turks in Vienna in 1683. Others included remains of the treasures looted from the Wawel Cathedral and the Wawel Castle in Krakow.

Shortly after the establishment, the museum obtained its most valuable paining, the Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci. It was bought in Italy by prince Izabela's son, Adam Jerzy Czartoryski along with Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man and some Roman antiquities. Prince Czartoryski actively participated in the November Uprising in 1830, and after its defeat, he was forced to flee to Paris, taking the exhibits with him.

The Museum's ups and downs in Krakow

The museum was moved to Krakow in 1878, when the city's authorities offered to give the old Arsenal (the same place the museum is now) to Czartoryski. This, however, is not the end of its hardship. At the break of the First World War, the museum was moved to Dresden. It was finally returned to Krakow in 1920, only to be looted by the Nazis some twenty years later. The most expensive exhibits spent some time in the private collection of Adolf Hitler, who later gave them to Hans Frank, the governor of Krakow, who used them in his residence, the Wawel Castle. The Lady with an Ermine and many other exhibits, were returned to the Czartoryski Museum after the war, some eight hundred (!) objects, including the Raphael painting, are still missing.

The Czartoryski Museum's most valuable possession – Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine

The Czartoryski collection must have been very rich, as even without the stolen exhibits, the museum is one of the best in Poland. The da Vinci painting is certainly its proudest property – and one of the most valuable artworks in Krakow. The painting itself has an interesting story. Leonardo da Vinci was asked by his acquaintance, prince Lodovico Sforza, to paint Cecilia Gallerani, Lodovico's mistress. The decision to paint her with an Ermine is certainly significant, but quite a few interpretations are possible. The Ermine was a symbol of Lodovico's, so painting the girl with it on her womb could allegorically show the relationship between the two. Additionally, when Leonardo was painting Cecilia, she was already pregnant – and ermines were a symbol of pregnancy. The least spectacular version claims that da Vinci just made a pun on lady Gallerani's name, as the Greek word for Ermine is gallée. And that's not the end of the painting's secrets – in the 1990s it turned out that the black background of the Lady with an Ermine is not original, and was probably painted after it was obtained by Czartoryski.

Leonardo's painting has also played a major role in Vinci, a 2004 Polish movie, where the main heroes steal the Lady with an Ermine.

Other exhibits worth seeing in the Czartoryski Museum

The Czartoryski Museum contains numerous other paintings worth noticing, including Rembrandt's Landscape with the Good Samaritan, and works of Lucas Cranach or Flemish artists, such as Dirk Bouts, Jacob Jordaens of Pieter Breughel. In the Gallery of Ancient Art one can see objects dating back to 3000BC, including Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi, Etruscan tombs and Roman and Greek sculptures. There's also a rich collection devoted to Polish history and an armoury.

Czartoryski Museum: Details and Opening Hours

The Czartoryski Museum is on 19 Sw. Jana Street, right in the heart of Krakow, a few steps away from the Main Square. Like virtually all Krakow Museums, is open daily except Mondays, from 10a.m. to 6p.m. on weekdays and 10a.m. to 4p.m. on Sundays. The last visitors can enter 30 minutes before closing time. The ticket price is 10 zloty.