Description of the attraction
National Museum of Krakow is a museum of art located in the Polish city of Krakow.
The National Museum was established in 1879. Initially, the museum was located on the upper floors of the Cloth Hall on the main square in the Old Town. The collection was collected gradually, mainly, it consisted of gifts from artists and collectors. These were works and sculptures by Polish masters of the 19th century, as well as by European authors. At the beginning of the 20th century, the museum began to collect other valuable exhibits: coins, archaeological and ethnographic finds, historical documents. The first director of the museum was Vladislav Luskevich, an artist and historian. He has organized several exhibitions, including an anniversary exhibition dedicated to Kosciuszko and John Kokhanovsky. Under the leadership of the next director, Felix Koregu, the museum's collection numbered more than 100,000 valuable items. Under Koreg, the first branches of the Krakow Museum were created.
Construction of the modern building for the museum began in 1934, but was interrupted by World War II. The building was completely finished only in 1992.
During the war, the collection was plundered by German troops. After 1945, the Polish government returned many of their seized artifacts. Nevertheless, more than 1000 works have remained lost.
Currently, the museum consists of 21 departments, which are divided into different periods in art, 11 galleries, 2 libraries. It contains 780,000 pieces of art, with a particular focus on Polish painting.
