Opening hours: Closed Mondays; open Tuesday and Thursday, 10am-4pm; Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 10am-7pm; Sunday, 10am-3pm.
The Czartoryskis' collection, assembled by Izabela Czartoryska in the years 1801-1830 and by Wladyslaw Czartoryski in the 1840s and 1880s, first opened to the public in the nineteenth century. Initially exhibited at Pulawy, where Duchess Izabela had the first ever museum created in Poland, it was later moved to Cracow and became known as the Czartoryski Museum and Library. In 1950 the two establishments were taken over by the state and incorporated into the National Museum in Cracow. In 1991 Adam Czartoryski set up the Czartoryski Princes' Foundation and presented the holdings to the Polish nation. At present the Library and the art collection operate as two separate divisions of the National Museum in Cracow in their two respective locations.
The collection of paintings at the Czartoryski Museum contains works by Polish and West-European artists from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. The highlights of the collection include Leonardo da Vinci's A Lady with an Ermine, also known as A Lady with a Weasel - the most valuable painting to be found in a Polish collection - and the precious Landscape with a Good Samaritan by Rembrandt.
The decorative arts collection comprises Polish, West-European and Oriental exhibits, and includes glass, porcelain, silver, textiles, militaria, maiolicas, etc. There is a rich collection of ancient - Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman - art.
The so-called Pulawskie Exhibits include family effects and objects related to distinguished personages of the nineteenth century with whom the Czartoryskis, a powerful aristocratic family, maintained contact as family or friends.
All collections except drawings and prints are shown through the Museum's permanent exhibition.
Muzeum Czartoryskich
Oddział Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie
ul. Św. Jana 19
31-017 Kraków
Region: małopolskie
Phone: (+48 12) 422 55 66, 292 64 60
Fax: (+48 12) 292 64 64
WWW: www.muzeum.krakow.pl
Email: muz-czart@muzeum.krakow.pl