Princes Czartoryski Library

What to expect

Start with the practical answer, because it decides everything else: you cannot visit the Princes Czartoryski Library right now. The branch is undergoing a full expansion and rebuilding, the building at św. Marka 17 has been out of use since 1 June 2024, and the National Museum in Krakow states it will reopen in early 2028. If it is on your itinerary for a current trip, redirect that time to the Czartoryski Museum around the corner - that is where the famous Czartoryski art collection, including Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, is on display.

What the library itself holds is a different kind of treasure. This is the research library of the Czartoryski collection: over 231,000 volumes, an archive of more than 14,000 manuscripts spanning the Middle Ages to the present, around 150 illuminated books that rank as works of book painting in their own right, and parchment documents from the 12th to the 19th century, some of state importance. Old prints with 16th-century Polonica, maps, atlases, periodicals, sheet music, calendars and printed ephemera round out the holdings. Even before the closure this was not a museum with a permanent exhibition - the collection was consulted in a reading room by museum professionals, scholars, students, exhibition curators and anyone with a serious interest in the Museum’s holdings, rather than toured gallery-style.

The collection’s history explains its rank. Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Izabela Czartoryska began assembling it in the second half of the 18th century; after 1783 the family moved the library to Puławy, and after the failed November Uprising of 1830-31 part of the collection was carried to Paris. It returned to Poland in 1876, made available in the newly opened Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, and received its own purpose-built home on św. Marka street in 1958-1960 - the building now being rebuilt.

Visiting in practice

There is nothing to enter until the reopening: the renovation project runs from March 2024 to March 2028 at a cost of over 56 million PLN, keeping the building’s footprint while fitting out five floors above ground and two below. After completion the museum plans a fully functional library branch with a cultural and educational programme, and improved accessibility - before the works the branch was not accessible to wheelchair users, with a narrow internal lift reached by several steps from the entrance.

For researchers the position is stricter still: because of conservation work and the anoxia (pest-control) treatment schedule, access to the collections is suspended until further notice. The one working channel is microfilm - the library supplies microfilms through interlibrary loan, with a turnaround of up to four weeks. For collection enquiries contact the branch by phone (+48 12 370 54 20 or +48 12 370 54 21) or email (bczart@mnk.pl ).

The good news for anyone reading from abroad: a substantial part of the collection is online. The library’s catalogue is at opac-bcz.mnk.pl, and digitised manuscripts and other objects can be browsed in the museum’s digital library at cyfrowe.mnk.pl and at zbiory.mnk.pl - for most visitors, and for the next couple of years for everyone, this is the way in.

Getting there

The library building stands at św. Marka 17 in the northern part of the Old Town, a few minutes’ walk from the Main Market Square and practically next door to the Czartoryski Museum complex on Pijarska street. Walk from the square along Floriańska or Sławkowska street; from Kraków Główny railway station it is about ten minutes on foot through the Planty park.

Nearby

Until the library reopens, the Czartoryski Museum on Pijarska street is the place to actually see the Czartoryski collection, Lady with an Ermine included. Next to it, the former city arsenal houses the Arsenal - Gallery of Ancient Art , and a short walk away on plac Szczepański the Szołayski House offers a third branch of the National Museum within a few minutes of each other.