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21 November 2009

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Polish Culture in the World Polish Cultural Institutes
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The Collegium Maius Museum of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow
THE COLLEGIUM MAIUS
languages: Polish  / English 
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The Collegium Maius Museum of the Jagiellonian University
Muzeum Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Collegium Maius
ul. Jagiellońska 15, 31-010 Kraków
Director: prof. dr hab. Stanisław Waltoś
tel. (+48 12) 422 05 49, 663 13 07
tel./fax (+48 12) 422 27 34
www.uj.edu.pl/muzeum

Opening hours: Closed Sundays and public holidays; open Saturdays, 11am-2pm, other days, 11am-3pm.

Cracow's oldest university building, the Collegium Maius acquired its present-day shape in the fifteenth century. Reminiscent of the architecture of Italian universities of the time, the building has a quadrangle court and cloisters on the first floor, stretching along all of its wings.

The origins of the holdings of the Jagiellonian University go back to the fifteenth century. It was in 1492 that Marcin Bylica, the Polish scholar and lecturer at the universities of Cracow, Padua and Bologna, presented his astronomical instruments to Cracow's Alma Mater, thus starting a collection of "scientific objects and curios". Grown for years through royal and magnate endowments and gifts by scholars and collectors, the holdings became dispersed during World War II. Luckily, most of them were returned after the War and made available for the public to see in 1964, on the 600th anniversary of the Jagiellonian University.

While the Museum boasts a rich collection of works of art in the areas of painting, sculpture, prints and drawings, and decorative arts, its uniqueness is defined by its collection of old scientific instruments. Some two thousand items strong, it is the only collection of such class in Poland and one of the most valuable ones in Europe. The exhibits include astronomical instruments, notably those used by Marcin Bylica in the fifteenth century as well as a unique eleventh century Arab astrolabe; physical and optical instruments; chemical and pharmaceutical vessels; a collection of globes, the oldest of which date from the fifteenth and sixteenth century, with the so-called Jagiellonian Globe on which America was first shown; Fifteenth through nineteenth century clocks, eighteenth century microscopes, thermometers, balances, weights, and the like are also exhibited. Together with the art collection, these valuable holdings form one of the permanent exhibitions inside the Collegium Maius's historical interiors. Other permanent exhibitions include Medieval Painting and Sculpture, West-European Paintings from the Collections of Wiktoria Oseka and Ewelina Lipko-Lipczynska and Sciences Old and New. The latter exhibition opened in 2000 and has been highly popular with visitors. Its interactive character allows everyone (no special background is required) to do simple mathematical, astronomical and physical experiments and calculations using instrument models. Visitors are also attracted by the reconstructed interior of an alchemist workshop.

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RECENTLY ADDED
Kwadrofonik at Crossculture Festival
The European Film Academy (EFA) has announced its choice of international EFA Ambassadors. Among the selected distinguished personalities from the world of European film there is Maciej Stuhr. The Polish actor will represent EFA and the European Film Awards at various prestigious events.
The Berlin Maxim Gorki Theatre will show Heinrich von Kleist's "Amphitryon", directed by Jan Bosse (November 19, 2009) and Fritz Kater's "Haeven", directed by Armin Petras (November 21, 2009) at Stary Teatr in Cracow. The shows are part of the collaboration between the two theatres, called "Wanderlust".
18th History Book Fairs will take place on November 26 - Novemer 29, 2009, in Warsaw. The inauguratory press conference "History Book Fairs - the new beginning" starts on November 23, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. in Kubicki Arcades at the Royal Castle.
40 short documentary films from 11 countries have been qualified for competition in the 13th International Film Festival "Off Cinema". The Festival starts on November 18, 2009, in Poznań.
The former headquarters of the Polish United Workers' Party's Central Comitee, a monumetal building located in downtown Warsaw, near the de Gaulle traffic circle, was on November 16, 2009, inscribed on the list of registered monuments of the Masovian Voivodeship.
On November 13, 2009, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Bohdan Zdrojewski, signed an agreement, according to which the Ministry shall co-fund the construction of the Centre of Applied Arts and Innovation Centre at the Academy of Fine Arts.
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