The Princes Czartoryski Museum – the oldest Polish art and history museum of enormous value and great tradition – was created in Pulawy as a treasure house for regal jewels, war and crown trophies, as well as objets d’art: paintings, decorative works, arms and armour, and celebrity memorabilia. To accommodate this collection, Princess Izabela Czartoryska nee Fleming (1746–1835) ordered to construct two buildings in the park of her Pulawy estate: the Temple of Sybil (1801) with THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE carved on the façade, where she kept objects relating to Polish history, and the Gothic House (1809) for artworks and objects that had belonged to eminent foreigners.
Facing confiscation in the aftermath of the fall of the November Uprising (1831), the collection was taken away to Paris. In 1876 Prince Władysław Czartoryski (1828–1892) brought the collection to Krakow. The building of the former City Arsenal was offered by the city authorities for the needs of the museum, to which Prince Władysław additionally bought a part of the neighbouring Piarist monastery and some adjoining houses. The buildings were remodelled based on a design by the French architect Maurice Ouradou into a museum complex consisting of the Arsenal, the Monastery and the Palace connected with two covered link bridges.
In 1961, a new seat was built for the Princes Czartoryski Library at 17 św. Marka St. through the efforts of the National Museum in Krakow. When the book collection was moved to the new premises, the former Arsenal was vacated. After renovation, a modern gallery of ancient art was installed in the showrooms on the first floor and large exhibition space became available for temporary displays on the ground floor.
Apart from objects owned by the Princes Czartoryski Foundation, possessions of the National Museum in Krakow are also showcased, including Western European paintings and antiquities.
Some objects are exhibited as deposits outside the permanent seat of the Foundation. At present, objects of great value from the Crown Treasury, the royal tombs, and the Chapter Treasury can be seen at the Wawel Royal Castle. They were acquired for the Puławy collection by Princess Izabela and Tadeusz Czacki and include royal guard buzdygan maces, the coronation shoes of king Sigismund August (1529), a Teutonic estoc (before 1410), and the blade of the sword king Stefan Batory received from Pope Gregory XIII. The Archaeological Museum, again, retained two bronze swords dating back to the 11th-7th century BC (Lusatian culture) found in Nieczajno and Jazłowiec, originally in Władysław Czartoryski’s collection of Slavic antiquities.
There are four permanent exhibitions at the Princes Czartoryski Museum:
Objects accessible for study purposes are under the curatorial supervision of the following:
A selection of the greatest masterpieces from the holdings of these departments are on view at permanent exhibitions, except for the Graphic Art Room.
The Arsenal and the Lapidary Room on the ground floor of the Palace host temporary shows, lectures, concerts and book promotion activities.
Lectures focusing on the Czartoryskis’ political involvement and collecting passions are very popular with audiences. The Polish accession to the European Union was celebrated with a cycle of presentations under a common title ‘On The Tracks Of Europe’, aimed at promoting the European art in the collection of the Princes Czartoryski Foundation and the National Museum in Krakow.
In 1998 the book entitled Muzeum Czartoryskich. A History Of The Collections came out, followed in 2001 by an English translation. Also, a guidebook under the titled of The Princes Czartoryski Museum has been published in Polish, English, French and Japanese.
The 200th anniversary of the Princes Czartoryski Museum was celebrated in 2001 by staging three special exhibitions with accompanying publications: Czasy! Ludzie! Ich Dzieła! Teatr obrazów Księżnej Izabeli Czartoryskiej, [Times! People! Their Works! Princess Izabela Czartoryska’s Theatre of Images] Puławska kolekcja rękopisów iluminowanych Księżnej Izabeli Czartoryskiej
