Collegium Novum

The most magnificent building of the Jagiellonian University, the Collegium Novum (The New College) was built in 1883-1887 to the design of Feliks Księżarski. It replaced two demolished university boarding houses: the Philosophers' (Filozofów) and Jerusalem (Jerozolimska) Halls. According to tradition, the latter, the most famous of Kraków's dormitories, was a foundation of Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki, who thus made penance for a vow to embark on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem (hence the name) that he never fulfilled. Both the dormitories burned to the ground in 1841.

Collegium Novum is an imposing example of neo-Gothic with a fantastically composed, monumental façade of raw brick. Visible over the ogival-arch arcades of the gates are five huge windows of the Assembly Hall spanning two floors. Attention is turned to the keystones of the windows, displayed over which are the multicoloured coats of the arms of the university's benefactors. Above, in the highest finial, the coat-of-arms of the University - St Stanislaus holding an escutcheon with the Polish Eagle - towers over the entire façade.

The interiors were made equally imposing, with their character making reference to the architecture of Collegium Maius, which included ogival-arch portals, a staircase, and crystalline and star-shaped vaulting over the corridors. The Assembly Hall, with its coffer beam ceiling, is embellished with portraits of the University's professors and rectors. It is also the place where Jan Matejko's Astronomer Copernicus or Colloquy with God is displayed.

Situated on the second floor is Hall No. 56, where the Nazis arrested 183 members of the academic staff of the Jagiellonian University and other Kraków universities on 6th November 1939 during the so-called Sonderaktion Krakau. They were deported to the camp at Sachsenhausen, from where many never returned. They are commemorated by a plaque in the room.

Today, Collegium Novum is the main building of the university and houses its administrative functions, the offices of the rector, the deans, the study rooms of the professors, the office of the Bursar, and a handful of lecture halls.