Sukiennice (Cloth Hall)

The newly renovated "headquarters" of the National Museum in Krakow.

An elegant entrance hall, lift blending discreetly into the antique stairway, a media library, a friendly lecture hall for children, terraces with splendid views over the Main Market Square, a cafe, but above all over 200 artworks presented in a contemporary and attractive manner.

The Gallery of the 19th-century Polish Art returned to the Main Market Square on 3 September 2010 after a four-year absence due to renovation. The Museum has been able to obtain new rooms in previously unused spaces under the pitched roofs, which now host meetings, lectures and children’s activities. It also introduced “artomats” with touch-sensitive screens allowing the visitors to learn about Sukiennice’s history, collections and artists, as well as letting them play games and quizzes.

But of course the most important part of the gallery is... the Gallery. After the renovation the walls have been returned to their original colours, and there are velour sofas and palm trees. And yet it’s now a 21st-century museum equipped with air conditioning and lamps emitting artificial light that’s harmless to artworks.

The 1000 m.sq. holds 195 paintings and 19 sculptures. Jan Matejko’s Hołd Pruski (Prussian Tribute) remains in Wawel, but it has been replaced with Rejtan instead, on loan from the National Museum in Warsaw. The central space in the largest room (previously occupied by Hołd Pruski) is now given to the painting which initiated the history of Poland’s first national art gallery – Henryk Siemiradzki’s Pochodnie Nerona (Nero’s Torches). The artist donated it to the city in 1879 following J.I. Kraszewski’s jubilee at the newly-restored Sukiennice, with the intention of placing it in the future national gallery collection.

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