Krakow within your reach at MNK The Ciołek

The exhibition “Krakow within your reach” presents 800 fragments of the most valuable architectural sculptures from all over Poland, coming from St. Mary’s Basilica, the Wawel Royal Cathedral or the Royal Gniezno Cathedral.

The collected elements are original stonework relics and plaster casts of sculptures from stone portals, keystones or royal tombstones. On a daily basis, these sculptures – testimonies of nearly a thousand years of architectural history in Poland – are difficult to see up close due to their inaccessible location.

The collection of stone details of the National Museum in Krakow has been created since its inception. Many of the exhibits are original fragments of Kracow’s secular and sacral buildings, which were exchanged for copies during renovations due to destruction. The museum also collected plaster casts of elements of architectural sculpture that could not be obtained for the museum collection, and which were considered important in the story of the history of Polish art. From the 1920s to the 1960s, they were presented at an exhibition in the interiors of the Town Hall Tower at the Main Market Square.