Il Palace of Bishop Erasmus Ciolek

As you may have understood, I have a thing for museums. When I go to new places, I always look for places that are perhaps less famous for tourism, where you don't find the mass of tourists who go there just for a painting, but something unique and that is perhaps used more by domestic tourism. With the ticket for the other Czartorisky museum, I discovered that within three months you could enter other branches of the National Museum of Krakow, so I did a little research and found this Palace, which would be the truly interesting destination of my exploration.

It is practically a residence of this bishop which was built in the early 1500s a stone's throw from the Vabel castle and contains Polish Orthodox sacred art from the twelfth to the eighteenth century. Let's say that I immediately noticed that it has several very particular things that we have never seen in Italy, especially many icons linked to the Orthodox religion, but above all also for those who love medieval art. In my opinion, it is a very interesting destination to visit.

Yes, I understood immediately as soon as I entered, that this museum is visited only by Polish tourists, it's a real shame because there are really some very special things, among other things it is located inside a beautiful palace and practically the bishop Erazm Ciołek, in addition to being a prelate was also a great humanist and patron and practically had the taste for these works of art but above all the discovery that I made and he had the Italian Renaissance taste, that is, he was very interested in Italian art which naturally in those years was really exploding in Italy with the Renaissance as in the case of Florence.

Of course, we Italians are already accustomed to the beauty of sacred art, let's say, but I found some really interesting things, so many things carved in wood, truly masterpieces to observe for hours. Unfortunately, part of this bishop's collection was also lost because unfortunately this beautiful palace was also transformed into a prison by the Austrians and therefore over time it fell into disrepair. Fortunately, at the beginning of 1990 several restorations were carried out and therefore it was re-established as a museum, even if in reality it was very clear that the exhibition was a bit old and there wasn't much technology to make you understand what the various finds meant and where they came from. Especially because there were complete altars that had probably been removed from some church to be brought there.

certainly, the most interesting part of the museum is the one that reading the reviews created strong expectations, let's say the labidarium, in fact in the cellars there was actually a collection of architectural sculptures set up, there were many pieces that came from various churches and also from various buildings, it seemed a bit like entering inside a library made of stone, that is, it really seemed like an archive, it was a bit more thrown in there and probably in my opinion it is used perhaps by architecture enthusiasts who come there to learn and there were even archives to tell where the pieces were located, I found this thing really particular and I had never seen it in any museum, so if you are interested in slightly nerdy things I really recommend this museum not to be missed in Krakow.

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