Museum Narodowe w Krakowie [Hrsg.]: Rozprawy Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie (N.S. 4.2011)

192 Janusz S. Nowak

The History of the Construction and Modernisation of the Princes
Czartoryski Library at 17 Św. Marka St. in Kraków (1956-2010)

Summary

A decision, madę in 1957/1958, to build the Princes Czartoryski Library, whose archival and
book collections are part of the Princes Czartoryski Museum, set up in 1801, was unprecedented
in the post-war history of Kraków and the National Museum. The Princes Czartoryski archives
and library, which came under the control of the State as a separate institution on 15 December
1949, became part of the National Museum a year later. Doomed to oblivion in the first years of
the communist era, up to October 1956, due to the enlightened political decisions of the then au-
thorities of Kraków, the collections were given a highly modern edifice. The originator of the idea
and advocate for the construction of the new building for the Library in 1956-1961 was Bolesław
Drobner, a councillor of the city of Kraków and Member of Parliament, a socialist from a family
of assimilated Polish Jews, brought up in the spirit of respect for Połish tradition. His efforts madę
in the city council and actions taken as a Senior MP convinced the Ministry of Culture and Art
officials of the need to build an edifice at 17 Św. Marka St. to house the national collection and
to find a subsidy of 2,000,000 PLN in the central budget for the implementation of the project.

Decisions on the construction of the Princes Czartoryski Library were madę in the last quar-
ter of 1957 and in January of the next year. Ali arrangements, consultations and preparation of
detailed plans took the designers and the Heritage Conservation Studio, the kwestor, the whole
first quarter of 1958. The building estimate, signed by the designer M. Jaroszewski, Engineer of
Architecture, was ready by 11 July 1958. The legał process of taking over and purchasing the plot
from a private owner took the first half of the year, and it was finally completed on 20 August
1958. Pushed by Drobner, the Municipality of Kraków speeded up the procedures for purchas-
ing the plot from a private owner ‘on account of the closeness of the Princes Czartoryski Branch,’
located in Pijarska St. The construction of the Library, which started after 20 August 1958, lasted
until June 1960.

Erected in hastę, the building was not free of mistakes and problems typical of the real social-
ism. This slightly delayed the moving of the collection from Pijarska St. (June - December 1961).
An important logistic role in the process of furnishing the Library and making the building and
the resources available to scholars and researchers was played by the Library custodians: Docent
Dr. Józef Mitkowski and Marek Wierzbicki, MA. On 6 November, the director of the National
Museum took a decision about the partial opening of the Library to the readers. The fuli open-
ing was organised after the official technical acceptance of the building on 3 and 5 January 1962.

The construction of the Princes Czartoryski Library at 17 Św. Marka St., the cost of which
amounted to 6,287,220 PLN, was the first, after 1945, attempt to combine modern architecture with
historie buildings situated in Krakowś Old Town. The architecture of the Princes Czartoryski Library
(the structure and the faęade) reminds forcefully of the Jagiellonian Library from Mickiewicza St.
The author of the design, Engineer Marian Jaroszewski, used the model of the university library and
built a ąuasi smali Jagiellonian Library at 17 Św. Marka St. The Library, erected in the historie part
of Kraków between 1958 and 1960 and renovated through the efforts of the director of the National
Museum and the management of the Library in 1996 and 2010, serves as an example of positive ac-
tion taken for the sake of presemng national cultural heritage for futurę generations.