Krzysztofory Palace, in Krakow, is now a museum. It is a small palace located in the main square of the city, hence the restaurant tables in front of it. I actually missed this entrance and used a side door to enter the museum. I was walking through Krakow and decided to visit the museum on an impulse. The building is from the mid-1600s and it has lovely features. Thus, the museum is interesting both because of the building which houses it and the items that are on display.
I would suggest allocating 2 hours for a visit, to properly enjoy it.
Jadwiga of Angevin (1373/4 – 1399) was a Hungarian princess who was crowned as King of Poland. From 1997 she was considered a saint by the Catholic church.
These are 17th century Polish bullets, made from cast iron.
A street in the early 1960s Krakow, where snow was melting. It’s unnecessary to say that the streets in Krakow look much better now than they did during the communist period.
This wall was a part of cellars from mid-14th century. They were used as warehouses for merchants’ goods.
I love this unusual ceiling.
This display room is made up of individual “rooms” or enclosures where an artist is presented.
Krakow has a lovely relations with dogs and pigeons. These dog tags, as the year on them shows, are very old. The “useless” dogs, the ones who didn’t have a job, were tagged and a tax was paid for them, starting in 1858. These were, of course, treasured family pets. The dog tags were needed to show that the tax for the dog was paid and also showed that the dog had an owner, thus the dog-catchers would not try to take them away.
From 1973, the March of the Dachshunds was held for the first time. After 21 years another march took place and now it is an yearly event, with a short period being stopped, during COVID. I saw a clip from the 2024 March of the Dachshunds, held last month and it was such a wonderful parade. I loved it.
Dzok is a dog celebrated in Krakow. In 1990-1991 the dog Dzok spent 8 months at a roundabout waiting for his owner who was taken from there in an ambulance. The owner died in hospital, but the dog waited for him to return. People brought food and a kennel for the dog, but he wouldn’t let anyone catch him. After 8 months he went home with Maria Muller and spent 6 years with her. Sadly, she died and he was placed in a dog hotel from where he fled. Dzok died in a train accident. But his story doesn’t end there. In 2001 a monument of Dzok was erected on Vistula boulevard, at the time being the first monument of a dog in Poland and the third one in the world.
There are pictures of the monument, so do search for them.
This is a painting of Krakow from 1836, by Marcin Zaleski.
Krakow nativity scenes are colourful and unique. In this museum there is a life-size one. It was fascinating to see it, and so very unusual.
I liked the museum very much. It is definitely worth visiting.
What a beautiful building and such an interesting place to spend a couple of hours.
That is so interesting to read about the dog tags and Dzok waiting for his owner, how sad but heart warming that people looked after him. x
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That’s a lovely find, Anca. The ceilings are stunning, not at all what you might expect to see in such a building. And that’s such a sweet and sad story about Dzok too.
There are some very beautiful things to see here, but I’m actually quite taken with the barrel ceiling made of bricks. Of course I love hearing about the dogs and the display of tags. A bit like the rabies tags our dogs should wear.
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Interesting that there are rabies tags in US, I had no idea. Dog tags are mandatory in UK, with the contact details of the owner, in case the pet gets lost and they are found by someone. But there is no rabies in UK, unlike in RO. This is why it was hard to bring Festus with us when we moved to UK, he needed blood test to show he had protection against rabies before we could travel with him, otherwise he would have stayed in quarantine for up to 6 months.
The museum is filled with interesting stuff. The nativity scene was unusual. There is a contest each year, with people making lots of them, and they are on display in this museum. I saw a 30 minutes clip on it on youtube, I think you might enjoy that.
That’s interesting about there being no rabies in the UK. I don’t hear about it in dogs often, but occasionally other wildlife. I know there are cities in the US that have registration laws or even laws on the number of animals one can have, but a rabies vaccination is the only thing I know is required everywhere. I seldom use the tags since they only end up coming off, but I keep the paperwork and it’s noted in a vet app on my phone. Fortunately our dogs only have a vaccine every three years.
I’ll have to look up the nativity stuff. It sounds neat.
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