The Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Museum

About

The Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Museum (Polish: Muzeum im. Emeryka Hutten-Czapskiego), also known as the Czapski Museum (Polish: Muzeum Czapskich), is a branch of the National Museum of Kraków in Kraków, Poland. Count Emeryk Hutten-Czapski (1828–1896) was a Vice-Governor of Saint Petersburg and an important collector of books, prints, and numismatics.

He built his collection at his family estate in Stankow (today Stankava in Dzyarzhynsk district in Belarus). Fearing for the safety of the collection, being close to Russia, he moved the collection to Kraków. In 1894, he purchased a 19th-century palace, on what is today 12 Piłsudski Street, and built an addition to house his collection.

He personally catalogued the collection. He died in 1896, before the addition was finished. His wife, Baroness Elzbieta Meyendorff, completed the construction of the addition, and in 1904, as per her husband's request, donated the collection to the city of Kraków.

The museum displays the Czapski crest on the outside, along with the inscription on the pediment: "Monumentis Patriae Naufragio Ereptis" (Patriotic Monuments Saved from the Destruction of the Storm). The collection originally contained more than 11...