The National Museum in Krakow’s newest department is Bishop Erazm Ciołek’s Palace. Opened to the public in October 2007, it houses the Early Polish Art of the 12th-18th Centuries exhibition, presenting works from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. The most important of the medieval works is a carved figure, The Madonna of Krużlowa, dating from circa 1410. The ground floor is devoted to an exhibition entitled The Orthodox Art of the First Republic of Poland.
In the past, the building itself was one of the most illustrious of its kind in the country. Built between 1503 and 1505 using an endowment made by Erazm Ciołek (ca. 1474-1522), Bishop of Płock, Canon of Krakow and Secretary to King Alexander Jagiellon, it features elements of the architect’s art characteristic of both the Late Gothic and Renaissance periods.
The Palace cellars hold a treasure house of plaster casts and stone carvings. Amongst the more than eight hundred exhibits are both original architectural fragments which found their way to the museum during renovation work on the churches and palaces of Krakow and, in greater numbers, plaster casts, faithful copies of carved details or models for stonework and masonry replicated and set anew in place of the damaged originals.