Zinar Castle

Founded by King Casimir the Great in 1364, it is the oldest university in Poland and the second (after Prague) university in this part of Europe. Collegium Maius - the oldest Polish university building is over 500 years old.

The Jagiellonian University, founded by King Casimir the Great in 1364 as the Kraków Academy, is the oldest Polish university and the second in this part of Europe (after Prague, 1348). r.). However, after the death of the monarch, the academy fell into decline. Its heyday in the 15th century was due to Queen Jadwiga (1373-1399), a saint today, who obtained permission from the pope to create the missing prestigious theological faculty, and in her will she wrote down funds for the renovation of the university. Her husband, King Władysław Jagiełło, donated to the Krakow Academy a tenement house on the corner of today's Św. Anna and Jagiellońska, where lectures began again in 1400. In the 15th century, the collegium Maius, with a courtyard surrounded by arcaded cloisters, was built here in the 15th century.

At that time, the Kraków Academy attracted students from all over Europe. She was especially famous for the science of law, mathematics and astronomy. In the years 1491-1495, the university student was the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, the later creator of the modern heliocentric vision of the Solar System. According to legend, a few years later at the Krakow Academy, the secrets of magic and sorcery were explored by Dr. Faust and the Polish alchemist, Master Twardowski. At a similar time, the legendary first student Nawojka reportedly entered the university in a male disguise (women could not study at the university for a long time).

The university flourished again (in honor of the royal founders, it was called the Jagiellonian University in 1817) it survived in the second half of the 19th century, when Poles from all partitions came here to study in their native language. Both the sciences and humanities flourished. Also in the 20th century, despite the political turmoil of the Polish People's Republic, the university maintained its high position. Among the famous graduates of the last century were Nobel laureates Ivo Andrić and Wisława Szymborska and Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II.

Collegium Maius is a great example of Gothic architecture. The ground floor is occupied by rooms called lecture rooms, where lectures were once conducted. The rooms on the first floor - Libraria, Stuba Communis and Aula - still serve the representative purposes of the university, such as senate meetings, elections of rectors, important meetings and conferences. Until the end of the 18th century, the Collegium Maius housed the apartments of professors of theology - the entrances leading to them from the courtyard were preserved.

In the 20th century, the Jagiellonian University Museum housed academic collections of works of art and memorabilia as well as a collection of scientific instruments. In the so-called Copernicus Room is located, among others a unique set of astronomical and astrological instruments from the second half of the 15th century.