Zinar Castle

The most valuable in Poland and one of the most valuable collections in Europe. The Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci or Landscape with the Merciful Samaritan by Rembrandt van Rijn, as well as many other masterpieces not only in the field of painting, but also sculpture, crafts, military and applied arts, can be seen in 26 exhibition rooms, on two floors of the renovated Museum Palace Princes Czartoryski.

In 1801 princess Izabela Czartoryska née Flemming created a collection of national mementoes. The collections she collected were presented in Puławy, in two park pavilions: the Temple of the Sybil, and from 1809 also in the Gothic House. It was in the Gothic House that Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt van Rijn's Landscape with the Good Samaritan were exhibited. The pearls in the Czartoryski collection at that time also included the Portrait of a Young Man by Rafael Santi (lost during World War II).

The museum, however, did not survive the November Uprising, in 1831 - after the emigration of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski - the collection was transported to Paris . They returned to Poland only in 1876, in connection with the planned opening of the museum in Krakow. World War II brought significant losses to the collection. After the war, the museum was taken over by the National Museum in Krakow, and in 1991 under the management of the Princes Czartoryski Foundation. In December 2016, thanks to the purchase of the Polish government, the collection of the Princes Czartoryski became an integral part of the National Museum in Krakow. From the end of 2019, the Princes Czartoryski Museum is open to visitors again.