The building of the Archaeological Museum in Kraków

Until the 1950s, the Archaeological Museum in Kraków did not have a separate building. In the initial period, the Museum of Antiquities was located at the Jagiellonian Library at 8 św. Anny street. In 1864, it was moved, along with other branches of the Kraków Scientific Society to its new building at 17 Sławkowska street (with entrance from 22 św. Jana street), from which it has operated for over 100 years. The collections of the museum were becoming bigger very fast; there was no space for keeping and preparing the artefacts. The exhibition rooms were not designed for exposition purposes. After extensive efforts of the management of the museum, in 1954 the authorities of Kraków donated a complex of prison buildings for its purposes at Poselska and Senacka streets (a monastic complex of the Discalced Carmelites built in the 17th century, in 1797 converted into a prison and a court). In 1958-66, a major renovation of the buildings was undertaken and they were adapted to the purposes of a museum – storage facilities, research and conservation units and exhibition rooms were created.