About This Location
This corner of Pijarska Street packs two very different Kraków stories into a few steps - a theatrical Baroque church and one of Poland’s most famous art collections. The Church of the Transfiguration was built for the Piarists in the 18th century. The main body went up in 1718-1728, designed by Kacper Bażanka, and the striking façade came later, in 1759-1761, by Francesco Placidi. It was designed to “close” the view down Św. Jana Street, so the church works like a visual stop sign at the end of the long Old Town street. Inside, look up for illusionistic vault paintings from the 18th century, made to trick the eye into seeing extra depth and architecture. Just nearby, the Czartoryski Museum is the headline act for many visitors. The collection began in 1801, created by Princess Izabela Czartoryska as a display of national treasures, and the Kraków museum was founded in 1876. Its star works are Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Good Samaritan. After a long modernization, the museum reopened to visitors on December 20, 2019, bringing these masterpieces back to Pijarska Street. One more detail adds a note of mystery: the collection also became famous for Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man, which disappeared during World War II and is still considered lost.