Museum and Archive of Blessed Maria Angela Truszkowska

What to expect

The Museum and Archive of Blessed Maria Angela Truszkowska is a small biographical and religious museum tucked into a 14th-century townhouse at the corner of Mikołajska and św. Krzyża streets, about 200 metres east of St Mary’s Basilica in the heart of Krakow’s Old Town. Krakow’s burghers lived here for over five hundred years until 1860, when Pelagia Russanowska handed the house to the Felician Sisters as a home for poor children. The museum opened in 1999, on the centenary of the death of Maria Angela Truszkowska, the sister who founded the Felician congregation in Krakow.

For an international visitor this is a niche, contemplative stop rather than a headline attraction: expect a quiet house museum devoted to one person’s life and faith, not a large collection. The permanent display runs through a family room that introduces Mother Angela’s childhood and relatives, and her former room from the years 1866 to 1870, where the oldest portrait of the founder hangs, painted in 1924 by a Jagiellonian University professor. Display cases hold her documents, writings and personal keepsakes, and paintings along the staircases depict scenes from her life. Signage is in Polish, so the visit rewards those with an existing interest in Catholic history or the Felician Sisters.

The institution is as much an archive as a museum. It keeps manuscripts, her correspondence with the Capuchin fathers and the files of her beatification process, alongside a library of books printed before 1900, including early prints and several editions of the Jakub Wujek Bible. Researchers can arrange to study the archival documents in the reading room by prior request.

Visiting in practice

The museum is open Tuesday 14:00-17:00 and Wednesday to Friday 10:00-14:00, with one additional Saturday a month from 15:00 to 17:00. It closes on both church and public holidays, so check the calendar before a holiday visit. The archive keeps the same weekday hours as the exhibition. Larger groups should announce their visit in advance. The display is compact, so half an hour is usually enough to see it comfortably.

Getting there

The house stands at Mikołajska 18, a few minutes on foot from the Rynek Główny (Main Square) and well inside the Old Town. Walk east from St Mary’s Basilica along Mikołajska street and you are there in a few minutes. The nearest tram stops sit on the edge of the Old Town, around the main post office and Starowiślna street. The restricted traffic zone rules out arriving by car.

Nearby

A short walk away, by Plac Mariacki, the Archdiocesan Museum shows Krakow’s sacred art. By the Dominican basilica you will find the Dominican Museum, and on Floriańska street the Pharmacy Museum holds one of Europe’s oldest apothecary collections.