National Museum in Kraków

Kraków's National Museum began in 1879, when the painter Henryk Siemiradzki donated his vast canvas Nero's Torches to the city. That gift grew into the largest museum in Poland, and today it runs as a network of branches across Kraków, with signs reading Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie. The most famous holding is Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, shown in the Czartoryski Museum branch.

The Main Building on Aleja 3 Maja is a large interwar structure whose construction began in the 1930s and was delayed for decades by the war. It holds galleries of twentieth-century Polish art, including works by Stanisław Wyspiański, Jacek Malczewski and Witkacy, along with collections of decorative arts and an extensive display of Polish arms and military uniforms.

Other branches cover nineteenth-century Polish painting in the Cloth Hall on the Main Market Square, and the former homes of Jan Matejko and Wyspiański. The museum suits anyone interested in Polish art and history, with the European masterpieces at the Czartoryski as an added draw.