The aim was to collect and carry out scholarly research into the historical iconography of our city, that is, its views dating from before 1918. Professor Wanda Mossakowska led the work on organising the Centre, establishing its operating procedures and the methodology for documenting the collections. The heads of the Studio were: Jerzy Banach from 1964 to 1991, Anna Zeńczak from 1992 to 1997, Iwona Kęder from 1998 to 2019, and Waldemar Komorowski from 2019 to 2025.
To date, the Studio has catalogued – in the form of visual documentation and a collection of information – over 13,300 views of Kraków, including both general views and those of its districts, squares, streets, individual buildings and their interiors.
All views are catalogued, regardless of the technique used to create them – that is, paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, etc. – and the primary criterion for their evaluation is the cognitive value of the view, i.e. the quantity and reliability of information about the city’s built environment that can be gleaned from it. Based on this material, an iconographic catalogue is being compiled – the first of its kind in Poland – an iconographic catalogue which, starting from the view and supplementing the iconographic record with information obtained through bibliographic and archival research, illustrates the transformations the city has undergone – details of which are often known only from iconographic sources. In this sense, iconography perfectly complements historical knowledge.
Between 1998 and 2025, eleven volumes of the catalogue of views of Śródmieście – the part of the city once enclosed by defensive walls and now surrounded by the Planty Park – were published; volumes one to three were edited by Jerzy Banach, whilst volume five and subsequent volumes were edited by Iwona Kęder (volumes 1–4 were produced in collaboration with TAiWPN Universitas, whilst the subsequent volumes were published by the National Museum). Volumes 6 to 11 were published as part of projects under the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities (volumes 6 and 7 – 0013/NPRH3/H11/82/2014; volumes 8, 9, 10 and 11 – 0120/NPRH8/H11/87/2019) .
The Research Group also produces other publications, both academic and popular, devoted to the iconography, history and art of Kraków. In addition to a whole series of articles published in specialist journals, there are also several books, namely: J. Banach’s Old Views of Kraków (1967 and 1982) and Picturesque Kraków. On albums of 19th-century views of Kraków (1980), W. Mossakowska and A. Zeńczak, Kraków in Old Photographs (1984), I. Podgórnik-Kęder, Romanesque Architecture in Kraków (1985),
W. Komorowski and A. Sudacka, The Main Market Square in Kraków (2008), I. Kęder, Kraków. Images (2009), or W. Komorowski, Medieval Houses of Kraków (2014).
The Studio’s collections are made available for academic research, conservation and public outreach purposes.
+48 124335443
Michał Klinke
Telephone
+48 124335418
Magdalena Świszczowska-Piegdoń
Telephone
+48 124335419
