Czartoryski Museum: Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine in Kraków

The Princes Czartoryski Museum holds Kraków’s single most famous work of art — Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine — alongside one of Poland’s oldest and richest private collections. A short walk from the Main Market Square, it is an essential stop for anyone interested in art. For the wider picture, see our Kraków travel guide and Kraków museums guide.

The Lady with an Ermine

The museum’s treasure is Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine (around 1489–1491), a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani and one of only a handful of paintings by Leonardo anywhere in the world — the only one in Poland. Seeing it in person, with its extraordinary softness and life, is reason enough to visit. The collection also includes Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Good Samaritan, another rare northern masterpiece.

The wider collection

Founded by Princess Izabela Czartoryska at the end of the 18th century, the collection ranges far beyond its two famous paintings: European art, arms and armour, decorative arts, and antiquities from Egypt, Greece and Rome. It is a branch of the National Museum in Kraków, housed in a handsomely restored building on św. Jana Street.

Practical tips

• Book ahead. Admission to the room with the Leonardo is often by timed ticket and can sell out; reserve through the National Museum before you go.
• Free day. Like other National Museum branches, it usually has one free-entry day a week — check the current day, as free tickets still need booking.
• Find it on św. Jana Street, a few minutes’ walk north of the Main Market Square.
• Combine it with the Main Market Square and the Cloth Hall’s gallery of Polish painting.

Frequently asked questions