Geological Museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Kraków

The Geological Museum of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences is at Senacka 1-3 in Kraków and is part of the Kraków research centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It is a scientific museum whose collections have been gathered since 1865.

Collections

According to the Wikipedia entry the museum has 132 documentary collections, some of which number many thousands of specimens, as well as 72 comparative collections and 2 educational ones. It stands out for the largest meteorite collection in Poland, numbering 333 specimens, and for a great cluster of halite crystals from Wieliczka, dating from 1901.

The building and its history

The buildings on Senacka Street were from the 17th century a monastery and church of the Discalced Carmelites. In 1797 the monastery was moved and the buildings became a prison, and from 1872 they housed a criminal court. After the war they were occupied by the Public Security Office, later by an archaeological museum, and finally the building was handed to the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The present building was erected in the 1960s. The museum derives from the Geological-Stratigraphic Laboratory, which received part of the collections after the Polish Academy of Sciences was established in 1954.

Nearby

The museum lies in the Old Town, a few hundred metres from the Church of St Peter and St Paul and the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi. It is about 400 metres from here to Wawel Hill.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Senacka 1-3, 31-002 Kraków.
• Check opening hours and visiting rules before your visit on the museum's page on the website of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (ing.pan.pl), because the sources we used do not give them.
• As a scientific institution the museum is sometimes accessible only to a limited extent, so it is worth confirming the date of your visit.