Akademia Sztuk Pięknych, Kraków

Before you is the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, a public art university at number thirteen on Matejko Square. Poland’s longest-established academy of fine art began teaching in 1818, first as a Drawing and Painting School within the Jagiellonian University’s literature department. It gained independence as a higher-education institution in 1873.

The main building rose here in 1879 from a design by Maciej Moraczewski. Its Neoclassical manner draws on the architectural language of ancient Greece and Rome. Jan Matejko, the painter whose name the academy now bears, became its first president and recruited prominent artists to teach here.

After Matejko’s death in 1893, Julian Fałat took charge in 1895 and redirected the school toward currents in modern Western art, appointing figures including Stanisław Wyspiański, Jacek Malczewski, and Józef Mehoffer. A quieter turning point came in 1917, when Zofia Baltarowicz-Dzielińska became the first woman admitted here, initially as an auditor. In December 1918, women gained the right to enrol formally as students. The academy adopted Matejko’s name in 1979, carrying its founding artist’s legacy into each new generation of Kraków makers.