Pałac Sztuki, Kraków

Pałac Sztuki is Kraków’s Society of Friends of Fine Arts exhibition building on Szczepański Square. Designed by Franciszek Mączyński and completed in nineteen oh one, its Secession-inspired façade features Apollo, a frieze by Jacek Malczewski, and artists’ busts. It continues to stage exhibitions and art auctions.

At number four on Szczepański Square, Pałac Sztuki is the exhibition building of Kraków’s Society of Friends of Fine Arts. Built from eighteen ninety-eight to nineteen oh one, it was designed by Franciszek Mączyński, who drew inspiration from Vienna’s Secession Pavilion. Secession is an early modern decorative style, and this façade makes art itself its subject.

Above the columned entrance porch, Apollo stands in a radiant solar halo. The decoration was created by leading Kraków artists. Jacek Malczewski designed the striking frieze, which traces the artist’s changing fate.

Antoni Madeyski, Konstanty Laszczka, and Teodor Rygier made busts of figures distinguished in Polish art. The building also pairs a bust of Jan Matejko, by Madeyski, on the Szczepański Square side with a bust of Stanisław Wyspiański, by Anna Reynoch, on the Planty side. It remains an art gallery, presenting contemporary Polish work alongside exhibitions by artists from abroad, and it also hosts art auctions. Pałac Sztuki is listed as a provincial immovable monument.