Collegium Maius: Where Copernicus Studied in Kraków

Po polsku: Zabytki Krakowa: 10 najważniejszych miejsc

Two minutes from the Main Square there’s a red-brick courtyard that looks like a scene from Harry Potter. It’s Collegium Maius, the oldest building of the Jagiellonian University, and one of its students was a young man called Nicolaus Copernicus. You can walk into the courtyard for free, and most people walking down the street outside have no idea it’s there.

Poland’s oldest university

The Kraków Academy was founded in 1364 by King Casimir the Great, which makes it the second-oldest university in Central Europe, after Prague. Collegium Maius grew in the 15th century around this Gothic courtyard: professors lived and taught here, ate together and kept the library and treasures upstairs.

Copernicus studied in Kraków in the 1490s, learning mathematics and astronomy. Decades later he would put the Sun, not the Earth, in the centre of the universe.

What to look for

• The arcaded courtyard with the stone well in the middle. Free to enter, open during the day.
• The clock with moving figures on the courtyard wall. A few times a day the figures of famous university people parade to a melody. Check the times at the entrance and wait for it, it’s charming.
• The museum upstairs, with old lecture halls, the professors’ dining room and astronomical instruments. One of its treasures is the Jagiellonian Globe from the early 16th century, one of the oldest globes that shows America.

Combine it with

From here it’s a short walk to the Main Square, to St Mary’s Basilica for the hejnał bugle call, and down Grodzka Street to Wawel and the Wawel Dragon.

More Kraków guides: Kraków & Małopolska in English.

Łukasz, Niezwykła Małopolska