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JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Entrance to the Professors’ GardenPhoto Jerzy Sawicz

The vault of the Libraria© Jagiellonian University

Kraków’s Market SquarePhoto Paweł KrzanThe University’s earliest Treasury, with its most valued memorabilia, is located in Collegium Maius

Photo Paweł Kozioł

The University motto, Plus Ratio Quam Vis

(Reason Over and Above Force), is engraved over its historic portal

in the Collegium Maius AulaPhoto Anna Wojnar

Jagiellonian University monthly magazineJubilee edition No. 166, May 2014

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Cover photographs: Front – View of the court of Collegium Iuridicum

in the Jagiellonian Universitywith Igor Mitoraj’s sculpture Luci di Nara

Photo by Anna WojnarBack – View of Wawel Hill and the Old City of Kraków

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Sent to print on 5 May 2014ISSN 1427-1176Print run: 4000 copies

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PEKAO SA 87124047221111000048544672marked ALMA MATER – darowizna

ALMA MATERTABLE OF CONTENTSI BELIEVE IN THE RESEARCH POTENTIAL OF OUR UNIVERSITY’S STAFF – Interview with Professor Wojciech Nowak by Rita Pagacz-Moczarska .......................................... 5THE GRAND JUBILEES OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY ................................................... 10Piotr Laidler – A HUGE INVESTMENT FOR A GRAND JUBILEE: AN INDISPENSABLE STEP IN THE GROWTH OF UNIVERSITY MEDICINE AT KRAKÓW ................................................. 14Marek Stankiewicz and Emilia Król – WAITING FOR SOLARIS, THE POLISH SYNCHROTRON LIGHT SOURCE ......................................................................... 16Kazimierz Strzałka – THE MAŁOPOLSKA CENTRE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY: A NEW RESEARCH UNIT AT THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY ........................................... 17Tomasz Pyrcz – THE CENTRE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ............................................. 18THE JAGIELLONIAN CENTRE OF INNOVATION (JCI) .................................................................... 20Marek Jeżabek, Stanisław Kistryn, Adam Maj, Paweł Olko, and Elżbieta Stephan – THE BRONOWICE CYCLOTRON CENTRE ............................................................................... 20Maciej Kowalczyk – THE KRAKÓW CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL ......................................................... 22IN THE WORLD OF POLYMERS – Interview with Professor Szczepan Zapotoczny by Anna Wojnar ... 24STAFF OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF PHARMACY ARE DEVELOPING A NEW PAIN KILLER – Interview with Dr. Anna Waszkielewicz by Anna Wojnar .................................. 26DISCOVERING MAYA SECRETS ........................................................................................................ 27Wiesław Koszkul and Jarosław Źrałka – IN SEARCH OF SIGNS OF THE FIRST MAYA PEOPLE ... 28Antoni Jackowski – THE ORIGINS OF GEOGRAPHY AT THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY ..... 30Jerzy Bystrowski and Marcin Gabryś – IT ALL STARTED WITH COPERNICUS... ........................... 33SOME OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY’S VISITORS .......................................................... 34Krzysztof Ożóg – ARCHIVAL TREASURES OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY ..................... 36LUCI DI NARA ........................................................................................................................................ 38Zdzisław Pietrzyk – THE SZEMBEK ILLUMINATED CHARTER ...................................................... 39JUBILEE EXHIBITIONS ....................................................................................................................... 40SAINT JOHN PAUL II ............................................................................................................................ 42Krzysztof Stopka – JOHN PAUL II AND HIS CONNECTION WITH THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY ................................................................................... 43Franciszek Ziejka – JOHN PAUL II AND POLISH ACADEMIA .......................................................... 48Stanisław Dziedzic – GOD’S ROMANTIC .............................................................................................. 49Jerzy Duda – STAMP COLLECTORS’ CURIOSITIES ......................................................................... 50THE 650th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CONSECRATION OF WAWEL CATHEDRAL ...................... 51Franciszek Ziejka – THE 650th ANNIVERSARY OF THE KRAKÓW CONGRESS OF MONARCHS OF EUROPE ......................................................................................................... 52Jacek Purchla – KRAKÓW WITH RESPECT TO EUROPE ................................................................. 54Rita Pagacz-Moczarska – KRAKÓW, UNESCO CITY OF LITERATURE .......................................... 59Franciszek Ziejka – NATIONAL PANTHEONS IN EUROPE ............................................................... 60FAMOUS BURIAL GROUNDS WHERE DISTINGUISHED POLISH WRITERS, ARTISTS,AND SCHOLARS HAVE BEEN LAID TO REST ................................................................................. 64Rita Pagacz-Moczarska – AN EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA ............. 65Anna Jasińska – THE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM .... 66THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY ’S MUSEUMS .......................................................................... 68THE JU ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY ....................................................................................... 72Jerzy Walocha – THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE IN ENGLISH ........................................................... 74ON AN ERASMUS SCHOLARSHIP – Interview with Lenka Kohutova, Klaudia Andraškova, Jana Čederlova, Gena Kotlarova, and Roman Kozhuszko, by Małgorzata Sypniewska ................... 76Joanna Wardęga – THE KRAKÓW CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE ........................................................... 78ASTEROID 376574 NAMED AFTER JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENT MICHAŁ KUSIAK .. 79UNIVERSITY MEANS MORE THAN STUDY .................................................................................... 80DOCTORAL STUDENTS ....................................................................................................................... 81THREE ACADEMIC CHOIRS ............................................................................................................... 82THE SŁOWIANKI ENSEMBLE ............................................................................................................ 83Dariusz Mazur, Paweł Stypka, and Konrad Wełpa – SPORT AT THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY .... 84Dorota Palik – SPORT IN THE MEDICAL COLLEGE ........................................................................ 85Ireneusz Białek – EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT AT THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY .................. 86Ewa Owsiany – THE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY GRADUATES’ ASSOCIATION ......................................................................................................... 88Ewa Piłat – UNIVERSITY FOR AMBITIOUS SENIOR STUDENTS ................................................. 90Rafał Kiszka – LITTLE TUSCANY ........................................................................................................ 92Jan Wiktor Tkaczyński – LET NOT ONLY STONES SPEAK... ............................................................. 94

FROM ThE EdiTOR 2014 will be remembered in

Kraków’s and Poland’s academic community as a very special year. It’s the Jubilee year of the Jagiellonian Uni-versity: 650 years have passed since the foundation of Poland’s oldest University; and Karol Wojtyła, Pope John Paul II – one of its most distinguished alumni – is being raised to the glory of the altars...

The paramount role that the Polish Pope’s Alma Mater played in his life, and the intimacy of the links that bound him to his University, are shown in many of his statements and in his meetings with the staff and students of the Jagiellonian Uni-versity. Not surprisingly, its authorities wan-ted to express their gratitude for those links by attending his canonisation ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, celebrated on 27th April this year. The Jagiellonian Uni-versity was represented by its Rector, Pro-fessor Wojciech Nowak, and Vice-Rectors, Professors Stanisław Kistryn, Piotr Laidler, and Andrzej Mania, and two former Rec-tors, Professor Franciszek Ziejka and Pro-fessor Karol Musioł.

In this jubilee edition of Alma Mater we show the Jagiellonian University’s legacy and its most prized treasures, and recall the celebrations for the Jubilees of 1900, 1964, and 2000, emphasising the special status of its location in Kraków, the city re-garded as Poland’s cultural capital. But we also present the Jagiellonian University as it is today, with nearly 50 thousand stu-dents in 15 faculties, and look ahead to the growth and development which its future promises.

We hope you will find the articles and photos in this special issue both a tribute to the highlights in the Jagiellonian Univer-sity’s historic past on the occasion of the Jubilee celebrating its 650th year, as well as a picture of today’s University building up its future inspired by a glorious past...

Rita Pagacz-Moczarska Chief Editor

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□ “This year the Jagiellonian University is celebrating its 650th year. In recognition of the tremendous achievement of Poland’s oldest University, the Senate of the Republic of Poland has declared 2014 the Jubilee year of the Jagiellonian University, the intention being to make the celebration of Kraków’s Alma Mater also a celebration for the whole of Polish scholarship. how is the University going to meet this challenge?”

■ “We want our Jubilee to communicate a specific message. On the one hand we want to say that the 650th year of the Jagiellonian University, Poland’s oldest university, also marks the 650th anni-versary of the country’s higher education system; and also that in the course of those 650 years the Jagiellonian University has edu-cated many outstanding individuals, including Nicolaus Coperni-cus, Jan Kochanowski, Piotr Skarga, Jan Sobieski, Hugo Kołłątaj, Karol Olszewski, Zygmunt Wróblewski, Stanisław Wyspiański, Karol Wojtyła, and Wisława Szymborska. On the other hand we also wish to emphasise that with a legacy of so many centuries of cherishing and cultivating knowledge and truth, concern for what is most important in higher education is an inherent part of our University’s mission. People often say that the mission of a university is to teach and conduct research, but we wish to stress another important factor, and that is to educate responsible citizens for our Country. Glorying in our history is not what we want to do during the Jubilee. We want to talk about the problems and the challenges now facing Poland’s universities and colleges. Over the past 25 years there has been huge change in many spheres in Poland, including higher education, which has become a phenom-enon on a mass scale. Gross enrolment ratio has gone up from 10% to 60%. Numerous state and private schools of higher edu-

I BELIEVE IN THE RESEARCH POTENTIAL OF OUR UNIVERSITY’S STAFFRita Pagacz-Moczarska interviews Professor Wojciech Nowak, Rector of the Jagiellonian University

cation have been founded, and there are now 400 of them in a country of nearly 40 million. But at the mo-ment we’re going through a population slump, we’re grappling with financial problems, and observing a crisis in the ethos of academic tutorship, in the student–teacher relation-ship. So the question we want to ask during the Jubilee is where are we heading for? ”

□ “To be able to develop for the needs of the 21st century Polish universities will have to work in partnership with industry. Thanks to the Innovative Economy Programme there will be an opportunity for substantial funding within the framework of this programme…”

■ “Yes, that’s right. There will be an opportunity for universities to access very substantial EU funds in 2014–2020, but we have to bear in mind that there is a condition – the transfer of technology to industry. Time will tell how well we manage to acclimatise to partnership between science and business. Will we be able to persuade big companies to embark on research projects together with us and jointly apply for EU resources? I hope so. But it’ll call for a new mode of thinking.”

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□ “Discussion on the key problems facing 21st-century aca-demia will be going on throughout the Jubilee year at the Jagiellonian University. The main celebrations are scheduled for 8th–12th May. What is on the agenda for them?”

■ “On 8th May there will be a meeting of the Utrecht Network of universities. In the evening we will deposit a time capsule in the ground in the Professors’ Garden. In it, along with the address

issued by the University’s authorities and the jubilee medal, there will be a copy of this issue of Alma Mater. On the following day there will be a session of the Rectors’ Conference of universi-

ties which are members of the Internationalization of Higher Education: Europeanization and Globalization networks. Guests representing four networks to which the Jagiellonian University belongs, the Coimbra Group, Europaeum, IRUN, and Utrecht Network, will take part. At that meeting we will be discussing whether globalisation is already present in European universities or not, what constitutes the strength of European higher education, and how to compete suc-cessfully with universities in other parts of the world. The climax of the celebrations will come on 10th May, beginning with the laying of floral tributes on the tombs of the University’s Founders, King Casimir the Great, King Vladislaus Jagiełło, and Queen Jadwiga. Next the academic community along with the official guests from abroad will attend Mass celebrated by

Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków. When Mass is over the rectors, professors, representatives of all the University faculties, the authorities of the city and voivode-ship, students, and official guests, will leave Wawel Hill and pass along the streets of Kraków in a procession to the Audito-rium Maximum for a gala session of the Jagiellonian University Senate attended by the President of the Republic of Poland, Mr. Bronisław Komorowski and Mr. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. During the session the Jagiellonian University will confer its honorary doctorate on two distinguished academics, the German biochemist Professor Robert Huber, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 (jointly with Johann Deisenhofer and Hartmut Michel), and the outstanding Polish economist, Professor Witold Kieżun, who was a student of Professors Tadeusz Kotarbiński and Jan Zieleniewski. This very special day will be concluded with an outdoor performance en-titled Universa – opera otwarta (Universa: An Open Opera) in the Market Square, for which Oscar winner Jan A.P. Kaczmarek has composed the music, and written the script in collaboration with Michał Rusinek. Our students are making a committed contribu-tion to the celebrations and have arranged numerous interesting events, such as an international rowing regatta for the Rector’s Cup, with nine crews from Poland and Europe (including the

The Jagiellonian University will confer its honorary doctorate on two distinguished academics, the German biochemist

Professor Robert Huber, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 (jointly with Johann Deisenhofer and

Hartmut Michel), and the outstanding Polish economist, Professor Witold Kieżun, who was a student of Professors

Tadeusz Kotarbiński and Jan Zieleniewski

On 10th May this year, the Jagiel-lonian University’s Plus Ratio Quam Vis Gold Medal will be conferred on José Manuel Barroso, President

of the European Commission

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The Polish University Rectors’ Conference (KRASP) meeting at the Jagiellonian University

with government representatives on 11th April 2014. Left to right: Prof. Wiesław Banyś, Chairman of KRASP;

Prof. Lena Kolarska-Bobińska, Minister of Science and Higher Education; Premier Donald Tusk; and Prof. Wojciech Nowak, JU Rector

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The Rectors’ stalls in the aula of Collegium Maius

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The rectors attending the KRASP meeting at the Jagiellonian University, 10th–12th April 2014

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Oxford and Cambridge teams) competing on the Vistula. There will be many more jubilee events, of course, and you can find more information on them on our jubilee website, www.650.uj.edu.pl .”

□ “The Jubilee is also an occasion for the University to set itself new tasks. One of them will undoubtedly be the bolstering of its international status. In what direction should the efforts its authorities are making in this respect be oriented?”

■ “This will be connected with making the best use of our new scientific resources. In recent years the Jagiellonian University’s research infrastructure has been very considerably enhanced. Now we have to make the best possible use of it. We have fine modern laboratories equipped with specialist apparatus. The University’s research facilities have to be accessible to all of its staff, regard-less of faculty, and available on hire. The Jagiellonian Centre of Innovation is a unit operating in a similar way, giving research-ers access to lab space and facilities, sometimes even to specific instruments. Of course, the problem also involves the way science is financed in Poland. There has never been a lot of money for scholarship in this country, as we know, and probably there never will be. However, the academics of the Jagiellonian University have brilliant ideas, which translate into the largest number of grants awarded by the National Science Centre. What we need now is to put these financial resources to the best possible use, especially as the overall sum of the grants now being implemented in the Jagiellonian University amounts to over a billion PLN.”

□ “What’s happening now on the Jagiellonian University’s investment front?”

■ “This year on 13th May we will be opening the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology building. Its chief aim will be to con-duct research at the best international standard possible, and international co-operation will be its focus. We have already signed partnership agreements with first-rate research institutions like the Max Planck Society, Centre National de la Recherche

Scientifique (CNRS), and Kyoto University. In August this year the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy, and Applied Computer Sci-ence will start its move to the new campus. We will be opening the building for the Centre for Environmental Education in the second half of 2014, and the building of the Solaris Synchrotron Radiation Centre towards the end of the year. Solaris is a huge investment which will serve not only the entire academic milieu in Poland, but also researchers from abroad. We are redeveloping the Jagiellonian Centre of Innovation. Work on the construction of the new Faculty of Chemistry building has started, and a contrac-tor has been selected to build the new premises of the Institute of Geological Sciences. The completion of all these enormous investment projects will give the University excellent potential for further development. Hence my optimism concerning Polish achievements in scientific research. Before Polish scientists who wanted to move ahead unfortunately had to leave the country for centres elsewhere, in Europe or America, which had specialist laboratories with modern equipment. I did the experimental part of my habilitation project abroad. Now that has changed. Today every young scientist can conduct his research in Poland, in Kraków. The salaries that universities can offer from the financial resources of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education are still very modest. But if grants are taken into account the situation looks much better. We can then offer a young scientist from, say, Germany, or the United Kingdom, a job with pay comparable to what he would be earning at home. What we now have to work on is being recognisable worldwide. The basis for success in this respect is international co-operation.”

□ “here the Jagiellonian University is doing very well. We are working with many foreign research centres. have we managed to acquire new research partners recently?”

■ “In November 2013 we signed partnership contracts with Kyoto University, a leading centre on a global scale: 26th on the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Ranking, and with the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan’s biggest

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research centre. I am confident a lot of good will come from the visit of a team of top opinion-shapers from India, who were here on 4th March 2014 as guests of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the meeting we discussed the possibility of co-operation with the University of Delhi, both for staff and student exchange as well as for joint research projects. Another good prospect for student exchange is opening up following a meeting with Dr Liane Hentschke, Director of CNPq, the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, the executive agency for the Brazilian Science Without Borders scholarship programme. I’m also full of hope that after the main jubilee celebrations are over we will be able to enter a partnership scheme with the National Autonomous University of Mexico. I have already conducted the first round of negotia-tions with its representatives.”

□ “In September 2014 you’ll be in the middle of your term in office as Rector of the Jagiellonian University. how would you describe the first half of your term?”

■ “I’m pleased with some of the changes which have been accomplished in the University since September 2012. We have compiled a development strategy for the University for 2014–2020, and in some units there have been structural changes which should bring good effects within the next two or three years. In addition we have a very precisely defined investment and redevelopment timeline, with virtually all the potential risks taken into account. I’m also pleased that we have managed to restore and redecorate Collegium Novum, the headquarters of

the University’s authorities, for the Jubilee. The next few months will see an improvement in the premises of the students’ self--governing body, which will move from Collegium Novum to rooms at ulica Czapskich 4, and eventually, by the end of the year, to newly restored premises on ulica Jagiellońska, opposite

Collegium Maius.”

□ “Where do you still see shortcomings?”

■ “I have not managed to raise the University’s level of internationali-

sation, not only in student numbers, but also for international co-opera-tion. This is a long-term process which calls for the right sort of impulses to stimulate it. Docto-ral programmes are another area

which still needs considerable support from the University’s

administrative authorities. And a third task concerns the creation of

a road and transport infrastructure on the Pychowice campus, which is a big

and very important challenge.”

□ “What would you want to tell the academic community for the Jubilee marking the Jagiellonian

University’s 650th year?”

■ “That I believe in our staff’s research potential; I’m confident that if we continue to strive for quality in education and get stu-dents who will be as good as those we have now we shall soon be reaping the fruit of our labour.”

□ “Thank you for the interview.”

University Governance (2012–2016): Rector of the Jagiellonian University,

Professor Wojciech Nowak; and Vice-Rectors (left to right): Professor Jacek Popiel,

Vice-Rector for Human Resources and Financial Management;

Professor Stanisław Kistryn, Vice-Rector for Research and Structural Funds;

Professor Andrzej Mania, Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs;

Professor Maria-Jolanta Flis, Vice-Rector for University Development;

and Professor Piotr Laidler, Vice-Rector for the Medical College

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ThE GRANd JUBiLEES OF ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

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The University parade in the Market Square for the Quincentenary of Renewal, 7th June 1900

The University’s professors and guests march in the parade for the Sexcentenary Jubilee, 1964

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ThE GRANd JUBiLEES OF ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

2000

President Aleksander Kwaśniewski delivers his jubilee address in the Filharmonia Building, during the celebrations for the Jagiellonian University’s Sexcentenary of Renewal, 1st October 2000

2014

Inauguration of the Congress of Academic Culture in the Auditorium Maximum, 20th March 2014

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1. teaching pavilion 2. specialist consultancies 3. street-level car park 4. technical facilities 5. in-patient bed modules 6. operating theatres and hospital rescue department 7. in-patient bed module

JU MC student halls

JU MC Faculty of Pharmacy

JU MC Medical Library

University Children’s Hospital

The University Hospital’s new premises

If everything goes according to plan, the jubilee year to mark the 650th anniversary

of the Jagiellonian University’s foundation will see the start of construction work for the University Hospital’s new facility in the Prokocim district of Kraków. The project is one of the biggest hospital investment schemes in Poland, which will mean a very substantial enhancement in teaching standards for medical students, the quality of research for medical science staff, and diagnostic and therapeutic services for pa-tients. Its implementation will trigger a new process of growth in the entire fabric of university medicine in Kraków, the home of Poland’s oldest Faculty of Medicine, one of the three original faculties of the University founded in this city in 1364.

New prospects

The new seat of the University Hospi-tal will be located in the Prokocim district

A hUGE iNVESTMENT FOR A GRANd JUBiLEE:AN iNdiSPENSABLE STEP iN ThE GROWTh OF UNIVERSITY MEDICINE AT KRAKÓW

of Kraków on a site at the junction of ulica Kostaneckiego and ulica Jakubow-skiego. It will be a university teaching hospital fit to meet the challenges of the 21st century, with state-of-the-art dia-gnostic equipment, dispensing treatment on the basis of Polish and international best practice, using advanced research laboratories, and providing compre-hensive modern specialist training for medical staff at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.

BeNefit for the people

The University Hospital’s new fa-cilities at Prokocim will provide me-dical services and health care at a high standard of quality for the people of Kraków, Lesser Poland, and the entire region of South-Eastern Poland. This investment will give Kraków, a city with a population of 800 thousand, a

hospital compound dispensing a wide spectrum of specialist medical services conveniently concentrated on one site. Kraków’s metropolitan function calls for a fully modern system of specialist health care meeting European state-of--the-art standards of quality; whereas the existing facilities at the disposal of the University Hospital, with its historic clinics scattered over various locations in and around the city centre, will soon no longer be able to cater adequately for present-day needs, not to mention future challenges.

The UniversiTy’s medical campUs

The University Hospital’s new seat at Prokocim will provide the facilities for a big medical campus for the Jagiellonian University’s Medical College. The ho-spital which will be built will supplement existing resources in the area.


The campus for the needs of the Jagiel-lonian University’s Medical College (JU MC) will consist of the existing group of student halls which will shortly be fully re-vitalised on the grounds of the first PPP of this type in Poland, the University Child- ren’s Hospital which is currently undergo-ing a comprehensive modernisation sche-me and which provides the basic resources of the JU MC Institute of Paediatrics, the JU MC Faculty of Pharmacy which is si-tuated in this area as well, and the JU MC Medical Library with the Inter-Faculty Medical Simulation Centre envisaged on the Library’s premises.

Financial resoUrces and cosTs

The Jagiellonian University Medical College is the investor for the University Hospital’s new facility at Prokocim. The total estimated costs for the project amount to 1.2 billion PLN. The investment pro-gramme endorsed by the Minister of Health envisages funds for the construction of the University Hospital, amounting to 800 million PLN, which the Ministry of Health will transfer in annual instalments from the national budget on a long-term investment scheme running until 2019.

The Administrative Board of the Voi- vodeship of Lesser Poland has declared it will support the investment financially to the amount of 60 million euros from the regional operational programme for 2014-2020. These funds will be designated for the building of the new facilities, the pur-chase and installation of their equipment and a modern energy and power supply, within the scope admissible for the EU’s financial prospects in this period.

Design and visualisation by Promedicon sp. z o.o; chief designers Krzysztof Fornagiel and Marcin Ćwik

Design and visualisation by Promedicon sp. z o.o; chief designers Krzysztof Fornagiel and Marcin Ćwik

inFrasTrUcTUre and basic invesTmenT concepT

The University has the site ready for the investment, an approved project design and planning permission for its construction issued by the Mayor of Kraków. Currently work is in progress for the competitive dialogue to select the general contractor for the construction of the University Hospital’s new Prokocim facilities. Representatives of 6 internatio-nal construction companies interested in the project, Budimex S.A., Karmar S. A., SPPD Sp. z o. o., Warbud S.A., OHL S. A., and Dragados S.A., are taking part in the competitive dialogue.

The new Prokocim hospital facilities are to have 925 beds and a utility area of 110 thousand sq. m. of floor space, con-structed on a site of 15.28 hectares.

The design for the hospital entails the construction of fully integrated units or modules, each of which will perform a separate function. The modules making up the hospital will be as follows: the in--patient bed module, the diagnostics and treatment module with therapeutic and

non-therapeutic clinics, the operating theatre module, the teaching and administrative module, the hospital rescue department, and the specialist consultancies.

***

For many years Kraków and Lesser Poland have been in need of top-quality, state-of-the-art medical infrastructure of the university teaching hospital type. The new University Hospital facilities going up at Prokocim are a tremendous opportunity for the provision of medical services and health care at an appropriate standard to cater an-nually for hundreds of thousands of patients, and to provide an efficient system of medical education and training for the medical staff of the future, who will be responsible for diagnosing and treating patients. It is a pro-ject which thanks to its envisaged science and research functions will also contribute to progress in the medical sciences. It is a huge investment for a Grand Jubilee.

Piotr Laidler Vice-Rector of the Jagiellonian University

for the Medical College


SOLARIS, the first Polish synchrotron radiation facility, is being built on the

Jagiellonian University Third Campus in Kraków. Solaris is a unique man-made source of electromagnetic radiation known as synchrotron radiation. The energy range of its photon emission is from the infrared to the hard X-rays.

The Polish synchrotron is going to be the first research infrastructure of such a substantial size and potential constructed in East Central Europe. The synchrotron, which is a large-scale, multi-user and mul-tidisciplinary facility, is a much more effi-cient investment in research in comparison to dispersed small or medium-scale equipment, as it will provide state-of-the-art research opportunities for many groups.

Over the last three decades synchrotron light has supported cutting-edge research in physics, chemistry and material scien-ce, and has opened up many new areas of research in fields such as medicine, geolo-gical and environmental studies, structural genomics and archaeology.

The expected benefits are not limited to the scientific community. The availability of a facility as technologically advanced as SOLARIS will also contribute to develop-ments in areas like education and training, hi-tech companies and services, and it will create new jobs.

One of the special aspects of the Polish project is its pan-European dimension. It is being accomplished thanks to close cooperation with the MAX IV project in Lund (Sweden). This is a unique type of collaboration. SOLARIS will be a replica of the 1.5 GeV storage ring of the MAX

WAiTiNG FOR SOLARiS,ThE POLiSh SYNChROTRON LiGhT SOURCE

IV project, which has replaced the MAX II facility with two new 1.5 GeV and 3.0 GeV synchrotrons.

Two experimental beamlines, PEEM/XAS (Photoemission Electron Micro-scopy/X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy) and UARPES (Ultra Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy), are being constructed within the current scope of the project. SOLARIS has been designed with a view to its further intensive develop-ment, including the construction of at least another dozen experimental beamlines to satisfy the needs of the Polish scientific community.

The SOLARIS Project is financed from the European Structural Funds, with completion scheduled for April 2015. The

first research groups will be able to use SOLARIS already in 2015. The project has enabled Poland to join the group of over twenty technologically most advanced countries which have constructed synchro-tron radiation facilities in recognition of their unique research potential.

More information about SOLARIS on the website www.synchrotron.pl

Marek StankiewiczDirector of the SOLARIS

National Synchrotron Radiation CentreEmilia Król

Public Relations Officer, SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre

Inside the synchrotron experimental hall

Solaris - Main building

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The Małopolska Centre of Biotechno-logy (MCB) is a joint initiative of the

Jagiellonian University and the Kraków Agricultural University. The aim is to create a university research centre for fun-damental and applied research in the broad area of biotechnology, and for the transfer of scientific discoveries from academia to business, developing new technologies which will enhance the competitiveness of Poland’s biotechnological industry.

THE MAŁOPOLSKA CENTRE OF BiOTEChNOLOGY:A NEW RESEARCh UNiT AT ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

The main building of the MCB is located on the Jagiellonian University’s new campus. It has approximately 3,600 sq. m. of laboratory space divided into 6 research departments and 25 specialized laboratories equipped with about 250 modern research instruments. Some of the laboratories, for instance the Cell Culture Laboratory and the Animal Laboratory, will be organised in compliance with GLP/GMP standards.

The scope of the MCB’s research encompasses gene therapy, micro RNA, monoclonal antibodies, cell cultures, pro-teomics, genomics, bacterial pathogenesis, new generation antibiotics, photosensiti-sers, apoptotic factors, molecular model-ling, and bioremediation. These and other topics will be pursued within a framework of international cooperation with some of the world’s leading scientific institutions. So far cooperation agreements have been signed with the Max Planck Society, the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the University of Kyoto, and the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Tsukuba.

One of the MCB’s main goals is to maximise the benefits accruing from bio-technology for the Jagiellonian University, the Voivodeship of Lesser Poland, and the whole of Poland, by its operations as a top-quality, comprehensive, and multi-disciplinary research centre supporting, coordinating, disseminating, and advanc-ing biotechnology. The MCB will create laboratory space and new jobs for talented scientists, generating high-impact publica-tions, know-how, new technologies, and patents through the implementation of both fundamental as well as applied research.

Kazimierz StrzałkaMCB Project Leader

Head of the Department of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry in the Jagiellonian University

Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Biotechnology

The main building of the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology

In the MCB microbiology laboratory

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The Centre for Environmental Educa-tion (CEE) is a brand new unit of the

Jagiellonian University, due to open in a building with a total floor space of 4,700 sq. m. currently under construction in the central part of the University’s new Cam-pus. Most of the funds for the investment come from an EU grant, awarded for the upgrading of infrastructure at university faculties for biology and the natural and earth sciences.

The CEE is conceived as a multi-pur-pose unit focusing both on educational and scientific goals, and acting as an internal department, as well as a platform for the cooperation of the Jagiellonian Univer-sity with other educational institutions in southern Poland, mostly within the Voivo-deship of Lesser Poland. It will be integra-ted with a series of existing Jagiellonian University museums (Zoology, Geology, and Anthropology) and hopefully a new palaeobotanical exhibition). The Zoology Museum, which will occupy a major part

ThE CENTRE FOR ENViRONMENTAL EdUCATiONof CEE’s floor space, is the oldest natural history museum in Poland, and holds one of the largest and most valuable scientific collections of tropical butterflies in Europe. Its exhibits, which will be presented in a display entitled “The Evolution of Life on Earth”, include one of the few extant complete skeletons of the extinct woolly rhinoceros, the skull of a Steller’s sea cow, a rich avian collection, including a series of rare birds of paradise, kakapos and kiwis, numerous interesting specimens of reptiles and amphibians, and other vertebrates, as well as historic 19th-century collections of arthropods and sea shells. The Geology Museum holds interesting historic and scientific collections of minerals from all over the world, some large meteorites, and other thematic exhibits of Książkiewicz trace fossils and Dżułyński sedimentary structures. The CEE will also have the reconstructed skeleton of Smok wawelski (“the Dragon of Wawel Hill”), a large car-nivorous archosaur recently discovered in

Poland, and named after the mythical reptile of the Cracovian legend. The Dragon will be on show in an annex next to the CEE building. One of the CEE’s most important goals will be the promotion of the natural sciences in cooperation with other universi-ties, schools and foundations in Kraków and southern Poland. Guided tours conducted in Polish and English by CEE specialists in evolutionary biology and geology will be offered to school pupils and individual tourists. The CEE will provide teaching services at the faculty level, specialising in biodiversity, biogeography, ecology and systematic taxonomy. Finally, CEE staff will participate in research, especially in tropical entomology, an area of science in which the Zoology Museum has developed an international reputation. The CEE is due to open in March 2015.

Tomasz PyrczHead of the

Jagiellonian University Zoology Museum

Visualisation of the CEE exhibition



One of the JCI buildings. The JCI was established in 2004 by the Jagiello-nian University to manage the Life Science Park, which offers a comple-mentary range of services for busi-nessmen and scientists working in the Life Sciences, including the hire of la-boratory space, the financing and de-velopment of scientific projects, con-tracted research services with the use of its own apparatus, and professional specialist support for the transfer of technology and commercialisation of scientific research. The Jagiellonian University is the founder and sole shareholder of the JCI company. More information on www.jci.pl

ThE JAGiELLONiAN CENTRE OF iNNOVATiON (JCi)

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The best results in science are obtained when brilliant individuals work with

each other on a project. The Jagiellonian University is proud of the research it is conducting jointly with many other insti-tutions. An excellent example of scientific alliances of this kind is afforded by the co-operation which has been going on for many years between the Jagiellonian Uni-versity’s Faculty of Physics, Astronomy, and Applied Computer Science, its Faculty of Medicine, and University Hospital, with the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kraków. All these units are in the top, A+ category of scientific excellence, moreover the Faculty of Phys-ics, Astronomy, and Applied Computer Science and the Polish Academy of Sci-ences Institute of Nuclear Physics are in the the Marian Smoluchowski Scientific Consortium of Kraków, which is the Lead-ing National Scientific Centre in its field. Most of the work is being done in the In-stitute of Nuclear Physics’ recently opened Bronowice Cyclotron Centre, which thanks to the involvement of scientists from both institutions has become the leading centre in Poland for nuclear medicine and experi-mental nuclear physics and has developed

ThE BRONOWiCE CYCLOTRON CENTREThe key to success in physics and medicine through partnership in science

an international reputation in the field. Proton therapy is one of the best meth-

ods of treating cancer. Its chief advantage is its high success rate coupled with the good level of protection that can now be achieved to safeguard healthy tissue. A pro-ton beam can be focused on a tumour very precisely, which increases the patient’s chances of fully successful treatment. Ac-celerated protons are an extremely useful research tool for nuclear physicists as well; the reactions initiated when protons collide with atomic nuclei offer an excellent way of conducting research on the structure of matter. Cyclotrons, in which protons are accelerated to energies of millions of electron volts, are one of the main types of particle accelerators.

Kraków is the place where Poland’s first cyclotron was built. In the 1950s Pro-fessor Henryk Niewodniczański, director of the Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Physics and leader of a research group working in the University’s Collegium Witkowskiego Building, pioneered its construction, launching the erection of new headquarters for the Institute of Physics and drawing up a research programme for the Institute of Nuclear Physics, which in

1958 was equipped with a U-120 cyclo-tron purchased in the Soviet Union. For many years this cyclotron served as the experimental facility for Kraków’s nuclear physicists. In the 1980s it was also used by oncologists for pioneering treatment of cancers of the head and neck. Kraków’s next generation of cyclotrons started with the AIC-144, which was built in the Institute of Nuclear Physics in the 1990s, and has recently been fully modernised. This cyclotron generates a 60 MeV pro-ton beam, with a range of about 30mm in water, which makes it a viable instrument only for the treatment of cancers of the eye, as its range is too short for use on organs lying deeper in the body.

Poland’s accession to the EU and the availability of structural funds helped Kraków’s community of physicists and doctors make their dreams come true of a state-of-the-art accelerator capable of ac-celerating protons to energies of millions of electron volts, giving the physicists a broader scope for experiments and on-cologists the possibility of radiating any organs in the body. The early 21st century was marked by efforts focused on two aims. On the one hand we tried to start

The Proteus-235 Cyclotron and the initial part of the beamline

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up proton radiotherapy for eye treatment as fast as possible; and on the other hand we applied for funding to construct an ad-vanced research and treatment centre. On 18th February 2011 our first two patients with eye cancer finished their course of proton therapy at the Institute of Nuclear Physics radiotherapy centre. Professor Bożena Romanowska-Dixon of the Jagiel-lonian University Faculty of Medicine led the team of ophthalmic specialists from the University Hospital, who were assisted by radiotherapists from the Kraków Centre for Oncology and a group of physicists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics, led by Professor Marian Reinfuss and Dr. Jan Swakoń respectively.

The work of the Institute of Nuclear Physics to develop eye therapy served as the inspiration to set up the Narodowe Centrum Radioterapii Hadronowej (Na-tional Centre for Hadron Radiotherapy) consortium, which was established in 2006. It has a membership of scientific and medical institutions from all over Poland. Two projects submitted by the Institute of Nuclear Physics have been awarded financ-ing, and in August 2010 a contract was signed for the supply of a modern cyclotron and the construction of new premises for it. The foundation stone was laid on 17th March 2011, and the new Pro-teus-235 cyclotron was installed already by 11th May of the fol-lowing year. It is the very heart of the new Bronowice Cyclotron Centre and produces protons at an energy of 230 MeV which can penetrate the human body down to a depth of 320 mm. The cyclotron is housed in a bunker with walls five and a half metres thick to protect the staff and the environ-ment against radiation. The proton beam is led into the experimental hall through a complex system of vacuum tubes and magnets, or up to one of the two radiation sites which will be used to treat patients. There are two huge rotating gantries, each with a diameter of 11 m and weighing 100 tonnes, to hold the magnets weighing

over ten tonnes which are used to focus the proton beam on the area requir-ing treatment. They have an accuracy to within 1 mm. The centre’s medi-cal part will be ready by mid-2015.

The proton beam pro-duced by the Proteus-235 cyclotron is being applied in experimental research in nuclear physics. We have compiled a broad research programme, complementary to the work being done in the University of Warsaw heavy ion cyclotron laboratory and to projects conducted by some of the world’s best centres for nu-clear physics. To maintain the quality of our work at the very best standards we have an international advisory committee with top-rate scientists from Poland and abroad as its members. Our first experi-ment was carried out in March 2013, with

teams from Poland, France, Spain, Japan, Germany, Rumania, Sweden, Turkey, Hungary, and Italy participating.

The set of experiments we have se-lected as our current main project is a research programme for the examination of the properties of nuclear reactions in multi-nucleon systems. It is being conducted in a broad range of international co-operation with research groups from Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Italy,

Japan, and India, coordinated by Professor Stanisław Kistryn and Dr. Hab. Elżbieta Stephan. The project is a continuation of an experimental programme conducted over many years involving beams produced by accelerators in Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. The complex BINA experimental system obtained from the KVI at Groningen is now being made ready for a series of observations which will supply data to verify potential reaction models in multi-nucleon systems. The first bombardment of the shield in the BINA system with protons from the Proteus-235 cyclotron took place on 16th July 2013. The significance of the results obtained for the observations, which we are planning to continue in the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre, is illustrated by the fact that we were asked by the project coordinators to publish the results of our earlier series of observations as a topical review in The Journal of Physics G, a leading scientific journal for nuclear physics. What’s more, our publication was awarded the title of Publication of the Year 2013.

Marek JeżabekDirector, Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Polish

Academy of SciencesStanisław Kistryn

Jagiellonian University Vice-Rector for Research and Structural Funds

Adam MajDeputy Director for Research, Institute of Nuclear

Physics at the Polish Academy of SciencesPaweł Olko

Deputy Director for the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre, Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Polish

Academy of SciencesElżbieta Stephan

Deputy Director of the Institute of Physics at the University of Silesia

The BINA sphere prior to mounting in the system

The research team preparing the BINA detector for operations (left to right): Dr Hab. Adam Kozela, Dr Paweł Kulessa, Dr Izabela Ciepał, Prof. Stanisław Kistryn, and Dr Hab. Elżbieta Stephan

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22 alma mater No. 166The University Children’s Hospital in Kraków

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The traditions of Kraków’s Children’s Hospital, which celebrates its golden

jubilee this year, go back to the earliest paediatric treatment on Polish territories: the first children’s ward (1835), the first paediatric clinic (1864), the first children’s hospital (1876), and the Chair of Paediat-rics at the Jagiellonian University, which was the third chair of paediatrics in the world (after Florence and Vienna).

The Polish community in the USA launched the building project for the Children’s Hospital, which was officially opened in 1965. The Hospital has been pursuing its activities under a variety of names which changed over the years, but from the very outset it was the teaching hospital facility serving the Academy of Medicine, and currently the Medical Col-lege of the Jagiellonian University. Thanks to funding from the government of the USA several redevelopment projects were carried out on the Hospital’s premises. In 1975 a new laboratory wing was opened. In 1987 work started on an out-patient centre, which was consecrated in 1991 in a ceremony conducted by Pope John Paul II. Another new part of the Hospital, a

THE KRAKÓW CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL240-bed rehabilitation centre, was opened in 1990. A major contribution to the Hos-pital’s redevelopment has come from the Project HOPE Foundation, which in 1974 was entrusted by the US administration with the management of the funds for the Hospital’s redevelopment.

From its very first day the Kraków Children’s Hospital has been working in partnership with some of the world’s best paediatric hospitals, particularly from the United States. Our medical staff have received their professional training from the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital; the Harvard University Children’s Hospital, Boston MA; the Johns Hopkins Univer-sity Medical Center, Baltimore, MD; the Children’s Hospital, Washington D.C.; the Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; and the Children’s Me-morial Hospital, Chicago. Polish doctors and nurses have attended scores of Project HOPE training programmes in pulmonol-ogy, mother and baby care, gastroenter-ology, anaesthesiology, rehabilitation, and many other specialist branches of medicine. Today virtually all of the heads of our wards have received their training

from some of the world’s best medical institutions.

In 2000 when I was appointed director of this splendid Hospital its original part had already been in service for 35 years and much of it needed new infrastructure. To finance the project I decided to follow the example of American fund-raising or-ganisations and set up a special office for the renovation project. The assets awarded thanks to its work have enabled us to buy a lot of new equipment, support ongoing re-pair and maintenance, and above all work out a redevelopment plan for the Hospital, which has helped us to win the support of major sponsors and European and Polish government funding. In co-operation with major foundations we have opened a centre for the treatment of burns, a neonatology and neonates’ intensive care ward, and a clinical nutrition ward. We have also redeveloped our children’s cardiovascular hybrid unit, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art biplane angiography system.

Our new 6-theatre operating unit with a 30-bed intensive care unit, and a sterilis-ing centre was opened on 30th September 2011. It was financed from EU and Polish


government funds. This year our 100-bed children’s surgery ward will open follow-ing extension and a full modernisation scheme. It has been financed from funds provided by the EU, the Polish Ministry of Health, and the City of Kraków. In May 2011 the Polish government awarded a grant of 201 million PLN to the University Children’s Hospital for a full modernisa-tion scheme, which is to be completed in 2017. The completion of its first phase, involving the building of a new medi-cal rescue unit with a helicopter landing pad, an ambulance arrival facility, lecture rooms, a hospital kitchen, chemist’s shop, and an administrative unit, is due in 2014.

Today Kraków’s University Children’s Hospital has over 550 beds and 27 wards for all the specialisations in paediatrics and children’s surgery. It provides top-quality treatment and is an important educational and research centre. It is the only highly specialist paediatric hospital in Lesser Poland, but for many of its specialisations admits children from all over the country. Our Hospital provides medical treatment to all age-groups of children who are ill, from neonates to 18-year olds. We are able to provide comprehensive treatment for patients with cancer and blood diseases. Apart from having the full spectrum of diagnostic facilities and a broad range of operation and chemotherapeutic services, we also have a transplantation centre and a radiotherapy unit.

In the out-patient centre we have around 40 specialist consultancy services in which doctors from all the specialist fields of paediatrics and surgery give about 160 thousand consultations a year.

There is a broad range of diagnostics available, including MR and CT scanning, angiography, scintigraphy, and endoscopy. Specialist tests are also carried out in genetics, immunology, microbiology, and biochemistry.

Our clinics have established interna-tional contacts with many centres abroad for scientific research. Kraków is an at-tractive location for training sessions and scientific conventions. In the spring of 2012 the European Paediatric Surgeons’ Association (EUPSA) course was held at the Kraków University Children’s Hospi-tal. It was attended by 70 surgeons from all over Europe and scores of observers from the principal centres in Poland. It was the biggest EUPSA course to date, with participants from 25 countries (Lithu-ania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Rumania, Slovenia, Sweden, Slovakia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Germany,

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One of the six modern operating theatres in the new operating unit

The Neonate Pathology and Intensive Care Ward

Ukraine, France, Spain, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Norway, Austria, Finland, Saudi Arabia, and Poland. Over 30 surgeons from Poland attended the course.

Our nephrology clinic was the organ-iser of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology (ESPN) Annual Conference held in the autumn of 2012. It was the first time this prestigious conference, which is attended by hundreds of children’s neph-rology specialists from all over the world, convened in Poland. For the past five years our children’s cardio-surgery clinic has been organising regular training sessions, with lectures by eminent specialists such as Prof. Richard Van Praagh (USA), Prof. Robert Shaddy (USA), Prof. Jack Rychik (USA), Dr. Christian Pizarro (USA), Prof. Gina Baffa (USA), and Dr. Jürgen Hörer (Germany). International sessions on current controversies in neonatology are held during conferences on controversies in paediatrics organised by our paediatric clinic, with some of the best specialists from the USA, the UK, and the Nether-lands lecturing. This year lectures were delivered by Prof. Haresh M. Kirpalani (Philadelphia, USA), Prof. Linda de Vries (Utrecht, Netherlandsdia), Prof. Shahab Noori (Los Angeles, USA), and Prof. Eu-gene Dempsey (Cork, Ireland). Each of the sessions was attended by lecturers from the top Polish neonatological and paediatric institutions, Dr Hab. Jan Mazela (Poznań), Prof. Barbara Steinborn (Warsaw), Dr Piotr Kruczek (Kraków), and Prof. Andrzej Piotrowski (Łódź).

Maciej KowalczykDirector of the University Children’s Hospital

in Kraków


□ “your team is conducting several interdisciplinary re-search projects in the JU Faculty of Chemistry on the ap-plication of polymers.”

■ “Polymers are chemical substances which consist of very large molecules – macromolecules – with components which are repeated again and again like the units linked up in a Christ-mas tree chain decoration. Polymers may be synthesised in the laboratory from simpler substances, but sometimes they do occur naturally, for instance the polysaccharides similar to the starch and cellulose found in many plants. Naturally occurring polymers like chitin or chitosan are components of numerous

types of fungi, and of crustacean shells. Proteins, which are the building blocks of our bodies, are polymers as well. The range of applications in which polymers – both the ones found in nature as well as the manmade ones – are used is very broad: from the packaging and construction materials in widespread use to the most advanced applications in medicine. In our research we usually start with naturally occurring polymers, which are then modified in the course of research. We also produce highly specialised synthetic polymers which may be used for instance

iN ThE WORLd OF POLYMERSAnna Wojnar interviews Professor Szczepan Zapotoczny of the department of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in the Faculty of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University

as components of the modern solar (photovoltaic) cells we are working on.” □ “you’re working on the development of solar cells. What will your innovation involve?”

■ “This is the first part of our research, its photochemical branch, in which the aim is to obtain materials for the production of pho-tovoltaic cells for the modern systems in which solar energy is converted into electric energy. We’re working with Jagiellonian University physicists on this. Our second research area is the production of mini-photoreactors, in which solar energy will be

converted into chemical energy. Sunlight will be applied to produce new high-energy substances which will act as a sort of solar fuel.”

□ “Will this invention serve as an additional source of energy?”

■ “Yes. Our plans are far-reaching, as energy supply is one of the fundamental problems facing mankind, and the Sun is a source of energy which we have not made full use of yet. We already have devices that collect solar energy, for instance the rooftop collectors we are all familiar with, or the garden lamps with inbuilt photovoltaic cells which convert solar energy into electric energy. But what we’re after is to make them work far more efficiently, far cheaper and therefore more readily available. The classic technology is based on materials containing silicon, which makes them expensive and their production energy-consuming, which means not very eco-friendly. Our photovoltaic cells will be based on the application of polymer brushes, with fibres consisting of single macromolecules in the nanometre (viz. one-millionth of a millimetre) range. Such light and flexible cells could be used not only on flat surfaces; they could

be installed in many new places, e.g. on the walls of buildings or on car roofs, to collect even more solar energy. In the future these new photovoltaic cells could be printed, as we do now on textile or synthetic plastic surfaces. The research is still in progress, but we’re already thinking ahead to the commercialisation of our invention.”

□ “you’re working on the development of a new contrast agent to be administered to MRI patients. how will it differ compared to the substances now being used?”

Polymer brushes

Prof. Szczepan Zapotoczny in his laboratory

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Micromolecules

■ “The contrast agent administered during an MRI scan is a chemical substance that enhances the quality of the image. The classic contrast media use gadolinium, which is an exotic ele-ment and problematic for the human body to get rid of. Some patients, especially those with kidney disease, may experience serious health-threatening complications. Like many diagnostic methods, MRI may have unwanted side-effects, though in many cases it is life-saving. In collaboration with the Jagiellonian Centre for Experimental Therapeutics (JCET), we’re working on a contrast agent based on nanomolecules of the oxides of iron. Suitably processed iron oxides, coated with a polymer layer, acquire special magnetic properties and turn out to be extremely efficient MRI contrasting agents. Moreover, the human body has no problems with metabolising iron and converting it into useful forms or removing it.”

□ “Will the dose of iron oxides administered during a scan be absolutely safe?”

■ “Yes, our research to date shows that this contrast is not ex-pected to involve a health risk if taken in the doses necessary for an MRI scan. Incidentally, a slightly modified form of iron oxide is administered in the treatment of anaemia and iron deficiency. So it should be neutral, or in some cases even beneficial for the patient. In addition the oxides of iron are much cheaper than gadolinium, which is a rare element.”

□ “What stage has your research reached?”

■ “We’re already testing the fundamental contrast agents on animals. At present we’re working on making the contrast more ‘sensitive’, getting it to work more selectively in the organs which are to be scanned. We want to develop a targeted contrast. Materials based on the oxides of iron can also be applied in hyperthermia, which is a procedure for the destruction of, say, cancer cells when magnetic nanomolecules are inserted into the body in the place where the pathological tissue is situated. In this area we’re working with scientists from the AGH University of Technology and the Institute of Nuclear Physics from the Polish Academy of Sciences.”

□ “Are you conducting other biomedical research as well?”

■ “Yes, indeed. We’re also working on the con-struction of nano- and micrometre drug carriers, which can deliver a drug to a designated part of the body more efficiently and in a better controlled way, thus increasing the drug’s ef-fectiveness. Our partners for this project are Professor Maria Nowakowska and Professor Krzysztof Szczubiałka, with the involvement of many other scientists and students. We’re also co-operating with medical scientists on the production of biodegradable polymer scaf-folds for cell seeding. Cells are taken from the patient and seeded out on the surface of a poly-mer scaffold. They are cultivated to form tissue in vitro which can then be transplanted to the patient

to replace cells damaged in an injury or during surgery. We’ve already done successful tests on animals and the prospects for further development are good.”

□ “you’ve also got a successful research project to your credit on the reduction of nanoparticle silver emission into the atmosphere. What makes this so important?”

■ “Nanomolecules of silver have been in use for years, mainly in antibacterial applications. They’re in many products available on the market, such as antiseptic cosmetics, cleaning agents, paints and varnishes, fungicides and antibacterial substances. They’re also used in the production of synthetic packaging and household appliances. The problem is that their excessive exposure to the environment has detrimental effects as well – for instance they destroy useful bacteria, e.g. needed to process effluent. Owing to their size, nanomolecules of silver can accumulate in the human body, potentially leading to harmful consequences for a person’s health. The aim of our research is to reduce the amount of these nanomolecules exposed to the environment while at the same time conserve their useful antibacterial properties. It has turned out that often only a fraction of these nanomolecules is required in a product to ensure the same level of antibacterial activity. Our invention reduces the amount and rate at which they will pass into the environment. We have done this by packing the nanomolecules of silver in a coat of micromolecules, which are larger and can therefore be more easily put in the material and kept in it for as long as possible, preventing effusion into the environment. The additional coat keeps the nanomolecules in the product for longer, so that a smaller amount of them is needed, which is the crucial point. The coat is made up of calcium carbonate, the chief component of chalk and limestone, which is cheap and harmless. For many commercial applications all that you have to do is replace the antibacterial substances used hitherto with our nanomolecular powder.”

□ “how far have you got in this project?”

■ “We’ve already started working with one of the major players on the Polish market for the chemical industry. They’re doing

the preliminary tests. We have applied for a patent for our invention and hope to be granted it

soon. We want to commercialise our invention.”

□ “Thank you for the inter-view.”


Incense burner in the shape the Maya Sun god,

Nakum, 8th-9th c. AD. Photo by Robert Słaboński

□ “you’re coordinating research on a new group of chemical compounds which are to help patients suffering from epilepsy and from neuropathic pain, which is extremely difficult to treat. What exactly does the research involve?”

■ “At present there is no drug dedicated to the treatment of neu-ropathic pain, and the progress of pathological changes at the molecular level in damaged nerve cells has only been tracked fairly recently. Hence the need for research leading to new drugs that patients need so much. The aim of my project is to design new chemical compounds which will have a therapeutic effect, synthesise them, and work with specialist research teams from a number of fields to see whether we can select a potential candidate from the group of chemicals to produce the drug. The specialist fields are pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, analytical chemistry, biotechnology, and drug delivery technology. My job is coordinat-ing these tasks, for often the parameters that are obtained from these different areas overlap and are each other’s outcome. To a large extent our research consists in the analysis of physical, chemical, and biological parameters which are to be applied in the assessment of how and in what doses the given drug will be useful in treatment, and for what doses might unwanted side-effects appear, how the compound may be determined in the blood, what percentage of a dose administered orally gets into the blood, after what time it is removed from the body, what its metabolites are and whether they are toxic. There is a colossal amount of information which must be collected before we start administering the drug to people in clinical tests, and our overriding aim is the health and safety of patients.”

□ “What made you interested in this area of research?”

■ “I come from a family of chemists and I think I’ve got the right predisposition for this job. Usually people either love chemistry or they hate it and wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole. I love it. In my pharmaceutical classes I was interested in the central nervous

STAFF OF ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY FACULTY OF PhARMACY ARE dEVELOPiNG A NEW PAiN KiLLER

system. I wanted to enhance my own memorising processes and knowledge of the way the brain works proved helpful. I like what I’m doing, and challenges make it all the more exciting. Also I think it’s worthwhile doing things that are going to be useful rather than engaging in art for art’s sake, and that’s why I am where I am, applying and advancing my knowledge. I feel this is the right place for me.”

□ “Which foreign institutions are you working with and what is the extent of your cooperation with them for this project?”

■ “First and foremost with the US National Institutes of Health, with which the JU MC Faculty of Pharmacy has been collaborating since 1996 within an anti-epilepsy drug programme. Samples of the compounds we have synthesised are sent out for testing on animals with induced epileptic fits or neuropathic pain. There are also tests for neurotoxicity. I’m also working with companies that carry out such tests on contract: their global reputation is a tremendous help in the pharmaceutical industry.”

□ “At what stage are you now in the project?”

■ “We have covered all the stages that could be done in the univer-sity. We’ve obtained the patents needed for the global pharmaceuti-cal market – in the United States, the European Union, Russia, and Poland as well. We’ve tested our compounds on large mammals and determined the dosage for humans for clinical tests. We’ve done the cost estimates for the technology and drawn up plans for the work ahead, which means obtaining patent protection in other countries, synthesising a large quantity of the compound, testing for chronic toxicity in compliance with the GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) standard, production of the drug’s pharmaceutical form, and clinical tests.”

□ “Thank you for the interview.”

Research conducted in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Jagiellonian University on a shortlist for a new drug to treat neuropathic pain and for epileptics has reached an advanced stage. It’ll be the first drug of its kind, working on the principle of a novel mechanism

to block the sigma receptor. The project is being done under the supervision of Professor Henryk Marona, by a team coordinated by Dr. Anna Waszkielewicz from the Bio-Organic Chemistry Department.

Dr. Waszkielewicz has received many tokens of appreciation from the academic community. She won a competition entitled In-nowacja jest kobietą (Innovation is a Woman) organised by the NGO Fundacja Kobiety Nauki (Foundation for Women Scientists and Scholars), and got the chance to promote her invention at iENA 2013, the 65th “Ideas – Inventions – New products” International Exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany, where she was awarded the silver medal. She has also received a distinction from GWIIN, the Global Women Inventors and Innovators Network in Stockholm, Sweden; and has been nominated for this year’s Soczewki Focusa, a readers’ plebiscite conducted by the Polish magazine Focus, in the medical innovations category. In addition in 2013 the new medication Dr. Waszkielewicz is working on won the special prize at Technicon Innowacje, the 9th Industrial Technology, Science and Innovation Fair. Dr. Waszkielewicz talks to Anna Wojnar about the innovative drug.

Dr. Anna Waszkielewicz


Incense burner in the shape the Maya Sun god,

Nakum, 8th-9th c. AD. Photo by Robert Słaboński

A new season of archaeological research started in late March 2014 at Nakum, an ancient Maya city hidden away in the

almost impenetrable jungle of northern Guatemala. For several years Jarosław Źrałka and Wiesław Koszkul, two archaeolo-gists from the Jagiellonian University, have been conducting archaeological research here with spectacular, internationally acknowledged results. The New York periodical Archaeology ranked their work in the top ten archaeological discoveries of 2011, and the American magazine Time has recognised it as one of the main scientific discoveries in recent years.

Nakum was one of the principal centres of the Maya culture. It is located in the Triángulo Park, an area which until recently had not attracted much attention from archaeologists owing to its lack of infrastructure for research and scientific work, and the

risks involved in pursuing excavations there due to armed groups of robbers and drug smugglers. To put an end to the looting of archaeological sites in this part of the country, in 1989 the go-vernment of Guatemala launched the Triángulo research project, which not only stopped the plunder but also initiated long-term archaeological research and conservation work in many of the Maya cities. In 1999-2004 Jarosław Źrałka and Wiesław Kosz-kul took part in the project, and in 2005 they decided to apply to the Guatemalan authorities for a permit to conduct their own research. In 2006, on receiving it they embarked on Proyecto Arqueológico Nakum, the first Polish project in Guatemala. In the article below they tell us about their expedition.

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diSCOVERiNG MAYA SECRETS Polish archaeological research in Guatemala

In this year’s research season we shall be concentrating on excavations, the aim

being to obtain an exact determination of the origins of Nakum and to explain when it was settled and built, and by whom. Recently in the city’s northern part we came across a lot of signs of settlement, and even remains of buildings which are to be associated with the first Maya people settled in Nakum and its environs after 1,000 BC. One of the clusters of remains we discovered was a compound dated to ca. 700-500 BC, which was not only an im-portant symbol of Nakum’s earliest elites, but also the site of key astronomical observations connected with the movement of the sun. The results of our current research at Nakum have thrown new light on the origins of the Maya culture on the lowlands of Guatemala and the Yucatan, which is still one of the biggest archaeological mysteries of Pre-Columbian America. It is still not clear where the first settlers of the lowlands came from, and how the colonisation of this region proceeded at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Was it done by communities which spoke only Maya languages, or perhaps one of the ethnic substrates participating in the movement was a community from the Mexican uplands of the State of Chiapas which did not speak Mayan? Our project may bring an answer to this question and to other important research issues.

The royal maUsoleUm

We made our most spectacular disco-very at Nakum a few years ago in the area of Pyramid 15, which is in the Southern Sector. We came across a royal tomb of huge dimensions containing vessels, the remains of a skeleton, and hundreds of jade ornaments, the most impressive of which was a pectoral, remarkable for its size and decoration. These artefacts showed that the tomb had not been looted, despite the fact that on the east face at the top of the pyramid there were two holes dug by grave-robbers. Our discovery was attended by a series of misfortunate incidents which seemed like a curse attached to this tomb of an ancient Mayan prince. Two of the Guatemalan workmen taking part in the project near Pyramid 15 fell seriously ill; one got a protracted pain in the chest, and the other fell into a deep trench; both had to leave Nakum straight after the discovery. Also one of us developed an inflammation in the foot and could not walk for several days. In addition news came that there was an armed group of a few dozen individuals prowling about in the area, looking for a place to settle down in. If word of the di-scovery had leaked out we could have been in danger of being attacked and assaulted.

However, we managed to complete the excavation and research successfully, and the tomb turned out to contain a veritable treasure. It was appointed with a few ceramic vessels, including a dish with the image of the dancing maize-god, one of the principal Maya deities, and over 460 jade and shell beads making up several collars and other ornaments. The jade pectoral was located near the deceased’s chest, beneath an elaborate, mul-ti-row jade collar. The pecto-ral had a man’s face engra-ved on one side, and a series of hieroglyphs on the reverse,

which our epigraphists read as standing for “pectoral,” followed by the name of the place and the royal title of a previ-ously unknown ruler, whose name could be read as “Ixiim Chan” (Ishim-Chan), meaning “Maize-God Snake”. The tomb

has been dated to the 7th or turn of the 7th and 8th century AD, a period of prosperity for the Maya civilisation. However, we know that the pectoral comes from the 4th or 5th century AD, and was presumably kept in the royal family as an heirloom.

The burial site discovered in Pyramid 15 was the first royal tomb found at Nakum that had not fallen prey to grave-robbers, and one of the first intact royal tombs found in the entire area of the Triángulo Park. During the excavation we noticed that the floor of the tomb was cracked, which indicated that there might be more graves below. Our conjecture proved to be right during our next season of excavations, when we came across another royal burial site in a small crypt a few metres below the

Tomb interior excavated in the lower part of Pyramid 15 at Nakum (left); and two painted vessels from the tomb (right), 2nd – 4th c. AD.

Excavating the ritual shaft at Nakum

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Reconstruction of the last building phases of Pyramids 14 and 15 at Nakum

(after Breitner González, Proyecto Arqueológico Nakum)

iN SEARCh OF SiGNS OF ThE FiRST MAYA PEOPLE


Fragments of figurines dated to ca. 600 – 500 BC, made by the earliest inhabitants of Nakum. Photo by Robert Słaboński

Vessel with painted hieroglyphs. Pyramid 14, Nakum, 7th c . AD. Photo by Robert Słaboński

top one. The crypt was lodged in a struc-ture made during one of the early building phases of Pyramid 15. The burial was dated to the period from the 2nd to the 4th century AD, and its discovery showed that Pyramid 15 served as a royal mausoleum in which members of the royal family were buried and numerous rituals associated with an ancestor cult were held.

a sTUcco Frieze and a riTUal shaFT: exca-vaTing pyramid 14

The next object at Nakum on which we conducted detailed archaeological research was Pyramid 14. Currently it has the shape of a large mound overgrown by the jungle. But as our excavations showed, under the pile of stones and debris making up the mound are the remains of several structures which had been continuously redeveloped from the turn of the millennia until the 9th century AD. One of the buildings we di-

scovered under Pyramid 14 had a beautiful stuccowork frieze made of a limestone mortar and painted red, black, and pink. It has been preserved up to a height of about 1.5 m. The frieze presents the legs of two figures flanking a monster or dwarf. The artefact has been dated to the 2nd/3rd or early 4th century AD, and undoubtedly represents a mythological scene with the Hero Twins, sons of the Maya Maize God.

However, this frieze is not the only arte-fact we discovered in Pyramid 14. Recently we came across the remains of a couple of older structures and an elaborately con-structed water conduit consisting of a stone drainpipe. At one of its ends it is connected to a trapezoidal component which may have symbolised the horn of plenty, which in the Maya religion was the source of water, nourishment, and a synonym of the paradise inhabited by the gods and the ancestors. It was constructed so that the water appears to come from the middle of the “mountain”,

which amplifies the symbolism. This indica-tes that the structure served a ritual purpose and may have been used by priests and rulers during ceremonies connected with the cult of the sacred mountain and water. Such rites were to strengthen the power and authority of the Maya kings, who were symbolically represented as the bestowers of life-giving water and rain, and interceders mediating between earth and the other world.

To show the complex redevelopment process of Pyramids 14 and 15 we drew up a three-dimensional computer reconstruction of their main architectural phases, and have now completed this task. The reconstructions show what the original Maya structures might have looked like, and the long and elaborate transformation processes under-gone by the architecture of these ancient Maya buildings.

Wiesław Koszkul Jarosław Źrałka


Geography in Kraków has a tradi-tion of many centuries. The growth

of this field of study was one of the components contributing to the inter-national reputation for scholarship the University of Kraków earned. Poland’s principal medieval chronicler Jan Długosz (1415–1480) is also regarded as the first Polish geographer. In 1460–1480 he gave a comprehensive description of the coun-try’s geography in Chorographia Regni Poloniae, the introduction to his history of Poland, Annales seu cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae. He also compiled Liber beneficiorum dioecesis Cracoviensis, a record of the Church property belonging to the Diocese of Kraków, which is the first detailed account of the geography of Poland. He is appreciated for drawing up a division of the Polish territories into separate river basin systems, an important step in the development of concepts in geography, not only for Poland.

At the turn of the 15th and 16th century the areas of study that determined the

ThE ORiGiNS OF GEOGRAPhY AT ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

University’s reputation were mathemat-ics, astronomy, and geography in the wide sense of the term. In 1490–1550 Kraków was one of the chief centres in Europe for geography. In this period, known as the Golden Age of Cracovian

and Polish geography, many geographers, both from Poland and beyond its borders, came to Kraków for an education in the field. Lectures and classes in geography at Kraków were among the earliest uni-versity courses of study in the subject on record, and they were given as of the late 15th century.

In 1494 regular lectures started on cosmography, which encompassed the subject area of geography, and contin-ued until about 1530. Analogous classes were not introduced in the universities of Germany and at Vienna until after 1500. Initially geography was closely connected with astronomy; gradually, however, descriptive geography emerged along-side astronomical geography. Textbooks were written on cosmography; they were modelled chiefly on Ptolemy.

The earliest was Cosmographia dans manuductionem in tabulas Ptholomei, by Laurentius Corvinus (Wawrzyniec Korwin, ca. 1465–1527), published in Basel in 1496; followed by Introductio-num compendiosum in tractatus Sphaere Joannis de Sacrobosco by Johannes Glo-goviensis (Jan of Głogów, 1445–1507), published in Kraków in 1506. Johannes’

Graphometer by Claude Langlois, 1730–1750. An 18th -c. measuring instrument, the predecessor of the theodolite. Jagiellonian University Museum

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Bernard Wapowski, Mappa Regni Poloniae ac M. Duc. Lithuaniae, ca. 1526, one of the earliest printed Polish maps; copy from the Jagiellonian University Museum


volume gave an extensive account of the geographical location of Kraków, and it also provided information about the Portuguese and Spanish geographical discoveries, challenging the prevalent no-tion at the time that Jerusalem was located at the central point on the globe. It was the first publication in Poland to use the term novus mundus, “the New World,” for America, and abandoned the preference hitherto given to astronomical geography in favour of descriptive geography. It also used maps to illustrate its account, which was a novelty in the way geography was taught at the time.

The next publication, Introductio in Ptholomaei Cosmographiam (1512), by Jan of Stobnica (Joannes de Stobnicza, ca. 1470–1519 or 1530), carried the first map printed in Poland of America presented as a separate continent, and the first table of geographical co-ordinates for the western hemisphere. The aim of this university textbook was not only to provide students with information on the world’s geogra-phy, but also to teach them how to use an atlas. But the main Polish contribution to geography in this period came from Maciej of Miechów (Matthias of Miechów aka Miechowita, 1457–1523), who served

several terms in office as Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the Univer-sity of Kraków. The most emi-nent Polish geographer before 1795, Miechowita was the author of a fairly small but pioneering volume entitled Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis, Asiana et Europiana (1517) on the geography of Eastern Europe, chal-lenging Ptolemy on several issues. For a long time it was the main source of information on the geography of this region and its original Latin version was translated into several languages, with over twenty editions in various countries including China, and its Polish version, published in 1535, was the first book on geography to be printed in Polish.

De revolutionibus or-bium coelestium (1543), the opus vitae of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), opened up a new perspec-tive on geography, especially physical ge-ography. The chronicle of Marcin Bielski,

Kroniki wszystkiego świata, published in 1551, is regarded as the first account of world geography in Polish. It contained information on the discovery of America and was the first Polish work to mention Columbus by name. Extremely useful information on the geography of Poland widely disseminated throughout Europe was presented by another historian, Marcin Kromer (Martinus Cromerus, 1512–1589), in his book Polonia sive de situ, populis, moribus, magistratibus, et Republica regni Polonici libri duo (Cologne, 1577, and later editions). In 1574 a manuscript version was presented to Henri de Valois, newly elected King of Poland, who obtained much of his information on his new kingdom from Kromer’s account.

Polish cartography reached a high level of quality in this period. The pioneer was Bernard Wapowski (1470–1535), the maker of the first map of Poland on a 1:1 000 000 scale (1526). Martin Helwig (1516–1574) made the first map of Sile-sia, Tabula geographica, sive Mappa Silesiae (1561). Around 1561–1562 Wacław Grodziecki (aka Grodecki, ca. 1535–1591) compiled a map of Poland with an index of 724 place-names on the basis of Wapowski’s work, and dedicated his publication to King Sigismund Augus-

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Mercator’s globe, Louvain, 1541. One of the University’s

earliest globes, now in the JU Museum collection.

Woodcut illustration from Joannes de Stobnicza, Introductio in Ptolomei Cosmographiam, Kraków, 1512.


In August 2014 the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management at the Jagiellonian University will be the host of the larg-est geographical conference organised by the International Geographical Union (IGU). IGU conferences have been organised since 1922 when the Union was established, each year in a different country. So far Poland has been chosen only twice: in 1934 and 2014. We expect about 1600 participants from 80 countries. The main theme of the conference is Changes, Challenges, Responsibility. The world has entered the second decade of the 21st century confronted with serious environmental, social, and economic problems. We can observe numerous CHANGES in both the natural and human systems, significantly influencing the present and future well-being of societies. Alongside the well-known links and interactions between the two types of system, new ones are emerging, e.g. economic growth which is not sustainable is causing environmental degradation and contributing to social and political problems that have a spatial aspect.Modern geography is facing significant research CHALLENGES, as its aim is to help citizens understand the world we live

in better. Interdisciplinary research is becoming more and more important as the best tool to combine a holistic approach with very advanced knowledge and techniques from the particular branches of geography. Additionally, the results of scientific activity are the subject of public debate at the local, regional, and global level, and are involved in the process of shaping societies’ awareness of environmental issues at the local, regional, and global level. One of the key tasks for modern geography is to help citizens become more aware of their RESPONSIBILITY for the future of our world. To achieve that goal we shall have to make research results more accessible to non-specialists. Life-long education is especially needed in the environmental sciences. This Conference is going to be an event contributing to the efforts undertaken by institu-tions like ICSU/ISSC Future Earth to define pathways towards sustainability and respond effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change.The President of the Republic of Poland, Mr. Bronisław Komorowski, is the Honorary Pa-tron of this Conference, which is part of the programme of celebrations for the jubilee of the Jagiellonian University’s 650th Anniversary of Foundation.

Anita Bokwa

ThE REGiONAL CONFERENCE OF ThE iNTERNATiONAL GEOGRAPhiCAL UNiON(18–22 August 2014)

tus. His map was reproduced by Ortelius (1527–1598) in his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570).

The importance put in the University of Kraków on the teaching of geography is shown by the collection of globes from this period, especially the Jagiellonian Globe, which has come down to our times. It was made in 1511 and was the earliest in the world to show America as a separate continent, marked as America noviter reperta.

Another discipline associated with geography which made its first appear-ance in Kraków at this time was meteorol-ogy, with Theoria ventorum (Würzburg, 1596), a theoretical publication by An-drzej Mirowski, a scholar born around the mid-16th century, who based his work on Hippocrates and Aristotle.

In 1631 the Chair of Practical Ge-ometry was founded at the University of Kraków, and was the first chair of survey-ing and cartography in Europe. One of the individuals who helped to create it was the distinguished mathematician and as-tronomer Jan Brożek (Ioannes Broscius,

1585–1652), a professor at the University and Poland’s first historian of science. Brożek conducted climatological meas-urements, lectured in geography, and made plans for the compilation of a map of Poland. He was an ardent enthusiast of Copernicus and Columbus, and donated the Jagiellonian Globe to the University.

The introduction of new advances in geography in the teaching at Kraków, along with a departure from the old meth-od of making students learn everything by heart and instead getting them to follow a rationalised system to build up their knowledge, and reference in classes and textbooks to the observable reality – all this made Kraków’s geography attractive and drew in students from Germany and Silesia who later earned a reputation as well-known humanists regarded as inno-vators in geography. The students of the University of Kraków at this time came from many parts of Poland-Lithuania and throughout Europe. Most of the peregrine students came from Silesia, Prussia, Hungary, Transylvania, Bohemia, and Slovakia.

After the Renaissance geography at Kraków lost some of its importance for a time, but it was still present in the life of the University. A revival came during the Enlightenment, inspired by influences from Western Europe stimulating intellectual af-fairs. This was a process which continued even when Poland lost its independence and statehood and the following period (1772–1918). The activities of the National Commission of Education, Europe’s first ministry of education (1773–1794) and the reform of the University carried out by Hugo Kołłątaj (1750–1812) brought a distinctive impetus for revitalisation. The mid-19th century saw the foundation of the Chair of Geography at the Jagiel-lonian University, the first of its kind in the Polish territories and the second to be established in the whole of Europe (after Berlin, 1820). It was created by Wincenty Pol (1807–1872). Its operations, from 1849 to 1852, marked the beginning of the de-velopment of modern geography in Poland.

Antoni Jackowski

Honorary Professor of the Jagiellonian University


iT ALL STARTEd WiTh COPERNiCUS...

The Copernicus Society of America has established a special Olga and Edward Piszek Fund to finance the cost of coope-ration between the Jagiellonian University and Dickinson College. Originally it had amounted to $150,000. but has now grown to $500,000. As a result, in January 2014 the agreement between the Jagiellonian and Dickinson College could be extended for another three years.

On behalf of the University, the agreement was signed by its Vice-Rector for Education, Professor Andrzej Mania, who has supported this project from the very outset. Let us hope he will continue to lend his experience to it in the years ahead.

In 2006–2013, 11 Jagiellonian doctoral candidates and a graduate student received one-semester scholarships to Dickinson College. They were able to attend classes and conduct research, and thanks to a grant, not worry about the costs of studying in one of the best private colleges in the U.S. Scholarship holders form an integrated group which is trying to maintain contact with each other, and each year, at a time of scientific seminars, meet with American students and scientists. One of them is Dr. Michał Oleszczyk, one of the best young Polish film critics, and since 2013 artistic director of the Gdynia Film Festival.

The Jagiellonian University had con-ferred an honorary doctorate on Edward John Piszek. In 2003, the Jagiellonian Uni-versity Press published his autobiography titled “Dzieląc się dobrem” (English title: “Some Good in the World”). His daughter Helen Piszek Nelson has been awarded the “Plus ratio quam vis” medal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufk_aHGJnAc

Jerzy BystrowskiCopernicus Foundation in Poland

Marcin GabryśInstitute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora

Edward Piszek during the Project: POLE media campaignIn the early 1970s, Americans of German

descent began planning celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of the birth of Mikołaj Kopernik, widely known by his La-tin name Copernicus. Edward Piszek (1916 – 2004), the son of Polish immigrants, was outraged by the derogative anti-Polish jokes then circulating in the US and decided to do something about it. Using his conside-rable financial resources, the Philadelphia industrialist launched Project: POLE, an ambitious public-relations campaign de-signed to upgrade the then rather negative Polish image.

One day, Americans woke up and saw on the front page of their morning papers information about the great Polish astrono-mer Mikołaj Kopernik. They learned that Madame Curie (Maria Skłodowska-Curie) was Polish and that long before Columbus discovered America there had been a Po-land. About the renowned novelist Joseph Conrad they learned that he changed his name, his country and the whole course of English literature.

In 1972, Piszek founded the Copernicus Society of America, whose purpose was to promote Poland’s cultural heritage in the United States. He initiated and sponsored a variety of projects including the purchase of the house at Pine and 3rd Streets in Phi-ladelphia, where Polish and American hero Tadeusz Kościuszko had lived in 1797. He renovated the building, turned it into the museum of Kościuszko and donated it to America’s National Park Service. He also financed the translation of Henryk Sienkie-wicz’s monumental Trilogy into English.

Piszek had worked with Kraków’s

Jagiellonian University ear-lier, but it was only after Poland dumped communism in 1989 that the cooperation could expand. Thanks to his hard work, dedication and the Christian principle of helping others, Edward Piszek was always willing to extend a helping hand rather than just to give. He frequently said: don’t give someone fish but a fishing pole and teach him how to catch them himself.

Thanks to his personal contacts and long-standing friendship with Jagiellonian University Rector Professor Karol Musioł, Piszek built a framework of understanding which is being continued by his heirs – his daughter Helen Piszek Nelson and son William Piszek.

In 2006 the American Studies Institute for the first time played host to a group of students and lecturers from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In Kra-ków, they took part in a seminar devoted to Poland’s history, changing socio-political relations and the opportunities afforded by membership of the European Union. Since then, the Institute of American Studies has played host to some 160 students and lecturers from Dickinson College’s two foreign centers in Bologna and Bremen who attended week-long scholarly semi-nars in Kraków. In an intensive academic and cultural program (a series of lectures given by the Institute’s staff, sightseeing in Kraków and Warsaw, visits in the museum at Auschwitz), there has been also, with the help of the American Studies Student Academic Society, a chance to meet and integrate with Polish students.

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Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Philadelphia


SOME OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY’S VISITORS

On 13th May 2013 the Jagiellonian University celebrated its traditional Foundation Day and conferred its honorary doctorate on Prof. Andrzej Grzegorczyk, and the honorary professorship on Prof. Jacek Klinowski

On 14th May 2013 the Jagiellonian University hosted a group of representatives from Oman, headed by Mr. Jahya Mahfoodh Al-Manthri, Chairman of the Sultanate of Oman

On 27th May 2013 another delegation from Oman visited the Jagiellonian University. His Excellency Minister Abdullah

bin Mohammed al Salim was our guest of honour

On 5th June 2013 Rector Wojciech Nowak met His Excellency Mr. Murad Ali, the Ambassador of the Islamic

Republic of Pakistan to Poland

On 18th June 2013 a meeting was held in Collegium Maius between a delegation from New Zealand and the authorities and staff members of the Jagiellonian University

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On 8th July 2013 the Rector hosted His Excellency Mr. Ovidiu Draga, Ambassador of Rumania to Poland

On 11th July 2013 HE Mr. Asaad Sultan Abogulal, Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq, visited the University


SOME OF THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY’S VISITORSMay 2013 – April 2014

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On 2nd September 2013 the University received a visit from Mr. Peter Feldmann, Oberbürgermeister of Frankfurt-a-M, accom-panied by the heads of Frankfurt’s universities and the local media

On 5th September 2013 the Rector, Prof. Wojciech Nowak, and Vice-Rector Prof. Stanisław Kistryn met Prof. Jüras

Banys, Rector of the University of Vilnius

On 10th October 2013 the Rector of the JU and Dr. Hideki Fukuda, President of Kobe University, signed a contract for co-operation between the two universities

On 29th October 2013 Mr. Crin Antonescu, Chairman of the Senate

of Rumania, visited the University

On 9th December 2013 a delegation from Ukraine visited the University. Rector Nowak and Prof. Ihor Koval, Rector

of Odessa National University, signed a memorandum for co-operation between the two universities

On 14th March 2014 Prof. János Martonyi, Foreign Minister of Hungary, visited the University

On 27th March 2014 the University hosted a delegation from Oman, led by Dr. Ali Al Bemani, Vice-Chancellor of the Sultan Qaboos University

On 16th April 2014 HE Mr. Ricardo Villanueva Hallal, the Ambassador of Mexico to Poland, visited the Jagiellonian University


The Jagiellonian University’s Archives are as old as the Uni-versity itself and date back to King Casimir’s foundation

in 1364. For six and a half centuries they have accompanied the University and shared in its history, collecting and preserv-ing a variety of documents associated with the University, its operations, and its staff and students. Accumulating over the centuries, the Jagiellonian University’s archival collection is an excellent record of the history of Poland’s principal academic community and intellectual elite – from the 14th century to the

ARChiVAL TREASURES OF ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

present day. It is an invalu-able resource in the national heritage, an inherent part of European scholarship and culture.

Our collection of over 800 parchment documents is a rare treasure in the Uni-versity’s historic resources. They go back to the charters and other documents issued for its first and second foundation, in 1364 and 1400 respectively, which are followed by more royal charters, issued by the kings of Poland, from its Founders, Casimir the Great and Vladislaus Jagiełło, and their successors right to the times of August III (1733–1764); papal bulls issued by Urban V, Boniface IX, Martin V, Gregory XIII, and many other pontiffs; as well as documents issued by cardinals, bishops, state dignitaries, municipal authorities, and private individuals. Each of these items is not only a historical source, but also a cultural artefact and a work of art. For instance, there is the bull issued by Pope Boniface IX on 11th January 1397 for the erec-tion of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Kraków. The document is a magnificent artefact made in the pontifical chancellery and a fine specimen of late medieval calligraphy. Another beautiful document, exemplifying the Renaissance manuscript art, is a parchment deed drawn up on 15th May 1584 by Piotr Dunin Wolski, Bishop of Płock, to confirm a deed issued in 1558 by Andrzej Noskowski, one of his predecessors in the See of Płock, and relating to the renovation of the University’s Bursa Philosophorum. The University’s foundation charters of 1364 and 1400 survived in an excellent state of preservation until 1939, but unfortunately perished during the Second World War, and all that remains of them are the royal seals of Casimir the Great and Vladislaus Jagiełlo. The original stamps for the seals were exquisitely made by medieval master craftsmen, or in fact artists who did an excellent job of expressing the royal Founders’ ideological message.

The University’s collection of archives for the Old Polish period (to the demise of Poland-Lithuania, 1795) comprise a set of 346 medieval and early modern manuscripts (apart from the parchment documents), and over 20 thousand paper docu-ments. The invaluable records documenting the University’s history include matriculation, attendance, and graduation reg-isters; the registers of the rector’s court; resolutions adopted by the University’s Senate; statutes and regulations issued by the University, its individual faculties, colleges, and students’ halls; and documents relating to the University’s economic af-fairs; as well as the private correspondence of its professors and A masters’ graduation ceremony, miniature on p.27 in the Faculty

of Philosophy graduation register for 1658–1780

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The seal of Collegium Maius, before 1434

A parchment document issued by the Rector and University Corporation on 14th December 1428, with the University’s oldest surviving seal

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fellows. A set of 52 volumes relating to scholarship foundations testify to the generosity of Polish society on behalf of its students and are unique on a European scale. The documents which we hold relating to the Com-mission of National Education, the first ministry of education to be set up in Poland and indeed in 18th-century Europe, along with the materials concerning Hugo Kołłątaj’s reform, have been entered in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. They date back to 1778–1795, when the University was reformed, modernised, and given the name and status of Principal School

of the Kingdom of Poland, with Polish as the language of instruction.

The exceptionally abundant collec-tion of 19th- and 20th-century documents, amounting to around 5 thousand metres of shelf space, is a record of the University’s predicament during the period of loss of independence and Germanisation at the

hands of the Austrian partitioning power; followed by revival in the late 19th century

(the “Galician Autonomy”) and early 20th cen-tury after the restoration of Poland’s independ-

ence in 1918; thereafter the tragic period of the Sec-ond World War under Nazi German occupation; followed

by Stalinism and the Communist period; eventually leading to a gradual retrieval of autonomy in the late Communist period; and

finally growth since 1989. The col-lections for this period include tens of thousands of unique photographs (of staff, students, and University facilities), over 2 thousand stamps for the University’s seals, nearly 1,800 posters, and numerous legacies left by 19th- and 20th-century academics.

The Jagiellonian University Ar-chives are not only acting as the guardian of this unique legacy. We are also compiling a comprehensive description of these resources, con-ducting research on the University’s past, and making our holdings acces-sible to interested parties.

Krzysztof OżógDirector of the Jagiellonian University

Archives

A book of autographs dating back to 1843, from the legacy of Edward Rastawiecki (1805–1874)

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Luci di Nara, a sculpture by Igor Mitoraj, the distingu-

ished Polish artist whose works grace the city centres of Paris, Rome, London, and New York, was donated to the Jagiellonian University in 1993. In complian-ce with its maker’s wishes, it stands on a marble plinth in the court of the Collegium Iuridi-cum building on ulica Grodzka. Made by the lost-wax casting method and coated with a layer of ceramic patina, it shows part of an oversized human face with slightly Oriental features.

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ThE SZEMBEK iLLUMiNATEd ChARTERFive parchment documents from

1313 – 1706 relating to the Szembek family have been in the Jagiellonian Library collections since 2012. They were donated to the Library by Zygmunt Jan Szembek of London, a descendant of the family. The most valuable of the

set is a charter issued in 1616 by King Sigismund III to confirm the naturalisa-tion (admission to the Polish nobility) of the Szembek family half a century earlier. The miniature on it depicts King Sigismund Augustus seated on the throne in the company of spiritual and secular

senators, issuing a charter of naturalisa-tion to Bartłomiej Szembek.

The charter presents a rare testimonial of 16th-century culture, and is one of the jewels in the Jagiellonian Library’s collections.

Zdzisław PietrzykDirector of the Jagiellonian Library


JUBiLEE EXhiBiTiONSA new exhibition entitled Piękno darowane (A Gift of Beauty) dedicated

to the donors and creators of the University’s museum collections is on view from 7th May to 6th August this year in Collegium Maius, the Jagiellonian University’s oldest building. The Exhibition is a project organised jointly by the University’s Museum and Archives for the 2014 Jubilee, Jubilee, and its curators are Jolanta Pollesch, Chief Conservation Specialist at the Museum, and Dr. Maciej Zdanek of the Archives. In the display you will see a range of rare, and rarely or never exhibited works of art and craftsmanship, utility items, and scientific instruments which over the centuries have come into the University’s collections thanks to the generosity of its donors, and now serve an educational purpose as artefacts illustrative of the history of science.

A GiFT OF BEAUTY

Gdańsk ducat issued by Sigismund III (1587–1632); the Gdańsk mint, 1631; gold, 3.490 g, 23.1 mm.

Gift of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1895

Gentleman’s pocket watch, Patek Philippe & Co; Switzerland, Geneva, Gift of Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941)

Tankard showing Hagar and Ishmael in the desert; 1689–1695;

Christian Pichgiel I. Legacy of Baron Edward Rastawiecki, 1869

Snuff-box with a miniature of King Stanisław August Poniatowski; unknown maker, ca. 1792. From the legacy of Baron Edward Rastawiecki, 1869

Equatorial sundial; Poland, Kraków, 18th–19th

c. Purchased by Prof. Karol Estreicher

Jun. in an antique shop in 1964 and presented

to the JU Museum


JUBiLEE EXhiBiTiONSTo mark the Jubilee the Jagiellonian Library has arranged a fas-

cinating exhibition presenting a selection from its resources of manuscripts accumulated since the beginning of the present century. Most of the exhibits come from gifts donated to the Library by individuals and institutions, or from purchases, mainly from private individuals, and some at auctions. There are also a few items from the Jagiellonian Library’s old holdings, manuscripts which have recently been identified during cataloguing, conservation, or stacking projects. The Exhibition presents only a small fraction of the Library’s new accessions, but a full list with descriptions is available at http://www.bj.uj.edu.pl/akcesja, which is regularly updated with the needs of researchers in mind. Alongside their patent cultural and material value, these accessions are supplementing and enhancing the Jagiel-lonian Library’s pool of historical source materials. The Exhibition’s organisers would like to thank all the individuals and institutions who have decided to donate their collections to the Jagiellonian Library, and look forward to more accessions accruing from private collections in the future. You can visit the Exhibition in the Jagiellonian Library’s exhibition room from 15th May to 27th June 2014.

Monika JaglarzSenior Librarian, Jagiellonian Library Manuscipt Section

(MANU)SCRIPTA MANENTVerba volant, scripta manent

14th-c. parchment diploma, retrieved from the binding of another of the Library’s manuscripts and now in the loose parchment collection, identified and entered in the Library’s records of parchment deeds. From the old holdings

Pages from the diary of Helena Cerchowa, 1898;

and family photo of Maksymilian Cerch, his wife Helena, and their children;

gift of Prof. Ewa Śnieżyńska-StolotowaIf you are interested in donating your collection to the Jagiellonian Library, please contact our Manuscript Section (tel. 12 6633519, or e-mail: [email protected])


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John Paul II during the ceremony for the conferral of the JU honorary doctorate on him; aula of Collegium Maius, 22nd June 1983


The words of the medieval hymn Gau-de Mater Polonia composed for the

canonisation of St. Stanislaus in Assisi in 1253 are a good reflection of what the community of the Jagiellonian University feels in 2014 and our memories of Pope John Paul II. No other Polish university enjoyed such intimate and affectionate links with John Paul II, so our memories are an absolutely natural thing, particularly as during his last pilgrimage to Poland he asked us to keep him in our memory.

The Pope’s biography is well and widely known. Strangely enough, not so much attention has been paid to a period he often recalled and throughout his life looked back to with nostalgia. I need hardly say that the Jagiellonian University held a special place in the Pope’s life, but it might be worthwhile quoting some of the things he said about it:

“I have always considered the day I went up to the Jagiellonian University after I had passed my school-leaving ex-amination in 1938 a great moment in my life” (1979). “The University and cultural aspect of Kraków is an intrinsic part of my life” (1979) “I had always sensed the historic nature of the Jagiellonian Univer-sity, to which Providence allowed me to commit the early years of my life” (1983). “I have that one year of study before the War inscribed deep in my memory – the entire academic community, the names of the great professors whose student I had the luck to be, the faces of my fellow students, . . . I’m still reaping the benefits of that very short period of fragmentary study” (1983). “We started with Polish Studies in that unforgettable building at Number 20 on ulica Gołębia. We have to try to look back to those unforgettable places and issues” (from a 1996 letter to Professor Maria Bobrownicka, who was a student in the Pope’s year). “I’m glad that next spring I will be able to a certain extent to join in the celebrations of the Jagiel-

Gaude Mater Polonia, Rejoice, O Mother Polonia,Prole fecunda nobili, Fertile with noble offspring,Summi regis magnalia With frequent vigil praiseLaude frequenta vigili The great deeds of the Supreme King

JOhN PAUL ii ANd hiS CONNECTiON WiTh ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

lonian University’s sexcentenary. I shall always remember 1st Octo-ber 1938 in the room in Number 20 on the Gołębia where all the students of Polish met” (1996). ”I had the experience of the pre-war Jagiellonian University of Kraków; only the oldest among those present today remember what the University was like in those days” (1979).

The day when the German occupying authorities arrested the academics of Kraków was a tragic episode from the University’s history which left an indelible im-pression on the Pope’s memory. He recalled it in the following way, “6th November 1939. I was a student of Polish. That very day I had been in our department on the Gołębia, I’d spoken to my professors, who were in a hurry for the meeting that had been called by the occupying author-ity. They never came out of that meeting to go home but were sent to Sachsenhausen” (1979).

His links with the University continued after the War: “I was a student of the Kraków seminary, so I could take part in the life of the University’s academic com-munity in those first years after the War, . . . and after graduating I was still in touch with the Uni-versity” (1983).

All the most important offi-cial documents relating to Karol Wojtyła’s period of study in the Faculty of Philosophy (for Pol-ish) and the Faculty of Theology are preserved in the Jagiellonian University Archives. The brilliant examination marks in his records show what kind of student he was. In Theology they were either 1,

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John Paul II speaking during the ceremony for the conferral of the JU honorary doctorate on him; aula of Collegium Maius, 22nd June 1983

John Paul II and JU Rector Prof. Józef Gierowski, 22nd June 1983

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John Paul II meets the academic community in the court of Collegium Maius, 22nd June 1983

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which stood for eminenter (excellent,) or 2, valde bene (very good).

Karol Wojtyła was not just an alumnus of the Jagiellon-ian University. When he was still in his third year of The-ology the dean of the faculty contracted him for the duties of junior assistant, his job description on the Faculty of Theology’s payroll from 30th May 1945 to 8th November 1946. One of his duties as junior assistant was to take the minutes at a scholarly meeting in Father Ignacy Różycki’s Particular Dogmatics Seminar.

We all know that subse-quently he was sent to Rome to continue his university studies at the Angelicum, and there he obtained his doctoral degree. But there are a few things to clear up, points which have raised questions for a long time. The Pope mentioned them himself: “We won’t quib-ble over my doctor’s degree – at any rate it’s claimed by the Angelicum. At any rate. But actually if you rummaged

about in the documents a bit, you’d find that the Jagiellonian University could make the same claim” (1979).

So we did a bit of rummag-ing. On 30th November 1947 he relinquished his post as assistant at the Jagiellonian University in connection with his departure for Rome to continue his studies abroad. At the Angelicum Karol Wojtyła completed his disserta-tion on St. John of the Cross’ theology of faith, which he had started in Kraków under the guid-ance of his tutor, Father Różycki. On 31st May 1948 the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University nostrified the licenti-ate degree Karol Wojtyła had ob-tained in Rome, in other words it recognised that he had completed the full, five-year course of study in Theology. However, officially there were no licentiate degrees at the Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Theology at the time.

On 10th November of the same year Karol Wojtyła submitted an application to the dean of the Faculty of Theology for admis-sion to the doctor’s examination,


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The 7th Castel Gandolfo Seminar, 3rd–6th August 1993. Prof. Aleksander Koj delivers a paper on the relativity of scientific laws in biology. Prof. Jerzy Janik is sitting next to Prof. Koj

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Participants of the symposium on contemporary Slavs with regard to their traditions and myths,

Castel Gandolfo, 19th –20th August 1996

enclosing a list of all the examinations he had taken at the Angelicum. Three days later Professor Różycki presented his re-view of his doctoral student’s dissertation entitled Doctrina de fide apud S. Johannem a Cruce (St. John of the Cross’ Doctrine of Faith).

But in order to obtain the doctor’s degree, he had to hold the magister (mas-ter’s) degree. On 24th November 1948, on application from the Board of Examiners on the grounds of the examinations he had passed in his studies of Philosophy and Theology in Kraków to 1946 and at the Angelicum in Rome, and the dissertation

entitled Pojęcie środka zjednoczenia duszy z Bogiem w nauce św. Jana od Krzyża (The Concept of the Means by which the Soul unites with God in the teachings of St. John of the Cross), the Council of the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian

University conferred the master’s degree on Father Karol Wojtyła, to confirm that he had completed the full course of study at the University.

The second reviewer’s report on Father Wojtyła’s doctoral dissertation, compiled by Professor Władysław Wicher, was ready by 1st December, and on the fol-lowing day the Council of the Faculty of Theology of the Jagiellonian University unanimously admitted the dissertation to the next stage of the doctoral proceedings. On 14th December 1946 Father Wojtyła had his final examination, and two days later – on 16th December 1948 – the of-

ficial graduation ceremony was held for the award of the doctor’s degree. And that is how Karol Wojtyła became a doctor of the Jagiellonian University.

On 15th March 1951 the Council of the Faculty of Theology submitted an ap-

plication to the University authorities to appoint Karol Wojtyła to the post of junior assistant. On the same day he filled in a de-tailed personal questionnaire. On 2nd June 1951 he was allocated the duty of lecturing in Social Ethics. On 6th November of the same year the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Theology notified the Rector that it had sent an application to the Ministry for the conferral of the docent’s title on Dr. Wojtyła. For the next two years there was no response from the Ministry. In 1953 the state authorities abolished the habilitation (post-doctoral, pre-professorial) degree. Nonetheless, the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Theology decided to continue awarding its own habilitation degrees,

Souvenirs of one of the Pope’s visits to the University. JU Museum collection

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John Paul II visits Collegium Maius, 8th June 1997

even though from the point of view of the legal provi-sions under the Communist regime of the time they were invalid. On 17th December 1953 an application was lodged with the University’s Senate requesting the con-firmation of the procedure for Karol Wojtyła’s ha-bilitation. On 23rd December the Dean of the Faculty submitted an application to the Rector’s Office for the appointment of reviewers of the habilitation proce-dure. The matter was on the agenda for the meeting of the Council of the Faculty of Theology on 7th January 1954, and thereafter an ap-plication was made at the Senate meeting of 19th Janu-ary for the conferral of the title of docent on Dr. Karol Wojtyła. Many years later, during his meeting with Kraków’s academics and students at Skałka Church in June 1979 the Pope re-called these events and said that he had been the last docent of the Jagiellonian University to be habilitated

into the University’s Faculty of Theology, and that he was very proud of this. However, on 25th February the Rector’s Office had to return Karol Wojtyła’s documents on formal grounds to the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Theology, with a letter on the procedure for the conferral of the title of docent.

The last documents con-cerning Karol Wojtyła in this period come from late May and early June 1954. On 27th May the Council of the Faculty of Theology adopted a resolution calling for the appointment of Karol Wojtyła to the post of assistant in the Chair of Moral Theology; and on 2nd June Pro-fessor Wicher lodged a formal request on the matter with the Rector’s Office. However, there was no closure on the matter, as still in the same year the Faculty of Theology was removed from the Jagiellonian University.

Nonetheless Karol Wojtyła kept up his relations with the University community, both with its staff and students, through his pastoral ministry as a priest in Kraków. He spent

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Pope John Paul II in St. Anne’s Collegiate Church during his meeting with representatives of Poland’s academia, 8th June 1997

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John Paul II visits the Pychowice Campus, 2002

Rita Pagacz-Moczarska presents issue no. 4 of Alma Mater to the Holy Father, 8th June 1997

his holidays in the company of University people, especially students, and engaged in long conversations with them, getting to know young people and understand their problems. In 1979 he recalled those times, saying that by the early 50s he had realised that if his pastoral ministry was to reach the various aspects of the lives of students and young people it could not stop at what happened in church but had to go out into other areas. The friendships he made at that time would last to the end of his life. But he was also in close touch with the University’s academics. When he was appointed head of the local Church in the Archdiocese of Kraków he continued his intellectual pursuits in the academic com-munity, organising numerous discussions

and scholarly events in which academics from the University took part. And he conducted the funeral services of many of its professors and staff.

There were University contexts to Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimages to Poland, especially the first of them, in 1979. He kept up his contacts with academics, and especially his Castel Gandolfo meetings

with physicists and scholars of Slavonic studies became famous. The conferral of the Jagiellonian University’s honorary doctorate on John Paul II in 1983 marked a highlight, perhaps even the climax of the affectionate relationship between the Pope and his Alma Mater.

Krzysztof StopkaDirector of the Jagiellonian University Museum

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JU Vice-Rector Franciszek Ziejka welcomes the Holy Father in the court of Collegium Maius, 8th June 1997

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JOhN PAUL ii ANd POLiSh ACAdEMiAJohn Paul II loved Poland and her inhabitants. He made no distinctions be-

tween them, he loved the dockers as much as the intellectuals, the teachers as much as the factory workers, the young as much as the old. But it’s true that he had a special place in his heart for academics. That’s why he had so many meetings with them, that’s why he begged them earnestly never to forget their duty to foster the spirit of patriotism. For they are the ones whose task it is to engage in scholarly research on the quest for truth and for the nurturing of the national culture; and that is why he wanted them to cherish and promote a love of their country that stands on guard of the national heritage but does not bar the gates, but instead builds bridges in order to share that heritage with others and thereby increase it. On 11th September 2000 he told several hundred members of the Jagiellonian University that Poland needed enlight-ened patriots, people ready to make sacrifices for the love of their country, and to engage in the creative exchange of its spiritual goods with the nations of a uniting Europe. With the Holy Father’s meetings with representatives of Poland’s academia in mind, along with those words he said on the mission fac-ing every Polish teacher, especially every Polish academic tutor – I embarked on an attempt to draw up an outline of the history of John Paul II’s relations with Poland’s academia. I leave it to my readers to judge whether my attempt has been successful.

Franciszek ZiejkaFrom the introduction to his book Jan Paweł II i polski świat akademicki,

Kraków: Universitas, 2014

Rectors of Polish colleges and universities on a visit to John Paul II; Castel Gandolfo, 30th August 2001

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Throughout his life, from early youth until his final years, the scope of the

arts which interested and engaged Karol Wojtyła was extremely broad and intimately connected with his own experience – as a

GOD’S ROMANTICable to convey a content which often the language of scholarship failed to carry. His theatre experience in the Rapso-dyczny, the poet’s sensitivity and range of

be a Rhapsodist, he never abandoned the Rhapsodist’s language and poetic forms,

even when for many long years, right until Roman Triptych, he stopped writing poetry.

The status he attributed to the spoken word was certainly no lesser. The expe-rience of the theatre he had acquired in his youth, the poet’s sensitivity, and his special gift of elocution enhanced the depth of what he said and aroused admiration. The Polish linguist Kazimierz Ożóg has observed that only a poet and expert in philology could have created such texts; only an individual with a vast knowledge of philosophy and theology, and very broad horizons in the humanities, could have delivered such speech. Karol Wojtyła was one of the best speakers. He made magnificent use of his voice, sometimes transforming his enuncia-tions into a dynamic poetic prose.

In my book Romantyk Boży (God’s Romantic) I look at the artistic experience of Karol Wojtyła’s youth, which had such a profound effect on the personality of one of the modern world’s most charismatic leaders and the paths along which he sought to reach God and Mankind.

Stanisław DziedzicDirector of the Department for Culture

and National Heritage in the Municipal Office of the City of Kraków

poet, dramatist, reviewer, and actor. In one of his wartime letters to Mieczysław Kotlar-czyk, the director of the clandestine theatre company Teatr Rapsodyczny, he confided that it was through poetry that he learned to speak before he started to talk. Alongside his scholarship, Wojtyła’s literary work was one of the ways in which he learned and fathomed that reality, maybe not the most important reality in his mission, but most probably the one closest to his heart.

In his pastoral writings and enunciations Karol Wojtyła / John Paul II resorted to the language and formulae of literary genres, al-ways keeping them at the highest linguistic standards of precision and perfectionism. He attributed a well-nigh mystical function to the language of poetry, envisaging it as

metaphor, and the status and value he assigned to the spoken word hel-ped Karol Wojtyła in his ascendant career in the Church to combine the gift of charismatic leader-ship and authenticity with the rare talent of speaking on difficult and complex matters clearly and in a breathtaking manner. These skills, nurtured and continually evolving from his young years, set John Paul II apart from other statesmen and spiritual leaders. He continued to

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Jan Paweł II pozostawił potom-nym dziedzictwo ogromne, trudne wręcz do ogarnięcia. Duchowy testament wielkiego papieża będzie też, to pewne, analizowany i przy-woływany przez kolejne pokolenia wiernych, w tym przez uczonych, zresztą nie tylko chrześcijan, ale i ludzi innych wyznań. Zawiera on bowiem bogactwo ważnych prawd i myśli, wciąż aktualnych, inspi-rujących do podejmowania coraz nowych inicjatyw w służbie Bogu i ludziom.

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ThE LEGACY OF JOhN PAUL iiThe book Przesłanie Jana Pawła II na XXI wiek (The Message of John Paul II for the 21st Century) is a collection of papers delive-red on 15th–18th November 2011 during a meeting of scholars from several European universi-ties at the Università del Salento, Lecce (Italy). Their aim was to analyse selected aspects of the Holy Father’s teaching, drawn chiefly from his encyclicals and pastoral letters, his catechetical instructions, speeches, and bo-oks. Edited by Marko Jačov, Franciszek Ziejka, and Włady-sław Zuziak, the publication shows how apposite and timely the Holy Father’s ideas continue to be, and encourages re-aders to devote more study to them.

Karol Wojtyła in front of the Cloth Hall, 1938


A STAMP TO COMMEMORATE THE 65th ANNIVERSARY OF KAROL WOJTYŁA’S ORDINATION

A STAMP FOR POPE JOHN PAUL II’s 85th BiRThdAY

In 2005 the Republic of Benin, a country on the Gulf of Guinea in Central Africa, issued a stamp to mark the 85th birthday of Pope John Paul II. The stamp shows Cardinal Karol Wojtyła with Wawel Cathedral in the background, and the inscription “Cracow”.

In 2011 the Republic of Mali, a country in West

Africa, issued a block of four stamps with the por-traits of Pope John Paul II at various times in his life, and Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, Metropoli-tan Archbishop of Kraków (1867-1951). Cardinal Sa-pieha earned the epithet of “Undaunted Prince” for his resolute stand on many key issues in Church and natio-nal matters, and is regarded as one of the major figu-res in the Roman Catholic Church in Poland in the first half of the 20th century.

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On 1st November 1946 Ka-rol Wojtyła was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Sa-pieha, and the block of stamps was issued to mark the 65th anniversary of the occasion.

Various Cracovian views appear in the background on the Mali stamps: the statue of Cardinal Sapieha (by sculptor August Zamoyski) in front of the Franciscan Basilica; the Market Square, with part of St. Adalbert’s Church (on the left), part of the Cloth Hall, the Town Hall Tower (on the right), and the Kościuszko Mound in the distance.

Jerzy Duda

STAMP COLLECTORS’ CURIOSITIES


STAMP COLLECTORS’ CURIOSITIES ThE 650th ANNiVERSARY OF ThE CONSECRATiON OF WAWEL CAThEdRAL

The 650th anniversary of the consecration of Wawel Cathedral was celebrated in March 2014. The present-day edifice is the third cathedral to be built on Wawel Hill. Histo-

rians say that the earliest one, a Pre-Romanesque structure, was raised by Boleslaus the Brave around 1000. The next one, a Romanesque building, owed its construction chiefly to Vladislaus Herman, and was consecrated in 1142. Unfortunately it was ravaged by a fire in 1305 and all that is left of it now is St. Leonard’s Crypt. In 1320 Vladislaus the Elbow-High was crowned King of Poland in the devastated Cathedral. In the same year Bishop Nanker initiated the building scheme for a new edifice, in the Gothic style. This Cathedral, now the glory of Wawel Hill, was consecrated on 28th March 1364 by Bishop Jarosław Bogoria of Skotniki. To mark the Cathedral’s splendid jubilee a series of religious ceremonies was held on 27th – 28th March 2014. An academic conference was organised, and nearly 20 scholars from various university centres in Poland delivered papers.

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In September 1364, most probably be-tween the 22nd and the 27th, there was a congress of European monarchs in Kraków. The kings and princes who met in the city on the invitation of Casimir the Great, King of Poland, included the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV; King Louis I of Hungary; King Valdemar IV Atterdag of Denmark; the King of Cy-prus, Peter Lusignan; Rudolf IV the Founder, Duke of Austria; the two Mar-graves of Brandenburg, Louis VI the Roman and Otto V; and a large retinue of Polish dukes, including Siemowit III of Mazovia; Vladislaus of Opole; Bole-slaus II of Świdnica; and Boguslaus V of Wołogoszcz and Słupsk with his son Casimir. The congress was held in connection with the marriage of King Casimir’s granddaughter Elżbieta to the Emperor Charles IV. There was a sec-ond reason: to effect a reconciliation between the Emperor and the King of Hungary, undertaken by King Casimir and the Duke of Świdnica (cf. R. Gro-decki, Kongres krakowski w roku 1364, Kraków, 1995). The congress has come down in history and is remembered not so much for the political nego-tiations conducted at this time, as for the renowned feast given for the kings and princes by Mikołaj Wierzynek, a wealthy burgher of Kraków.

Franciszek Ziejka

ThE 650th ANNiVERSARY OF THE KRAKÓW CONGRESS OF MONARChS OF EUROPE

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Kraków is often perceived as the heart of Poland and “the most Polish of

Poland’s cities.” Although Poland’s borders have changed so many times, Kraków has always been Polish. But at the same time it is the most cosmopolitan place in Poland: a place that not only has been import-ing diverse foreign influences, but also reprocessing them in a creative manner. Today the myth of Poland’s historic capital – a symbolic point in Polish political and national affairs – should be reinterpreted within the wider framework of a uniting Europe. If there is such a thing as a Central European complex, a perpetual need to prove that we do belong to Europe, then Kraków is free of that encumbrance: it has never needed to prove its European nature, it has always been the Polish chapter in the European heritage.

Kraków is one of those places which the English call creative cities, cities that have made a creative contribution to the building up of our civilisation’s universal values, while at the same time preserving their own, local features and developing their own, idiosyncratic identity. Kraków is also inherently associated with the spe-cific genius loci of Central Europe. Three concepts of Central Europe, the Hanseatic, Jagiellonian, and Habsburg visions of Cen-tral Europe coincide with the three major periods of Kraków’s civilisational growth. The first and second occurred still in the Middle Ages, but all three were to meet in this city at the turn of the 13th and 14th century. Kraków is the only place where the influences of all three, such very dif-ferent integrative ideas flourishing on the territory of Europa Minor have combined and blended in so creative and harmonious a manner.

If we look at the development of European civilisation from its cultural and economic aspect, in the 12th and 13th century we observe a distinct tendency in Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary integrat-ing these regions with the situation in Carolingian Europe. This was connected with the economic programme conducted by the Cistercians, and above all with the large-scale colonisation campaign sweep-

KRAKÓW WITH RESPECT TO EUROPEing from west to east in this period and bringing the Western European model of settlement to Bohemia, Poland, and Hun-gary. The corporate form of local govern-ment that developed in the municipalities at that time and gradually accrued new rights and privileges grew into one of the mainstays of Europe’s urbanisation.

Kraków became a distinctive symbol of the new dimension in urbanisation. It was in the medieval period that the Euro-pean metropolis at the foot of Wawel, the sacred hill of the Polish people, sprang up and flourished. The crucial factors that de-termined this growth were Kraków’s role as a capital city, but also its adoption of the new model of settlement. Incorporated anew in the mid-13th century with a charter of municipal law and rights based on the German model, envisaged as a vibrant city for colonists, Kraków soon became one of the biggest commercial emporia in late medieval Europe. Its characteristic and still distinctive urban layout dating back to those times was Kraków’s first creative input to the European civilisation.

There is an inherent paradox about Genghis-Khan’s Mongol invasion of 1241. Ironically, the destruction it wreaked strengthened the civilisational vitality of Latinate Europe. This is confirmed both by the medieval defensive churches of Tran-sylvania as well as by Kraków. Although ravaged materially, it survived and proved its ability to continue as a municipality not merely in the sense of its physical fabric, but as something more – a city in the sense of its municipal community and identity, the overlap of its municipal functions, as a process, and perhaps above all as the very idea of municipality. The disaster turned into an incentive and an opportunity for extraordinary creativity. Kraków took advantage of this chance. The grounds for the city’s reorganisation were provided by the municipal charter issued in 1257 by the prince, Boleslaus the Bashful, Duke of Kraków, which opened up a new age in its history. Hitherto its urbanisation had been determined by a spontaneous growth of its urban functions and space. The new charter envisioned Kraków within the

A view of Kraków’s Market Square


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framework of an integrated plan. Char-acterised by the unprecedented scale and symmetry of its urban layout, the scheme invested Kraków with a special place in the history of contemporary civilisation. Its central marketplace – one of the largest in medieval Europe – is striking for its size and regular proportions, and the foresight of its planners, who were able to accom-modate the surviving components of the old urban arrangement harmoniously into their enterprising new design. Liberated from the narrow streets and lanes typical of medieval towns, in 1257 Kraków was endowed with a plan which still today is the essential framework for its metropoli-tan development.

Magdeburg municipal law was the model on which Kraków’s local govern-ment was based, and its first implementers were newcomers from Silesia. As else-where throughout Central Europe at the time, German played a salient role in the shaping of the new Kraków. The influx of German settlers made the rising metropolis multiethnic.

In the 15th century Kraków was one of the largest cities in Central Europe. After the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and Vladislaus Jagiełło’s tremendous victory over the Teutonic Order it was the capital of a rising European power. Alongside its political significance, the city’s economic power was growing, too. The vivacity of the royal court and the city’s prosper-ity fostered a favourable climate for the growth of its intellectual and artistic mi-lieux. The splendour of the final years of the reign of Casimir the Jagiellonian and the Veit Stoss Altarpiece mark the climax of the 15th century, a felicitous period in Kraków’s history.

In the 16th century Kraków was the capital of a vast empire, and its power and influence emanated out from the south-western corner of the Jagiellonian dominions onto the huge expanses of Lithuania and Ruthenia. It was the venue for the parliamentary assemblies convened by the monarch, whose chief residence on Wawel Hill was one of the key politi-cal nodes in the Europe of the times. The grandeur of the reigns of the last Jagiellons marked the peak of Kraków’s significance on the map of Europa Minor. In practi-cal terms its characteristic multiethnicity meant that there were large communities of Jews, Germans, Italians, Ruthenians, Hungarians, and Scotsmen living in and

around the city. At the same time Kraków was the true focus of Polish culture. In the reigns of the Elder and the Younger Sigismund not only was it importing a variety of influences from abroad, but also creatively reprocessing them and acting as a source radiating out its own cultural influence over a broad catchment area extending well beyond the borders of the Jagiellonian empire.

By the mid-16th century the Cracovian agglomeration counted about 30 thousand inhabitants, just like imperial Prague, the biggest city in Central Europe. Although Prague and Kraków were no match in size or economic importance for metropolises like Rome, Venice, Naples, Constantino-ple, Lisbon, Paris, London, or Antwerp, nonetheless in terms of the complexity and force of their functions they surpassed the other Central European cities – Gdańsk, Königsberg, Vilnius, Riga, Kyiv, Lviv, or Wrocław.

Soon, however, its triumph became the cause of its decline. The concept of union with Lithuania hatched in Kraków in the late 14th century eventually generated a threat to the city’s status as capital. This was also associated with the 15th- and 16th-century evolution of the country’s consti-tutional setup. The political foundations of the Noblemen’s Republic into which Poland transformed in the course of the 15th century were rooted in the parliamentary practice exercised by the enfranchised nobility and gentry. With its peripheral position in a state which was expanding in a north-eastward direction, Kraków could no longer keep its status as the venue for parliamentary assemblies. If we are to treat the location of a state’s supreme au-thorities as its capital, then we must admit that Kraków was gradually forfeiting its powers already in the course of the 16th century. Nonetheless, for a long time it preserved many of the components of its rank as capital as perceived in the feudal period, not just officially but in the practi-cal sense as well. It was the place where the symbols of state power and authority – the royal treasury and archives – were lodged. It was the venue for the chief events in the state, ceremonies such as coronations and royal weddings, until well-nigh the end of Poland-Lithuania.

At the turn of the 18th and 19th century Kraków’s reputation as the capital city was the crucial factor making it the obvious choice of a last stand for a major attempt to

save Poland’s sovereignty. It was the focal point for the main events of the Kościuszko Insurrection, which started on 24th March 1794. Unexpectedly, Kraków’s rank as capital acquired a new dimension in 1815 during the Congress of Vienna, becoming the object of keen rivalry between the three Partitioning Powers. It was still perceived as the symbol of Polish sovereignty. In outcome of a compromise reached between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, in 1815-1846 Kraków was formally an independent state, “the Free City of Cracow” under the tutelage of the three “Protector Powers”.

The 19th century brought tremendous change in Europe’s settlement network. A combination of political and economic fac-tors made Kraków remain a non-industrial city with a relatively low rate of growth un-til the end of the 19th century. Constricted by a belt of Austrian fortifications, it was fairly small and impoverished. But in the second half of the century it managed to find a chance for development and a way out of its complicated and difficult predica-ment, taking advantage of the opportunity of the switch towards a more liberal policy that occurred in Austria in the 1860s, and of the potential offered by its metropolitan tradition. This was the essential core of the Kraków phenomenon of the period, demonstrating that there is no such thing as a simple relationship between the size of a city and its metropolitan functions, and that tradition may act as a vital factor in the creation of metropolitan status. On the strength of its past Kraków became the pivot integrating the aspirations of all the Polish people, and it was here, and not in the Habsburg provincial capital at Lemberg/Lwów/Lviv, that their national affairs found their focus.

Kraków’s development at the turn of the 19th and 20th century entailed many paradoxes. Its systemic economic feeble-ness was compensated for by its special meaning for the Polish people. Its func-tion as the nation’s spiritual capital stood in opposition to its role as a border-zone stronghold and a provincial garrison in which foreign troops were stationed. From the vantage-point of the great metropolis into which Vienna had transformed at the turn of the centuries Kraków was merely a middling-size peripheral town. But from the point of view of the Polish raison d’état, despite its impoverishment, it still performed the function of capital city of a non-existent Polish state. These and other


antinomies are the ingredients in the phe-nomenon of Kraków and the exceptional nature of its situation under Austrian rule. The Kraków of those times was not merely the Polish Athens, but also the nursery of Polish resurgence. At the turn of the centuries Lwów performed the function of provincial capital of Galicia, but it was Kraków that served as the main centre integrating Polish public affairs, especially after the 1905 revolution was put down in the Russian partitional zone. On the thresh-old of the First World War it was in Kraków that the principal pro-independence groups concentrated their activities. It was from here that in August 1914 Józef Piłsudski set out with the Polish Legions to fight for Poland’s independence – against Russia, though still at the side of Austria.

With a present-day population of 750 thousand, Kraków is considerably larger than planners had envisaged over half a century ago and – importantly – it is going through a spell of demographic stability. This does not mean a halt in its development, rather it is a question of a slowing down in the rate of expansion it experienced in the previous period at the expense of a lowering in its quality of life. Stabilisation evokes the question of Kraków’s future as a metropolis, in other words of the functions Poland’s old capital is performing today which are enhancing its metropolitan status, and their potential for change. This is undoubtedly a timely question, justified above all by the restora-tion in 1990 of Kraków’s corporate legal

status and its local authority, in other words its political and economic autonomy.

Kraków’s functional model has always been characterised by heterogeneity. We may observe the advantageous conse-quences of this also for the period since 1989. It went through the difficult process of political and economic transformation fairly smoothly, reinforcing its function as one of the largest academic centres in Central Europe (today’s Kraków hosts an army of over 200 thousand university and college students). To answer the question of Kraków’s functions we must first estab-lish which metropolitan model we wish to implement. What we want above all is a metropolitan status which will generate qualitative change without standing in op-position to Kraków’s historic legacy. This means a return to a sustainable model of growth. A city which has been operating since 1999 as the capital of the large region known as Lesser Poland (Małopolska), Kraków should define as soon as possible the sphere of influences and position on the network of European cities it hopes to achieve.

Kraków is one of the old European cities whose current development is fun-damentally determined by their past and tradition. It is the only large city with his-torically fashioned metropolitan functions lying between Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, and Budapest to have been degraded to the role of a provincial town. Today we have to interpret Kraków’s cultural heritage not merely within the na-

tional scope, but also on a universal scale. The potential of its heritage is the natural capital with which Kraków has entered on the 21st century. It is its first and foremost metropolitan function, still crucial today as a factor governing its position in Eu-rope, and its power has been established by the city’s archetype predetermined in the 19th and 20th century as the spiritual capital of the nation, sustaining Kraków’s role as the factor integrating the people of Poland while at the same time making it a highly recognisable city in Europe and worldwide. There is also a material aspect to cultural heritage: a very well preserved urban tissue and top-rate historic sites and monuments. The more than local scope of these resources was acknowledged already in 1978, when Kraków was one of the first items to be entered on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. We cannot ignore the social aspect of heritage, either; as the only large historic city within Poland’s present borders to have survived the dis-asters of the Second World War virtually unscathed in the physical sense, Kraków is a symbol of continuity and endurance. Kraków’s second metropolitan function entails its intellectual and artistic assets. Its potential for the making of culture is acknowledged in the epithet often used to refer to it – as Poland’s cultural capital. And this in turn is associated with the city’s third function – as an international tourist centre.

Since 1st May 2004, when Poland ac-ceded to the EU, Kraków has become one

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A view of Wawel Hill


of the most dynamic markets for the tourist industry in Europe.

You can observe the vivacious devel-opment of its international tourist trade at Balice Airport. Aircraft with a full quota of passengers are landing all the time, bringing tourists from Western Europe for a weekend spree or longer stays. Some visitors come for the museums and historic monuments; others are drawn in by the city’s atmosphere, its clubs, pubs, and restaurants. Places on the UNESCO World Heritage List, especially the Wieliczka Salt Mine and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memo-rial Museum, are favourite destinations with sightseers. Recently there has been increased interest in the wooden churches of Lesser Poland, which are also on the UNESCO List, and they are also attract-ing large numbers of visitors from China and Japan.

One of the key factors fostering the growth of the tourist industry is the fact that Lesser Poland is the birthplace of John Paul II. The Shrine of Divine Mercy at Łagiewniki, which he consecrated on 17th August 2002 during his last pilgrimage to Poland, receives pilgrims from dozens of countries. Research shows that 25% of all the pilgrims are from abroad, mostly from the countries of Europe, but also from the Philippines, Costa Rica, Cuba, Japan, South Korea, the USA, as well as from Ukraine and Russia…

So cultural tourism is becoming the chief factor stimulating economic growth in Kraków and its region. The market for tourist services, including investment in hotels and catering, is expanding at a rapid rate, making a salient contribution to the job market and the region’s fiscal resources. The importance of culture and heritage for Kraków’s economic develop-ment is rising.

The success of Kraków’s tourist trade also means that the city has managed to overcome the consequences of the crisis caused by the experience of Communism. Today Kraków is a fashionable city. The transformation of its image has been ef-fected not only by the prevention of an impending ecological disaster, but also by the swift clearance of its consequences for heritage conservation. This was possible thanks primarily to a special mode of state patronage, in the form of NFRZK, a national fund for the restoration of the monuments of Kraków, established by statutory law. In less than two decades

very substantial financial resources were provided for the restoration of hundreds of historic buildings and monuments. There has been a dramatic facelift in Kraków’s city centre, as well as in Kazimierz, the old Jewish quarter which still a decade ago was symbolic of the predicament of the cultural and material estate of the dispossessed of Central Europe.

The city is also trying to revive its mul-tiethnic tradition, forfeited in outcome of the Holocaust. The Jewish Cultural Festi-val, which has been held every year in June since 1988, attracting large audiences from all over the world, as well as the phenom-enon of Kazimierz itself, are expressions of this endeavour. Before our very eyes Kazimierz has turned into a laboratory for the retrieval of the memory of a world that has gone yet is still an immanent part of the Central European identity. Finally there is the most astonishing experience: the reinterpretation of the heritage of Nowa Huta. Today “the Polish Magnitogorsk” is not just a symbol of the Sovietisation of Poland, but the fourth phase of Kraków’s gigantic urban development scheme, and as such transcends the local scope, whilst at the same time enshrining the legend of the struggle to preserve dignity, the legend of Solidarity.

No other city in Poland has been so steeped in myth and legend, and yet kept its symbolic dimension as vibrant as Kraków has maintained its medieval city centre. The bugle-call still measures out the rhythm of its everyday life, just it has done for centuries; the Royal Sigismun-dian Bell tolls on Wawel Hill to comment on the important events in the life of the nation and city. Can a city which has com-mitted itself so intimately to the cherish-ing of its past meet the challenges of the present-day? There can be no doubt that Kraków is a sparring-ground for a dynamic confrontation between contemporary civi-lisation and the legacy of its past and its heritage. Heritage means memory, choice, and identity. That is why today Kraków is contributing a new chapter of the Polish legacy to the European and global herit-age. After the death of John Paul II in 2005 it was absolutely natural for Kraków to become the guardian of his memory and of his achievements.

The diversity, integrality, continuity, authenticity, representativeness, and ar-tistic quality of its architectural heritage – all of these things are crucial for the

significance of Kraków’s heritage, but they also determine its conservation strategy, especially as regards level of complexity. A continuous process of reinterpretation of that heritage is the foundation of this undertaking.

In Kraków history predominates over the present-day. This is so also because sometimes we are not able to be as crea-tive in our civilisational achievements as our forebears in Royal Kraków were in the universal scope hundreds of years ago. History is a factor in a city’s development offering many options for the interpreta-tion of its cultural heritage and a variety of meanings for the city: as a process, as its functions, idea, form, and as the mirror of civilisation. The complex fate of Kraków, including its 20th-century experience, con-firm Sophie Lang’s observation that cities are never a random occurrence, they are a concept of a higher order. In Central Europe cultural identity has never been something that is fixed for all time; it calls for continuous choice. In this sense, too, Kraków entails features characteristic of Central Europe – trauma and ambivalence. An appreciation of the phenomenon of this city, a broader historical perspective on the changeability of Kraków’s functions within the settlement network in this part of Europe, and its changing meanings are the key to understanding the essence of Europa Minor.

Europa Minor has never been beyond the bounds of European civilisation. However, it has preserved its separate-ness, which today is a value. That value is perhaps most distinct in the fabric of its cities, the specific identity of which is the resultant not only of their geographical location, but above all of the long-term his-torical process that started in them over a thousand years ago. The 20th century marks the climax and sum of all the conflicts and contradictions at the basis of the develop-ment of the fascinating centre of Europe. This is also borne out by the experience of Kraków, a metropolis in the European Core. Kraków’s future depends also on an understanding of the special political, economic, and cultural role of Europe’s historic cities in their bid to return to the ever vibrant, medieval idea of a Europe without borders.

Jacek PurchlaHead of the Chair of European Heritage in the

Jagiellonian University Faculty of International and Political Studies; Director of the Kraków

International Cultural Centre


Kraków is one of the seven cities in the world to have earned the title of

UNESCO City of Literature. It received this honourable distinction in October 2013. The good news reached Kraków’s Mayor, Professor Jacek Majchrowski, on 21st October in a letter sent from Paris by Francesco Bandarin, Deputy to UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova. Mayor Majchrowski says the title means more than just prestige. It is also an opportunity to establish closer co-operation with the other cities which have had this title bestowed on them, facilitating new projects to promote literature and the arts. “It opens up new pos-sibilities of funding for the development of the city’s literary programmes, such as Cre-ative Europe, a new European programme, for which we shall be applying next year,” Magdalena Sroka, Kraków’s Deputy Mayor for culture and promotion commented after the award was announced.

The title of UNESCO City of Literature has been conferred annually since 2004. Apart from Kraków it has been awarded to Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin,

KRAKÓW, UNESCO CITY OF LITERATUREReykjavik, and Norwich. It was granted to Kraków after nearly three years of efforts, initiated by Edinburgh, our partner city. We’re also proud of the fact that over 150 writers, including Nobel prizewinners Orhan Pamuk, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Herta Mueller alongside Wisława Szymborska, put their name on our application. Kraków is, of course, the cradle of the Polish language and literature. It was here that over five hundred years ago the first books to be published in Polish, Historyja umęczenia Pana naszego Jezusa Chrystusa (anon., 1508), and Raj duszny by Biernat of Lublin (1513), came out from Florian Ungler’s printing press. Kraków is the home of the Jagiellonian University, Poland’s oldest university, which has been pursuing its operations continuously for over 650 years. The historic libraries and archives of Kra-ków such as the Jagiellonian Library hold unique treasures of European literature. And the fact that the city hosts scores of theatre,

musical, cinematic, and of course literary events shows that it is a paramount Euro-pean cultural centre. Every year the world’s most distinguished writers come to Kraków to attend international events such as the Miłosz Festival and the Conrad Festival. Kraków is also associated with many other renowned writers, such as Stanisław Wy-spiański, Tadeusz Kantor, Stanisław Lem, Wisława Szymborska, Sławomir Mrożek, and Adam Zagajewski.

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Every nation has endeavoured to found a national pantheon of its own, fol-

lowing the ancient tradition initiated by the Emperor Hadrian, who around 125 AD established the Roman Pantheon, a temple to all the gods, and more particularly to the seven tutelary gods of Rome (Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn). In the 16th century, when the medieval practice of the names of great artists being left hidden under the cloak of anonymity was abandoned, pantheons started to be set up in the various countries to honour the distinguished artists, poets, and scholars. In the 16th century thanks to this change in the European mentality, the Pantheon of Rome, which in 609 had been converted into a Christian church, Sancta Maria ad Martyres (now known as Santa Maria dei Martiri), became the national pantheon of Italy. In 1520 the mortal remains of Raphael Santi, one of the greatest Renaissance artists, who died at the age of 37, were laid to rest there. Acclaimed by Vasari as the god of art already in his lifetime, posthumously Raphael was the pioneer of this European custom of honouring the most outstanding artists, poets, and writers. Soon afterwards the bodies of other eminent artists, includ-ing Raphael’s students, Baldassare Peruzzi and Perin del Vaga, were interred in the Pantheon of Rome.

Around the same time another Italian national pantheon was being set up, in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence, the oldest Franciscan church in Italy. Nearly three hundred notable Italians distin-guished for their contribution to the arts and

NATiONAL PANThEONS iN EUROPEculture of Italy were laid to rest there in the course of three centuries. The Basilica started to be used in this way in 1527, when the political writer and philosopher Nic-colò Machiavelli was buried there, but later there was a lapse, and in fact we owe the revival of the practice and the adaptation of the Basilica to serve as a pantheon to Michelangelo. The great painter, sculptor, architect, and poet expressed a wish to be buried in the crypt of Santa Croce. He died in Rome, but his wish was fulfilled and in February 1564 he was interred with the supreme honours in Florence. Santa Croce officially became a component of Italy’s national pantheon, and is the last resting-place of the scientist and philosopher Gali-leo, the poet and dramatist Vittorio Alfieri, and the composer Gioacchino Rossini, and many others. There are numerous monuments and memorial plaques in Santa Croce in tribute to famous Italians, such as Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy, whose grave is in Ravenna; and Leonardo da Vinci, who died in France and was buried at Amboise on the Loire.

Some European nations have com-bined their national pantheons with the burial places of their kings and princes. For instance, the English, who have their Westminster Abbey, the last resting-place of both kings and poets. Westminster Abbey is the church where traditionally coronations have taken place, and since the 16th century it has also acted as the na-tional pantheon, in which many outstand-ing artists, writers, scholars, leaders and politicians have been laid to rest. About

three thousand three hundred persons are estimated to have been interred in its crypt. They include Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Canterbury Tales and regarded as the Father of English literature. Poets’ Corner holds the mortal remains of many men of the arts and letters, including the actor David Garrick; the 19th-century novelist Charles Dickens, author of The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield; the most renowned Post-Romantic poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and the Nobel prizewin-ning novelist Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book.

A considerable number of poets and writers have been honoured with memo-rial tablets in Poets’ Corner. Alongside William Shakespeare, who was buried in his hometown, Stratford-on-Avon, they include the Romantic poets John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and – very belatedly (not until 1969!) – George, Lord Byron. Westminster Abbey also accommodates the graves of distinguished composers, including Henry Purcell, the founder of the first English national opera. Places in England’s pantheon at Westminster Ab-bey have also been accorded to famous scientists: the physicist, astronomer, and mathematical genius Sir Isaac Newton; Charles Darwin, creator of the theory of evolution; the physicist, mathematician, and natural scientist William Thompson, Lord Kelvin; and Ernest Rutherford, a major contributor to the development of nuclear physics.

The history of the royal burial place and pantheon of France has been turbu-


lent, or in fact dramatic. Like many other European nations, the French interred their kings and princes in a special royal necropolis in the Basilica of Saint Denis near Paris. Over forty kings of France, from Dagobert (in 639) to Louis XVIII (in 1824), along with a large retinue of French queens, princes and princesses, and dignitaries were laid to rest it its crypt. Unfortunately, during the French Revolution the Basilica was desecrated. First it was looted, and then, in 1793, the revolutionary authorities ordered the royal tombs destroyed. The tombs were opened up and plundered of any valuables, and the remains of the bodies removed from the coffins, dumped in two ditches nearby, sprinkled with quicklime and covered up with earth. It was only thanks to the efforts of the well-known archaeologist and art historian Alexandre Lenoir, who had been an eye-witness of the devastation of the church and profanation of the graves, that some of the royal tombs were saved and transferred to the Musée des monuments français which Lenoir had established for this purpose. In 1806, after the turmoil of revolution was over, Napoleon ordered religious worship restored in the Basilica of Saint Denis, and the royal remains were recovered. They were exhumed and in 1817 reinterred in five coffins in the church’s crypt. However, it was not until the 1860s that the tombs Alexandre Lenoir had saved returned to Saint Denis, during a restoration project conducted by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, a well-known French con-servation specialist. At exactly the same time that the revolutionaries were desecrat-ing the tombs of the kings of France the mighty edifice of the Panthéon appeared on the Paris skyline. It had been erected on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève (St. Gen-evieve’s Hill) by Louis XV, who decided

to found a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, in gratitude for his re-covery from a serious illness in 1744. Work started in 1758 but did not finish until 1790, during the Revolution. For the lead-ers of the Revolution this was a great challenge: they were deeply involved in fighting the Church and religion. They did not want to demolish the build-ing which had just been com-pleted, but neither did they want to give it to the Church, so they decided to turn it into a secular pantheon and use it as a burial place for the most distinguished Frenchmen. In 1791 Mirabeau (Honoré Gabriel Riqueti de Mirabeau), President of the Na-tional Constituent Assembly; and the philosopher Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), who had died in 1778, were buried in the Pan-théon. In October 1794 the mortal remains of Jean Jacques Rousseau were transferred to the Panthéon. Much later, in 1885, Victor Hugo was interred, and later the mortal remains of Emile Zola and many other outstanding French writers and art-ists were buried there. In 1995 the mortal remains of Maria Skłodowska-Curie and the husband Pierre Curie were reinterred in the Panthéon. Other recent burials there include André Malraux (1996), and Alex-andre Dumas the Elder (2002).

France’s military pantheon at Les In-valides commands a special place in the French national memory. Since 1840 the chapel known as l’Église Saint-Louis des Invalides has been the last resting-place of Napoleon, who died in 1821 on the Island of St. Helena and whose remains

were brought to Paris in a grand ceremony in December 1840. Les Invalides is also the place where many of Napoleon’s generals lie, along with military leaders from the two World Wars, such as Mar-shal Ferdinand Foch.

Spain has a royal necropolis in the Escorial, an architectural complex comprising the royal palace, a monastery, and a library some 45 km away from Madrid. There is also a pantheon of fa-mous Spaniards (El Panteón de Hombres Ilustres) in Madrid. The

Portuguese pride themselves on their na-tional pantheon situated in the magnificent Hieronimite abbey Mosteiro dos Jeróni-mos in Lisbon. It holds the tombs of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and Luis Vaz de Camôes, the most renowned Portuguese poet of the old period. The Czechs have their royal and imperial necropolis in the Hradčany Castle district in Prague. The tombs of several Kings of Bohemia who were also Holy Roman Emperors are in the crypt of St. Vitus’ Cathedral. On the Vyšehrad, another hill in Prague, next to the Gothic Church of St. Peter and St. Paul there is a distinguished persons’ cemetery, which was founded at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. It con-tains the graves of individuals who made important contributions to Czech culture, such as the composers Antonín Dvořak and Bedřich Smetana, and the poet Božena Nĕmcová. A collective tomb known as the Slavín stands in the middle of the cemetery, with the mortal remains of several famous Czechs including the renowned poet and prose writer Jaroslav Vrchlickŷ, and the Art Nouveau painter Alfons Mucha.

The German-speaking countries do not have national pantheons in the strict sense of the term as it is used in this essay. The Walhalla Temple erected in 1830–1842 by Ludwig I of Bavaria on the bank of the Danube at Donaustauf, about 10 km from Regensburg, contains a collection of around 130 busts of celebrities who

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The Pantheon of Rome

The Pantheon of Paris


made major contributions to the culture of Germany and Austria, and is a hall of fame rather than a pantheon. However, there are numerous royal and imperial burial places in Germany and Austria, the oldest at Aachen, containing the 9th-century tomb of Charlemagne. The imperial necropolis of Austria, the Kaisergruft, is in the Capuchin Church in Vienna, and it holds the tombs of twelve emperors and eighteen empresses.

in poland

The first necropolis of the kings and princes of Poland was founded in Poznań. Mieszko I and Boleslaus the Brave, Po-

land’s rulers of the Greater Polish line of the House of Piast, were buried in the crypt of Poznań Cathedral. A magnificent mau-soleum was erected for them in the Cathe-dral’s Golden Chapel in the early 19th cen-tury. The location of the grave of Boleslaus the Bold is unknown. According to legend he was laid to rest in Ossiach Monastery in the Austrian province of Carinthia, but recently historians have been speculating that perhaps he was buried in the church crypt of Tyniec Abbey near Kraków. Many of the princes of Poland were laid to rest in Płock, Wrocław, Legnica, or Opole. King Alexander the Jagiellonian and Queen Bar-bara Radziwiłłówna, consort of Sigismund

Augustus, have their graves in the crypt of Vilnius Cathedral. Several Dukes of Mazovia were laid to rest in the crypt of Warsaw Cathedral, which is also the last resting-place of the novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, Poland’s first Nobel prizewinner, as well as of several Polish presidents and statesmen, Gabriel Narutowicz (1922), and Ignacy Jan Paderewski, who died in the USA in 1941 and whose ashes were brought home in 1992. In 1993 the ashes of President Ignacy Mościcki were interred in the Cathedral’s crypt, and the ashes of General Kazimierz Sosnkowski in 1994.

in KraKów

The chief burial place of the kings and heroes of Poland has always been Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. Its crypt was being used for the interment of

deceased members of the Lesser Polish line of the Piast dynasty already in the 11th century, but the royal tombs which have come down to our times date back to the first half of the 14th century, viz. the inter-ment of King Vladislaus the Elbow-high, who died in 1333. From that time on all the kings of Poland until August II (except for Vladislaus of Varna and Henri de Valois) were laid to rest here.

After the Partitions of Poland, when the country was deprived of independence and statehood for 123 years (1795-1918), the crypt of Wawel Cathedral started to be used as a national pantheon on a more purposeful basis for the nation’s military

heroes. In 1817 the mortal remains of Prince Józef Poniatowski, the Polish hero of the Napoleonic Wars, were laid to rest in St. Leonard’s Chapel in the crypt, next to the tomb of King John Sobieski. In 1817 the body of Tadeusz Kościuszko, commander of the first uprising against Russia, were laid to rest here. In the early 19th cen-tury there was a plan to transfer the mortal remains of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, founder and commander of the Polish Legions of Napoleonic times, to the crypt of Wawel Cathe-dral, however, the endeavour was not successful. In 1935 the body of Mar-shal Józef Piłsudski, the individual who made the greatest military con-tribution to the restoration of Poland’s independence in 1918, was buried in

The Romanesque St. Leonard’s Chapel in the crypt of Wawel Cathedral; with the tomb of John King Sobieski on the left, and of his wife Queen Marie Casimire on the right

The Distinguished Persons’ Crypt in Skałka Church. Czesław Miłosz, a Nobel prizewinner for literature, is buried here

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St. Leonard’s Chapel. More recently the body of General Władysław Sikorski, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish forces in World War Two and Prime Minister of the Polish Government-in-Exile, who died in an air crash off Gibraltar in 1943, were brought back to Poland and laid to rest in St. Leonard’s Chapel. In 2010 President Lech Kaczyński and his wife Maria, who died in the Smoleńsk air crash, were laid to rest in the crypt of Wawel Cathedral.

The decisions made by the Polish people during the period of the Partitions to bring home the bodies of Poland’s two greatest Romantic poets, Adam Mickie-wicz and Juliusz Słowacki, and lay them to rest in Wawel Cathedral, was deeply sym-bolic. Efforts for the return of the mortal remains of Mickiewicz from the Montmo-rency Cemetery near Paris started in 1869 and were completed in 1890. It took even longer – 32 years – to retrieve the body of Słowacki from Montmartre Cemetery. It was finally reinterred in Wawel Cathedral in 1927. The attempt to bring back the body of the third Romantic Bard, Zyg-munt Krasiński, proved abortive. In 1993 a memorial plaque for the “fourth Bard”, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, was put up next to the tombs of Mickiewicz and Słowacki, and four years later an urn containing earth from the common grave in which Norwid had been buried at Montmorency was installed next to the memorial. Finally, on 28th February 2010, a medallion with the portrait of Fryderyk Chopin, a replica of the one on his grave in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, was mounted on the wall of the Bards’ Vault.

Wawel Hill is not the only place in Kraków commemorating the great ones of the Polish Nation. In 1880 a special ceremony was held in the crypt of the Pauline Church on Skałka Hill inaugurat-ing the Distinguished Persons’ Crypt, and the mortal remains of fourteen illustrious Polish writers, artists, and scholars were laid to rest next to the tomb of the medieval chronicler Jan Długosz. Skałka Church is the last resting-place of 19th-century poets and writers Wincenty Pol, Lucjan Siemieński, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Teofil Lenartowicz, Adama Asnyk, and Stanisław Wyspiański; painters Henryk Siemiradzki and Jacek Malczewski; the composer Karol Szymanowski; and the ac-tor Ludwik Solski. In the 1950s the distin-guished astronomer Tadeusz Banachiewicz was interred here; and in 2010 the poet and Nobel prizewinner Czesław Miłosz. In the corridor leading to the crypt there are memorial tablets in tribute to the philolo-gist and scholar of Polish and Slavonic culture Aleksander Brückner; and Karo-lina Lanckorońska, scholar, patroness and benefactress of Polish culture.

The Distinguished Persons’ Crypt in Skałka Church is full. The efforts of Kraków’s academic community to open a second vault in the same church proved unsuccessful. In view of this, in

the autumn of 2009 the group launched a project to found a national pantheon for distinguished persons of the arts, letters, and culture in the crypt of the Church of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul in Kraków, on the ulica Grodzka near Wawel Hill. Four hundred years ago the mortal remains of Piotr Skarga, a distinguished writer, preacher, and orator, were buried here. The project won the support of eleven of the city’s schools of higher education, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Metropolitan Curia of the Arch-diocese of Kraków. Finally a foundation was set up in 2010 to conduct the complex restoration project on an area of over 300 square metres in the crypt, which has been exempted from ecclesiastical jurisdiction and today makes up the national pantheon for the great artists and writers of Poland. Thereby a new place has been created in Poland’s old capital where individuals with distinguished service to the country’s arts, culture, and scholarship will be paid a post-humous tribute. Under the legal provisions which have been adopted decisions on who is to be buried there will be made by a chapter of seven members, without regard to the religion or worldview of the person being considered for the honour, the sole criterion being the contribution he or she made to Polish culture. The new pantheon was inaugurated on 27th September 2012. On 17th September 2013 the world-famous dramatist and writer Sławomir Mrożek was the first to be interred in it.

Franciszek ZiejkaFormer Rector

of the Jagiellonian University (1999–2005)

The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

on ul. Grodzka accommodates

the National Pantheon. The writer

Sławomir Mrożek is buried here

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The raKowicKi cemeTery, KraKów

The main burial ground of Kraków, founded 1803. Very many outstanding Polish writers, artists, and scholars have been buried here, including painters Jan Matejko, Piotr Michałowski, Juliusz Kossak, Józef Mehoffer, Teodor Axento-wicz, and Kazimierz Pochwalski; writers and poets Apollo Korzeniowski (father of Joseph Conrad), Gustaw Ehrenberg, Michał Bałucki, Józef Szujski, the Nobel prizewinner Wisława Szymborska, the actress Helena Modrzejewska, well-known also for her performances in America, and many Jagiellonian University professors who earned an international reputation in scholarship.

The salwaTor cemeTery, KraKów

This burial ground in Kraków was consecrated in 1865. It is the last resting--place of writers Karol Bunsch, Antoni Go-łubiew, Karol Hubert Rostworowski, and Stanisław Lem; the actor Juliusz Osterwa and actress Zofia Jaroszewska, and many other theatre personalities; and renowned academics, including Eugeniusz Romer, Stanisław Pigoń, Kazimierz Wyka, Antoni Kępiński, and Andrzej Szczeklik.

The powązKi cemeTery, warsaw

Warsaw’s largest burial ground was founded in 1790. A very large number of individuals with distinguished service to Polish culture, art, and literature have been laid to rest here, including famous contributors to Polish letters: Maciej Kazi-mierz Sarbiewski, Franciszek Bohomolec, Wojciech Bogusławski, Cyprian Godeb-ski, Antoni Malczewski, Bolesław Prus, Nobel prizewinner Władysław Stanisław Reymont, Narcyza Żmichowska, Wacław Rolicz Lieder, Wiktor Gomulicki, Jan Au-

gust Kisielewski, Zenon “Miriam” Przes-mycki, Adolf Dygasiński, and Artur “Or-Ot” Oppman. Since the Second World War the following writers have been interred here: Leopold Staff, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Maria Dąbrowska, Bolesław Leśmian, Władysław Broniewski, Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, Kazimierz Wierzyński, Stanisław Dygat, Marek Hłasko, Miron Białoszewski, Mieczysław Jastrun, and Zbigniew Herbert; as well as famous composers Michał K. Ogiński, Józef Els-ner, Stanisław Moniuszko, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Witold Lutosławski, and Hen-ryk Wieniawski; and painters Franciszek Kostrzewski, Wojciech Stattler, Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, Józef Pankiewicz, Władysław Podkowiński, Franciszek Żmurko, Józef Szajna, and Jan Lebenstein.

The ŁyczaKów cemeTery

This burial ground in the once Pol-ish city of Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) is the last resting place of many Polish writers and artists, including Seweryn Goszczyński, Artur Grottger, Maria Konopnicka, Karol Baliński. Maria Bar-tusówna, August Bielowski, Jan Lam, Władysław Bełza, Walery Łoziński, and Gabriela Zapolska; and scholars Stefan Banach, Oswald Balzer, Mieczysław Gębarowicz, Antoni Kalina, Ludwik Kubala, Karol Szajnocha, and Władysław Abraham.

The rossa cemeTery

Rossa Cemetery in Vilnius (now Li-thuania, but prior to 1939 in Poland and known as Wilno) contains the graves of Joachim Lelewel, Euzebiusz Słowacki, Władysław Syrokomla, and Antoni Wi-wulski; as well as of Maria Piłsudska née Billewicz, the mother of Marshal Pilsud-ski. When Józef Piłsudski died in 1935

an urn with his heart was deposited in his mother’s grave.

The na pęKsowym brzyzKU cemeTery, zaKopane

This cemetery in Zakopane has been used since the mid-19th century, but as of the 1920s it has been regarded as a burial ground for persons with distinguished ser-vice for Zakopane and the Podhale region. It holds the graves of Tytus Chałubiński, Stanisław Witkiewicz Senior, Sabała (Jan Krzeptowski), Władysław Orkan, Kazimierz Przerwa Tetmajer, Beata Obertyńska, and Kornel Makuszyński. It also has a symbolic grave for Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.

The monTmorency cemeTery near paris

Les Champeaux Cemetery at Mont-morency on the outskirts of Paris is the place where very many Polish émigrés were buried. The custom was initiated by two friends, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and General Karol Kniaziewicz, who chose this site, then a quiet country graveyard, as the place where they wanted to be buried. They were the first Poles to be interred here, Niemcewicz in 1841, and Kniaziewicz in 1842. Later hundreds of other Polish people, including most of the 19th-century and subsequent political ex-iles, were buried here. Adam Mickiewicz and his family were interred here (the poet was laid to rest here in 1856 but in 1890 his body was exhumed and reinterred in Waw-el Cathedral); as well as Cyprian Kamil Norwid (in a common grave); the Polish generals Władysław Zamoyski and Henryk Dembiński; painters Olga Boznańska and Tadeusz Makowski; sculptors Władysław Oleszczyński, Cyprian Godebski, and Bolesław Biegas, and many others.

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FAMOUS BURiAL GROUNdS WhERE diSTiNGUiShEd POLiSh WRiTERS, ARTiSTS, ANd SChOLARS hAVE BEEN LAid TO REST


An exhibition entitled Szuflada Szymborskiej (Szymborska’s desk drawer) dedicated to the poet Wisława Szymborska,

holder of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is on until December 2014 at the branch of the National Museum in Szołayski House (plac Szczepański 9). You can see memorabilia that once belonged to her: alongside vintage postcards, books and photographs there is a collection of masks, a submarine-shaped cigarette lighter, a small sideboard from Czesław Miłosz, and even a music-box in the shape of a pig. The First Lady, Mrs. Anna Komorowska, is Honorary Patron of the event.

“This exhibition, which we have prepared jointly with the Wisława Szymborska Foundation, is neither a reconstruction of the interior of her apartment, nor a memorial chamber. It’s more of an interior arrangement done in a somewhat surreal spirit of the type she would have liked,” says Zofia Gołubiew, Director of the National Museum in Kraków. “We didn’t want these treasured souvenirs stowed away in the Museum’s storage space, we wanted the public to see them. The exhibition’s a kind of three-dimensional

collage in which objects that once belonged to Szymborska are confronted with quotes from her work, and photos of people, places, and things dear to her.”

Visitors are curious to look into the boxes, containers, shelves and desk drawers. There are plenty of them on display, all incen-tives for you to look, discover, and learn. One of the items definitely worth a second look is a desk-like chest of drawers Szymborska herself designed. In it she used to keep her photographs. The organisers of the exhibition say that it must have meant a lot to her, as in her poem Możliwości (Possibilities) she wrote, wolę szuflady (translated as “I prefer desk drawers” by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak), and hence the name of the exhibition.

Fans of Szymborska’s poetry will no doubt be interested to see the “workshop” Szymborska used to make her collages. Visitors can also sit on Szymborska’s settee, dial a number on her telephone and listen to a recording of her reading her poetry.

Rita Pagacz-Moczarska

AN EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA

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2014 is the golden jubilee year

of the Jagiellonian Univer-sity Museum, which was opened on 12th May 1964. The Museum’s first Direc-tor was the art historian Professor Karol Estreicher. 2014 also marks the 30th anniversary of Professor Es-treicher’s death (29th April 1984). These two anniversa-ries make up an integral part of this year’s jubilee of 650 years since the University’s foundation, and they offer an excellent opportunity for a very brief recapitulation of how the Museum was founded and of its Founder’s original idea.

The Jagiellonian University Museum was preceded by the establishment of two special collections in the 19th century – the Archaeological Exhibition, created by Professor Józef Łepkowski in 1867, and the History of Art Exhibition, initiated in 1881 and managed by Professor Marian Sokołowski. These two collections started the University’s tradition of collecting museum items, which accumulated thanks to purchases, monetary donations from

ThE GOLdEN JUBiLEE OF ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY MUSEUM

staff members, and a variety of gifts and legacies endowed by friends and acquaint-ances of the people who looked after the collections. When the Collegium Novum Building was completed in 1887 the University’s museum collections were ac-commodated in rooms on its ground floor, and stayed there until the outbreak of the Second World War.

As the collections grew the University authorities realised that the museum should have premises of its own. The idea to adapt the Collegium Maius building to house the University’s museum appeared already in

the early 20th century, when plans were put forward to move the library, which was kept in Collegium Maius at the time, to a new building. The adapta-tion scheme was nearly ready for implementation in 1939, but unfortunately the outbreak of the War put a stop to it. The project resumed after the War.

On 8th June 1951, on the grounds of a resolution passed by the Jagiellonian University Senate, Profes-sor Estreicher was appoint-

ed Head of the University’s museum col-lections and put in charge of the Collegium Maius restoration and adaptation project. Four years later he gave a brief synopsis of the idea behind the project, writing that work to renovate the building was going on briskly. Its chief aim was to turn the Collegium Maius building into museum premises. It would not be a museum in the strict sense of the word, but a university building full of life because it was being used, with staff and students using rooms in which the University’s heirlooms would be displayed, and with a court and garden

Zaułek Estreichera (Estreicher’s Corner), a charming venue for a rendezvous, is situated between Collegium Maius and Collegium Nowodworskiego, and leads out onto ulica Św. Anny

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Professor Stanisław Waltoś


full of students going from class to class, as they had done in the old days. He was convinced this was the only way to put new life into the old Collegium Maius.1

The collection was growing all the time. In 1968, following the death of Fran-ciszek Ksawery Pusłowski, the last mem-ber of the Pusłowski family bequeathed its priceless collection along with the family residence to the Jagiellonian University.

Professor Estreicher’s term in office as the Museum’s director finished in 1976. He was succeeded by the distinguished specialist in criminal law and art lover with a refined penchant for history and museum collections, Professor Stanisław Waltoś. By this time the Museum was leading a life of its own in the formal and legal sense as well as materially; its chief aims had been defined. The work of Professor Waltoś was to a large extent a continuation of the Es-treicher concept, and indeed he considered this his mission and duty.

Auspicious times for the Museum be-gan in the early 1990s. The new political situation enabled it to embark on a broad scope of activities, new initiatives, and new challenges.

At the beginning of the new century a restoration project was carried out on the house’s basement. The Museum acquired extra space, to use for storage and tempo-rary exhibitions. A café was opened, and has become a popular venue for staff and students alike. A new staircase was made available, with a permanent exhibition of plaster-casts from the Karol Lanckoroński bequest. The permanent display was aug-mented with an exhibition of medieval sculpture. About two-thirds of the house’s

loft storey have been converted into stor-age space and a new seminar room.

All these and several other achieve-ments show that the Jagiellonian Univer-sity Museum is a busy, thriving institution which thanks to its diverse activities is open and accessible not only to the aca-demic community but also to the public at large. This year’s jubilee is an auspicious highlight rounding off the first fifty years of the Museum’s operations, and a good opportunity to wish it a bright future with the traditional academic slogan, ad multos annos!

Anna JasińskaCurator, Jagiellonian University Museum

The Libraria, 1960s

Professor Krzysztof Stopka,since 2012 Director of the JU

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ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNIVERSITY’S MUSEUMSThe Jagiellonian UniversiTy mUseUm

The Jagiellonian University Museum is located on the corner of ulica Św. Anny and ulica Jagiellońska, in the Collegium Maius, the oldest university building in Poland, with a history going back to 1400, when King Vladislaus Jagiełło alienated this corner house, which had belonged to the Pęcherz family of Rzeszotary, to the University.

In 2014 the Jagiellonian University Museum is celebrating its golden jubilee. More on this Museum, its activities and its jubilee on p. 66–67.

The pharmacy mUseUm

The Jagiellonian University’s Pharma-cy Museum was founded in 1946 and is the largest in Poland, and one of very few in the world of its kind. Since 1991 it has been open to the public and has been very popular with visitors from abroad, some of whom like to compare Kraków’s collection with what they saw in Heidelberg or Basel.

The exhibits are arranged in a display on five storeys, from the basement to the loft of the 15th-century house at Number

25 on the Floriańska. They include a rare majolica collection with items from Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Britain; graphite dry distillation retorts, pots and cauldrons, weighing scales and weights, sieves, mortars and pestles, and even the jaws of a shark and odd-looking fish. The first floor accommodates a room dedicated to the pharmacist Ignacy Łukasiewicz, who invented the paraffin lamp. One of the Museum’s particularly noteworthy exhibits is a set of weights of under one gramme, patented by Marian Zahradnik. Another interesting item is an electrical device which was used to sterilise pre-scriptions.

The medical FacUlTy mUseUm

The Medical Faculty Museum was founded by Professor Walery Jaworski (1849–1924), holder of the Chair of Inter-nal Medicine, who started the collection, which came chiefly from gifts and legacies from professors and medical practitioners associated with the University. The col-lection did not have premises of its own but luckily managed to survive the Second World War intact. It was not until 1992

The Jagiellonian University Museum Collegium Maius

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that the Museum received rooms in the house of the Kraków Medical Society at Number 4 on the Radziwiłłowska, and could open its collection to the public. Exhibits include old printed works, manuscripts, documents, medals, and portraits. Special features include a large set of historic surgical instruments, a set of plaster-casts that originally came from Professor Ludwik Bierkowski’s patho-logical anatomy collection, and a set of medical case histories from Professor Maciej Brodowicz’s 19th-century clinic. A curiosity which never fails to intrigue visitors is the world’s biggest surviving museum specimen of plica Polonica (Polish plait).

The zoology mUseUm

The history of the Zoology Museum goes back to 1782, when a natural his-tory exhibition was opened at Number 6 on ulica św. Anny. In 1967 – after 167 years in the same rooms – it moved to the building at Number 6 on ulica Romana Ingardena, its present location. The display consists of about 7,000 items representing animals from most of the systematic groups, from the coelenterata to the mammals. The exhibition’s nature as a cross-section presentation makes it an excellent supplement to school and college biology classes. The Zoology Museum has a second facility in the historic basement of the Collegium Iuridicum building at Number 53 on the Grodzka, comprising collections donated by Bolesław Rączka, Roman and Janusz Wojtusiak, Tomasz Pyrcz, Jerzy Małecki, and Radosław Tarkowski. The display, consisting of spectacular shells, fossils, and tropical butterflies, is a favourite with children, but it also attracts the attention

of collectors and animal lovers. The Zool-ogy Museum will soon be moving to new premises in the Centre for Environmental Education (CEE) on the University’s new campus, where it is due to open in March 2015. Four of the University’s Museums, Zoology, Geology, Anthropology, and Palaeobotany, will be accommodated in the CEE building. The new arrangement of these resources augmented by today’s audio-visual technology will offer a broad scope for teaching and research, and help to promote the natural and biological sci-ences to its visitors.

The boTanical garden mUseUm

The Jagiellonian University’s Bota-nical Garden Museum and the Jadwiga Dyakowska Workshop for the History of Botany hold Poland’s oldest botanical museum collection. This resource is inhe-rently bound to the University’s scientific and teaching activities, and it is located in the Collegium Śniadeckiego building at Number 27 on ulica Kopernika. The historic nature of the collection, which includes materials for research on the clas-sics of Polish botany, and the building’s elegant period interior decoration endow this Museum with a special atmosphere. The collection dates back to around 1780, when exhibits started to accumulate for a natural history display which, together with the Botanical Garden, served as a supplementary unit of the Chair of Che-mistry and Natural History. In the early 19th century its plant specimens were mo-ved to separate premises in the Botanical Garden, and systematically expanded with new accessions throughout the 19th and 20th century.

Part of the JU Zoology Museum’s butterfly collection

The Jagiellonian University’s Pharmacy Museum

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The skeleton of a female woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis)

in the JU Zoology Museum. It was discovered around 1900 near

Prague and is the earliest complete specimen of its kind,

of which there are very few in the world


The geology mUseUm

The Geology Museum is a unit of the Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Geology and is housed in the Institute’s building at Number 2a on ulica Olean-dry. It holds one of the oldest geological collections in Poland, which has been accumulating since at least 1782. The Museum is known chiefly for two of its collections which are unique on a global scale, Professor Stanisław Dżułyński’s Sedimentary Structures Collection, and Professor Marian Książkiewicz’s Rare Fossils Collection. The Museum holds 200 sets of collections, mostly of fossils, with a total of nearly 15 thousand speci-mens. In addition there are 16 thousand mineralogical specimens and 27 sets of cut stones many of which are a supplement to the Museum’s rock collections. The overwhelming majority of the collections are archival materials with a historic value. The Museum’s permanent exhibitions, Dynamic Geology, Historical Geology, and Mineralogy, are integrated with the In-stitute’s programme of study for Geology.

The anThropology mUseUm

The Anthropology Museum is housed in the building at Number 6 on ulica Roma-na Ingardena. Its holdings, collected since the late 19th century, include collections donated by the University’s professors, its first benefactor Józef Majer, Izydor

Kopernicki, and Julian Talko-Hryncewicz. Professor Stefan Rogoziński donated a collection of African skulls. The Museum’s activities focus on collecting human bone material from various parts of the world (Africa, Asia, Europe, South America), and animal bones from monkeys which died in zoos. The Museum holds the skeletons of a variety of primates: the Bornean oranguntan (Pongo pygmaeus), the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), the mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx), and baboons and macaques (Cercopitheci-nae). We also have the skulls of a rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), a guenon

(Cercopithecus sp. ), and a baboon (Papio sp.). We have the largest series in Poland of Ainu and Mongol skulls from Asia. One of our most interesting exhibits is the naturally mummified skull of a nun from a Protestant church in Lithuania. Another naturally mummified specimen is an Inca skull with surviving hair. A plaster-cast of the skull of the Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki, made when his body was being transported from Paris for burial in Wawel Cathedral, is one of our special exhibits. Another noteworthy exhibit is a medieval skull with an execu-tioner’s nail, extracted from a sandpit near Piotrków Trybunalski.

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The tropical botany exhibition in the JU Botanical Garden Museum

One of the rare fossils on display in the JU Geology Museum


The medical college anaTomy mUseUm

The Anatomy Museum in the Medical College is the biggest and oldest anatomical collection of its kind in Poland. Its first specimens came from Vienna in 1803. The Museum is accommodated in three rooms in the Anatomy Theatre at Number 12 on ulica Kopernika, and holds a total of 2,077 specimens. The first room has an osteological and arthrological exhibition, along with specimens relating to compa-rative anatomy and anthropology. The second room presents a display of wet specimens, viz. preserved in sealed glass jars or special trans-parent containers, showing items relating to the anatomy of the head and neck, chest, abdominal cavity, and pelvis. This room also holds a set of ana-tomical development models, purchased for the Museum by Professor Kazimierz Kostanecki in the interwar period. The third room holds the Museum’s oldest specimens, such as those prepared by Pro-fessor Ludwik Teichmann (1823-1895), which are a testimonial and tribute to his skill and hard work.

The FacUlTy oF medicine paThological anaTomy mUseUm

The Faculty of Medicine’s Patholo-gical Anatomy Museum is located in the basement of the premises of the Chair of

Anatomical Pathology at ulica Grzegó-rzecka 16. The collection is on display in two rooms with a spacious entrance hall. The specimens of pathological anatomical organs arranged in glass cabinets are a testimonial to the history and development of medicine in Kraków.

The origins of this impressive collec-tion go back to the early 19th century, as recorded in the inventory made in 1816. The collection grew at a brisk rate thanks to the endeavours of Professor Maciej Józef Brodowicz, who had anatomical exhibits made and preserved in wax of post-mortem organs. The Museum holds one of the largest anatomical collections of its kind in Europe.

The palaeoboTany mUseUm

The Palaeobotany Museum is a unit of the Institute of Botany and it is located at Number 31 on ulica Kopernika, next door to the Jagiellonian University’s Botanical Garden. It is the only museum of its kind in Poland presenting the evolution of the plant world from the time the plants left the waters and became terrestrial, through all the geological eras to the present. The Museum holds a very rich collection of plant fossils from various geological eras, not only from Poland but also from other parts of the world. The collection grew thanks to donations from Marian Racibor-ski, the private collector Zygmunt Holcer

(1925–2004), Danuta Zdebska, and Jan Zerndt (1894–1945) and many other staff members of the Institute of Botany. Exhibits inc-lude cut stones and microscope specimens presenting the mor-phological structure of a variety of Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic plant organs. One of its rarest sets of exhibits, and the only one of its kind in Poland, is a collection of Devonian fossils of the earliest terrestrial vascular plants from Poland and other parts of the world.

The Museum does not have a permanent exhibition, but its display is continuously updated in line with the latest research in palaeobotany.

Compiled by Rita Pagacz-Moczarska on the basis of information

from the Museums

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Horizontal cross-section of a shoot of a fossilised Carbonian Lycopod which grew ca. 330 million years ago in what is now Poland;

from the Bolesław Brzyski collection in the JU Palaeobotany Museum

The Pathological Anatomy Museum


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The 1874 Grubb telescope, an extraordinary Irish instrument and one of the finest vintage te-lescopes in Poland. Once in regular use for solar observations and photometry of bright stars, it now stands as a showpiece at the south-west end of the University’s Skała Observatory. In 2011 it was given a comprehensive overhaul and is now proudly displayed at international conferences and general science meetings

74 alma mater No. 166Orientation Day for students starting out in Medicine at the JU MC School of Medicine in English

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In a city with a history like Kraków’s on the eve of the Jagiellonian University’s

650th anniversary of foundation the twenty years that have passed since the founda-tion of the School of Medicine in English may seem like a short spell, a moment in history. Nevertheless, the number of students who have studied the medical sciences at Poland’s oldest university has gone up nearly a hundredfold in that short spell, and the School is recognisable on the five continents from which every year students come to Kraków to study Medicine . The best ambassadors of the JU MC School of Medicine in English are its graduates.

The Jagiellonian University Medical College’s School of Medicine in English

was created in 1994 thanks to intensive endeavours on the part

of the JU MC

ThE SChOOL OF MEdiCiNE iN ENGLiShTwenty years have gone by so fast

authorities of the time, especially its Vice--Rector, Professor Stanisław Konturek, but in reality the modern history of teaching medicine to international students in Kra-ków is somewhat longer and goes back to the 1970s. That was when it was launched, in connection with an exchange program-me with Stony Brook University, New York City. The then Nicolaus Copernicus Medical Academy and Stony Brook ente-red an agreement, under the terms of which American students came to Kraków to stu-dy Medicine. The programme was closed down in the 1980s in connection with the political and social situation in Poland at that time. Nowadays some of its gradu-ates have been contacting the School’s office, inquiring about the possibility of their children studying here.

The first batch of students at the School of Medicine in English formally establi-shed in 1994 numbered 7 individuals.

Now there are nearly 700 students from different parts of the world, but

the main group consists of people from the

USA, Canada, and Norway, as well as Malaysia, Sweden, Ukraine, and Germany.

The School offers two programmes of study for Medicine conducted in English. The first, the MD Program for University/College Students, is a course following on from a pre-medical programme which the student is expected to have completed, and is addressed to graduates of post-high school/pre-medical colleges from the United States and Canada. The second, the MD Program for High School Graduates, is open to students who have completed their secondary education. Graduates of both programmes are awarded a Jagiel-lonian University diploma for the Lekarz Medycyny qualification (a recognised equivalent of the MD). The School also runs a DDS programme in English for Dentistry, which was launched in 2010. The School’s staff of academic tutors is made up of the Medical College’s best scholars and lecturers alongside academics from abroad, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The educational standards of our English--language programmes are based on the requirements applicable in the EU and the USA (the US Department of Education Loan Program, and the Medical Board

of California), alongside the Polish requirements.

We have entered a series of international agreements

with medical schools in the USA. Students in their

final year of study at the School


The JU MC’s Faculty of Medicine Teaching and Congress Centre

Graduation Day at the JU MC School of Medicine in English

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of Medicine in English may elect to complete a rotation year for clinical subjects at a host of medical schools such as the University of California San Diego, the University of California lrvine, the University of California Los Angeles, the Loma Linda Univer-sity Medical Center, the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, or the Cleveland Clinic. In addition, JU MC students have the opportu-nity to study abroad on an Erasmus student exchange programme or on a bilate-ral exchange programme with other medical schools worldwide.

The JU MC is working in partnership with key educational institutions in the USA, the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC); and with the European Board of Medi-cal Assessors (EBMA) in Europe. One of the results of this co-operation is our participation in Global Health Learning Opportunities (GHLO), a pioneer project coordinated by the Association of Ame-rican Medical Colleges (AAMC). The project involves electronic student regi-stration for elective rotation programmes in nearly 30 universities throughout the world, and JU MC students are invited to participate. Contributors to the GHLO project include renowned medical colle-ges and universities from Germany (the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University,

Frankfurt-am-Main), Belgium (Katho-lieke Universiteit Leuven), the UK (St. George’s, University of London), the USA (Case Western Reserve University, the University of Rochester, the Uni-versity of California – San Diego, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Texas), Australia (Monash University Australia), Israel (the Technion Israel Institute of Technology), Italy (the Uni-versity of Pavia), and Brazil (Universi-dade Cidade de São Paulo).

Graduates of the JU MC School of Medicine in English complete residen-cies and attend postgraduate training courses at university teaching hospitals in various countries, such as the USA,

Canada, Australia, the UK, Ireland, Swit-zerland, Norway, Sweden, and Poland.

The key to continuous growth for the JU MC School of Medicine in English and its attractiveness year by year to new students is in its graduates. They are the ones who tell the world that there is a place called Kraków which has a univer-sity founded 650 years ago, and that it’s worthwhile going there to study Medicine at a level of quality which will enable its graduates to pursue a successful career in today’s challenging world.

Jerzy Walocha Chairman of the Council

of the Jagiellonian University Medical College School of Medicine in English


ON AN ERASMUS SChOLARShiPInterview with Lenka Kohutova, Klaudia Andraškova, and Jana Čederlova, 23-year-old students from Slovakia, on an Erasmus Scholarship at the Jagiellonian University institute of Geography and Spatial Management

Enthusiastic students from Slovakia

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□ “What do you think of Poland and the Poles?”

■ Lenka: “I like Poland and the people of Poland. It’s a very beautiful country and the people are really nice.”

□ “have you noticed any cultural differences between Poland and Slovakia?”

■ Lenka: “Not really. These countries are very close to each other, so the differences can’t be big.”

□ “how do you like to spend your free time?”

■ Lenka: “Sightseeing in the city, shopping, and admiring the countryside. Kraków’s a historic place, there are a lot of things to do. We’ll be going to the Opera to see a performance by the Moscow Ballet.”

□ “How do you find studying here?”

■ Lenka: “I like it very much. It’s very different from Slovakia. Classes are much better in Poland. I especially like those on the principles of teaching. We’re very impressed by the University campus. Everything’s so modern! At home in Slovakia things still smack of Communism!”

■ Klaudia: “But here it’s like America!” ■ Lenka: “Though there is one drawback. Lunch on the campus

could be cheaper.” ■ Jana: “Our friends told us that the Erasmus would be easy,

that we wouldn’t have to work very hard. But it’s not true! Our tutors are very nice, but they’re rigorous. We have to give presentations and write essays, like all the other students.”

□ “What made you choose Poland? Was it a random choice?”

■ Lenka: “To a certain extent, yes. I knew Kraków was a beauti-ful city, and everyone I told I was going to Kraków said I’d be pleased I chose it. And that’s what has happened.”

□ “Would you like to learn Polish?”

■ Klaudia: “Yes, very much. But unfortunately the money we get from our university for the scholarship is not enough for a language course.”

□ “Do you think your stay in Kraków will help you get a job when you return to Slovakia?”

■ Klaudia: “Yes, I think it may. At any rate it’ll be a good point on our CVs. Employers will see that we’ve done more than just study, we’ve been to new places and we’re not afraid of new challenges.”

■ Lenka: “I hope so, especially as I’m brushing up my English.”

□ “Is there anything that has surprised you about Poles?”

■ Klaudia: “I’m a bit surprised that whenever I say ‘dobrý deň,’ Polish people seem to get a bit nervous and they answer in English. But why? After all, we understand each other perfectly well!”

□ “Janka, do you want to add anything?”

■ Jana: “Yes, well, everything’s going well. Everything’s fine.”


□ “What are your impressions of Poland? Did you see Kraków before you decided to do your student exchange here?”

■ “No, I’d never been to Poland before. On the whole, in Greece we don’t know much about Poland. But my impressions are absolutely fantastic!”

□ “have you noticed any cultural differences between Polish people and Greeks?”

■ “Yes, Greeks are more open and sympathetic in personal rela-tions. But it’s not a question of comparing and saying who’s better and who’s worse. We’re just different. Not that that there aren’t any people in Greece who aren’t so warm-hearted and friendly, there are. No-one in Poland has refused to help me when I needed help. I’ve got a lot of Polish friends and they’re really nice people.”

interview with Gena Kotlarova, a 20-year-old Ukrainian student, on an Erasmus scholarship at the Jagiellonian University for international Relations, and with Roman Kozhuszko, a 20-year-old Ukrainian student, on an Erasmus scholarship at the Jagiellonian University for international Management

interview with Nina, a 20-year-old Greek student, on an Erasmus scholarship at the Jagiellonian University for Psychology

Nina: open to cultural variety

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□ “What made you come to Poland?”

■ Gena: “Originally I wanted to go to a Czech university. Fate de-cided I would go to Kraków. I visited the Jagiellonian University’s stand during a presentation of universities at an educational fair. I became interested in studying at the Jagiellonian University, as I like history, and this is where Nicolaus Copernicus and Pope John Paul II were students. So I signed a contract and came to see Kraków for myself. I’ve left my heart and soul in Kraków.”

■ Roman: “With me there were at least two reasons. Learning Polish was much easier than learning English. I visited Kraków in winter and liked it very much. I’d never seen such a New Year’s Eve party before!”

■ Gena: “In comparison with other countries, studying here is cheaper.”

■ Roman: “And much better compared with Ukraine.”

□ “Do you have a lot of Polish friends?”

■ Gena: “Yes, my best friend’s Polish. He treats women in a splendid way. He’s a real gentleman and a very good person, all heart and soul. If ever I needed any help I know I could always rely on him.” Gena and Romek: bewitched by Kraków

□ “What do you think of your students’ hall?”

■ “I’ve been living there since my first semester and there have been no major problems. It’s really good.”

□ “how do you rate your tu-tors?”

■ “They conduct classes very well. They have a clear pro-gramme. I’ve learned a lot.”

Interviews by Małgorzata SypniewskaSecond-year student of part-time

second-cycle Editorial Studies


The Jagiellonian University Centre for the Chinese Lan-guage and Culture, also known as the Kraków Confucius

Institute, was founded in 2006 and was the first institution of this type in Poland, and the 108th Confucius Institute in the world (now there are 450 Confucius Institutes worldwide). Currently there are three other Confucius Institutes in Poland, at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań; the University of Wrocław; and the Opole University of Technology. The Kraków Institute was founded thanks to the joint effort of the Jagiellonian University and Beijing Foreign Studies University. It has been working in close cooperation with the Jagiellonian University Institute of the Near and Far East,

which offers Asian Studies and conducts Chinese language classes.

The activities of the Confucius Institute focus on three aspects: teaching Chinese,

promoting Chinese culture, and support-ing Chinese studies. It offers the whole range of language classes. Its student numbers have quadrupled in five years, to nearly 400 in 2012/2013. This year 320 persons enrolled for the first semester of the Institute’s courses, and they included students, persons in employment and even schoolchildren attending classes either in the In-stitute itself or at school (several schools in the city are working in

partnership with the Institute). Since 2010 the Kraków Insti-

tute has been the only regis-tered examination centre

in southern Poland con-ducting the HSK ex-

amination. Every year it selects

and sends

THE KRAKÓW CONFUCiUS iNSTiTUTE

about a dozen persons for a scholarship to China. To promote Chinese culture the Kraków Confucius Institute holds celebra-tions for traditional Chinese holidays and festivals, and organises film shows, exhibitions, calligraphy workshops, Chinese paint-ing classes, kite-building classes, Chinese culture meetings for pre-schoolers etc. The Institute also organises competitions on China for middle- and secondary-school pupils and photographic competitions. One of its tasks is to foster knowledge on China, not just by holding individual lectures, but also by organising academic conferences. There have been ten such conferences to date, covering a broad range of subjects, from Polish Jesuits in China, to international issues, security policy, and popular culture. The Institute also sponsors publications on China issued by the Jagiellonian University Press in Chińskie drogi, its series on China. The Institute has a library with a large collection of items on China.

More information on the Confucius Institute on our website www.instytutkonfucjusza.uj.edu.pl and Facebook profile www.facebook.com/instytutkonfucjusza

Joanna WardęgaDirector of the Confucius Institute

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The Swan Dance

The Deep Night Dance

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Acrobatic Ensemble from Henan Province, and Shaolin Temple martial arts combatants with their managers on the Auditorium Maximum stage, 25th January 2014

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Michał Kusiak, a student of the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy, and Applied

Computer Science, has become the pro-prietor of his own celestial object in the Solar System! On 16th January 2014 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) officially ascribed the name “Michalku-siak” to Asteroid (376574) 2013 PA16, whereby this young scientist joined the group of distinguished Polish men and women associated with science, culture, and music whose names have been put among the stars.

Michał has been interested in astro-nomy since he was a boy, and has been involved in the promotion of astronomy since his schooldays. This is what earned the appreciation of the asteroid’s discove-rers and of the IAU committee.

The asteroid was discovered in January 2007 by the Spanish astronomer Rafael Ferrando in the Castellon observatory. But it wasn’t fully examined and recorded, and was “lost” for another six years, until its rediscovery by Rafał Reszelewski of Świdwin. This 17-year-old amateur astro-nomer identified it on photographs made at the Tenerife Optical Ground Station for the TOTAS Project. Reszelewski’s observations in August 2013, along with the object’s identification on photographs taken in 2001, before the first discovery, helped to make a very precise determina-

ASTEROid 376574 NAMEd AFTER JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY STUDENT MICHAŁ KUSIAK

tion of its orbit and promptly enter it as No. 376574 in the catalogue of celestial bodies. In November 2013 Reszelewski and Ferrando suggested a name for it.

For a time in 2010 Michał Kusiak had acted as coordinator of the Sungrazing Comets Project and had helped Rafał Reszelewski take his first steps in practical astrono-my, giving him invaluable advice on how to make observations and look for “sungrazing” comets, thanks to which Rafał discovered four minor comets near the sun.

In 2007-2011 Michał himself discovered 151 sungrazing co-mets on photographs made by the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) space probe. He is also the discoverer of a new group of comets associated with its parent body 96P/Machholz and the South Delta Aquariid meteor shower. Since 2012 he has been one of the leaders of the first Polish Rantiga Osservatorio project in search of asteroids. Using a telescope located in Northern Italy for remote control operations, Michał Kusiak and Michał Żołnowski, an amateur astronomer from Kraków, have recorded 13 thousand observations for nearly 4 thousand asteroids, and reported about 1,100 candidates for new asteroids. Some

of these will no doubt be recognised as discoveries and attributed to them.

Michał Kusiak says that for him wor-king with others and getting to know them is very important. “It’s encouragement from other people that makes me want to work hard, and if on top of that our joint effort turns out to bring good and useful results, that’s what brings success and makes me very happy. It was only thanks to the goodwill, patience, and professional assistance of my family, friends, teachers and university tutors that this distinction could be achieved.”

Editor

Left to right: Michał Kusiak, Rafał Reszelewski, and Krzysztof Kida during the First Comet-Hunters’ Meeting at the Jagiellonian University Observatory

Asteroid-sleuthing via Rantiga Osservatorio

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The Deep Night Dance

Acrobatic Ensemble from Henan Province, and Shaolin Temple martial arts combatants with their managers on the Auditorium Maximum stage, 25th January 2014


UNiVERSiTY MEANS MORE ThAN STUdY

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The JU Students’ Self-Governing Body also looks after the fun side of student life, organising film reviews, festivals, games, student band reviews, and rag weeks, and working with scientific, cultural, and arts institutions


dOCTORAL STUdENTS

Doctoral students are young academics starting out on teaching careers, demonstrating that apart from letting them feel useful, scholarship can simply bring satisfaction, new challenges, and foster self-development

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The Jagiellonian University has three academic choirs. The University Male Voice Choir is the oldest university choir in Poland. It has accompanied the citizens of Kraków since 1878. It saw the funeral of Adam Mickiewicz, the beginnings of the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre, and Kraków’s first recording studio in the Polish Radio building. The group regularly participates in international festivals. Since 2009 it has been led by Oleg Sznicar, a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory and academic tutor of the Ludwik Solski State Drama School in Kraków.The University Female Voice Choir was founded in 2006. Since 2010 it has been supervised by Janusz Wierzgacz, graduate of the Academy of Music in Kraków and former singer of the Polish Radio Choir in Kraków. The group has received many prizes, contributed to numerous album recordings, and participated in prestigious music festivals.The third university choir, Camerata Jagiellonica, consists of men and women. Since 2006 it has been supervised by Wło-dzimierz Siedlik, an instructor from the Academy of Music in Kraków and the John Paul II University in Kraków. The choir performs both in Poland and abroad and is still expanding its repertoire.The choirs meet at ul. Kanonicza three times a week. Want to know more? Follow their Facebook profile!

ThREE ACAdEMiC ChOiRS

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The Słowianki Ensemble is the Jagiel-lonian University’s official song and

dance group. It was founded in 1959 by Zdzisław Wagner, a scholar of Slavonic Philology and an academic tutor. From 1972 to 2013 the Ensemble’s Director was Henryk Wolff-Zdzienicki. Since January 2014 it has been directed by Marta Wolff--Zdzienicka.

Our members are recruited from the students and employees of the Jagiello-nian University and other academies and colleges in Kraków. Our repertoire is made up of Polish national dances such as the krakowiak, kujawiak, mazurka, oberek, and polonaise, as well as numerous dances and folk songs from the Kraków, Kurpie, Lublin, Łowicz, Pieniny, Rzeszów, Sącz and Silesian regions. We also promote the folk songs, dances and music of other Sla-vonic nations and communities, performing in original Polish, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Russian, and Ukrainian folk costumes.

The Słowianki Ensemble has performed abroad on many occasions. To date we have visited Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, the Czech Republic, former Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece,

THE SŁOWIANKI ENSEMBLEHungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Libya, Li-thuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, the former Soviet Union (Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Ukraine), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the Vatican, and former Yugoslavia (Bosnia–Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia).

The Ensemble has represented Poland at many renowned international folklore festi-vals, such as Timgad (Algeria); Bonheiden, Charleroi, Edegem, Marchienne au Pont, Schoten, and Torhout (Belgium); Burgas (Bulgaria); Cornwall, and Drummondville (Canada); Zagreb (Croatia); Auray, Bay-onne, Confolens, Dijon, Felletin, Gannat, Haguenau, Le Puy, Maintenon, Montoire, Plozevet, and Port sur Saone (France); Bautzen, Erfurt, Kröv, Ludwigstein, Mar-burg, and Wismar (Germany); Billingham (UK); Naoussa (Greece); Baja, Kalotcsa, Sarvar, Siofok, and Szekszard (Hungary); Haifa (Israel); Aviano, Camporgiano, Gorizia, Lamezia Terme, Russi, Sabaudia, Tagliacozzo, and Velletri (Italy); Nuoro, and Quartu, Agrigento, and Messina (Italy), Skopje (FIROM), Brunssum, Enschede, and Odoorn (The Netherlands); Subotica (Serbia); Zvolen (Slovakia); Ljubljana (Slovenia); Barcelona, Caceres, Cádiz,

Cerdanyola del Vallès, Ciudad Real, Ouren-se, Pamplona, Portugalete, Ronda, San Sebastian, Viveiro, and Soller (Spain); and Ephesus (Turkey). We have taken part in the Paris Students’ Cultural Festival and the Havana World Youth and Students’ Festival.

The Słowianki Ensemble has won first prizes at the festivals in Dijon (twice), Ephesus, Katowice, Konin, Marburg, Marchienne au Pont, and Messina. It holds several Polish and foreign decorations. One of them, the Knights’ Cross of the Polonia Restituta Order, was conferred for outstanding artistic achievement and the promotion of Polish folklore. The Yugoslav Banner and Golden Star was awarded for the promotion of the folklore of the former Yugoslav States. The Cyril and Methodius Order (First Class) was granted for the promotion of Bulgarian folklore.

Słowianki has released two LPs and two CDs in Poland and one CD in Japan, and has made recordings in France and Italy. The Ensemble has made numerous TV appearances and radio broadcasts, and has received acclaim from renowned critics.

The Jagiellonian University’s Słowianki Ensemble’s artistic achievement, interna-tional success, and countless awards put it among Poland’s best folk song and dance groups.

It is a member of the Polish Section of CIOFF® (International Council of Organisations of Folklore, Festivals and Folk Art).

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SPORT AT ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

A JU – AGH women’s volleyball match, a 2013 charity event

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StudentEuro2013, a soccer tournament between Poland and Ukraine

Biuro Sportu, the Jagiellonian Universi-ty’s Sports Office, is an administrative

unit which was created in 2010 modelled on the sports offices of renowned European and American universities. It was estab-lished primarily because there was a need for professional training for the teams and competitors representing the University in AMP (Polish University Championship) events, the only recognised and certified sports events for Polish universities and colleges, the winners of which qualify for the European or world university cham-pionships. The Jagiellonian University competes every year with over 250 other Polish universities and colleges in AMP sports events. The University’s Sports Office works in partnership with the Jagiellonian University Sports Union, giving staff and students the opportunity to compete in regional and national sports events, and well as the chance to pursue their favourite sports activity on a not so professional basis.

The work of the Sports Office has helped the competitors representing the Jagiellonian University achieve results

that have put them third in the overall classification for Lesser Poland, and at the top of the second decade in the national table for colleges and universities – in spite of the lack of suitable facilities and infrastructure. That’s a very good result, considering the fact that we’re pitted against colleges of physical education

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Competitors in the European Universities Basketball Championship, Cordoba, 2011

and polytechnics, traditionally focused on sport.

Dariusz MazurJU Sports Office

Paweł Stypka JU Sports Office

Konrad Wełpa Head of the JU Sports Office


SPORT CM

Final of the 2012 Polish Medical Colleges’ Volleyball Championship, between the JU MC (in white, black, and red), and the Silesian Medical Academy (in blue)

Competitors from the JU MC School of Medicine in English plunge

in during their 2013 swimming championships

Robert Sierny, a 3rd-year student of the JU MC Faculty of Medicine, won the gold medal in the long jump event at the 2013 Polish University

Championships in Bydgoszcz

Marta Krzywoń, a 4th-year student of the JU MC Faculty of Medicine, during the giant slalom event in the JU CM Vice-Rector’s Cup Alpine Skiing and Snowboard Championships

In the Jagiellonian University’s 650th year since foundation its medical students are at the top of the table in the Polish medi-cal colleges’ sports championships league! The JU Medical College has its own unit for sport and physical education, and its top priority is to organise and conduct physical education classes, both the obligatory and

the facultative classes, for all the medical faculties, including the students in the School of Medicine in English. The unit conducts its activities in co-operation with the Jagiellonian University branch of AZS, the students’ sports union, which has an annual membership of about 300 students actively engaged in sport. They have the

opportunity to train and develop their skills in sixteen sports sections. Every year the JU MC sports unit and the University’s branch of AZS organise large-scale sports events under the patronage of the Univer-sity authorities.

Dorota PalikHead of the JU MC sports unit

SPORT iN ThE MEdiCAL COLLEGE


For 15 years now the Jagiellonian Uni-versity has been conducting activities

to equalise the opportunities of access to

education for persons with a variety of dis-abilities. The unit carrying out these duties is the Jagiellonian University Disability Support Service. It is part of the Univer-sity’s central administrative structure, and is one of the largest entities of its kind in the European colleges and universities. The principles governing our operations were created and developed in our first years; and our know-how has come from colleagues at other European universities, such as Aarhus University (Denmark) and Sheffield Hallam University (UK).

From the very outset the principle of equal rights and duties has been one of the chief guidelines in our activities to provide educational support. Basically this means that the University provides equal opportunities for all of its students, giving them an equal chance of access to its educational offer. But it also means that disabled persons are expected to abide by the same rules once their chances have been brought up to the standard enjoyed by those who are not disabled. This can be exemplified by the situation of a blind person taking an examination which has

EdUCATiONAL SUPPORT AT ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNiVERSiTY

been specially adapted for him/her. If he/she has the opportunity to use alternative technology, e.g. a computer fitted with a

speech synthesiser or Braille during the examination, he/she is deemed to have been given an equal chance, and his/her results are assessed on the same criteria as for the other students. This form of educational support com-plies with the requirements of Polish law, and is in line with the criteria defined in Art. 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Poland ratified in 2012.

The Jagiellonian Univer-sity has laid down precisely

formulated regulations meeting all the requirements defined in this document concerning the aspirations and claim to the educational support which is the right of persons with a disability or impaired

health. Detailed information on this matter is available in Zarządzenie Rektora UJ nr 122 z 10 grudnia 2012 r. (Ordinance No. 122 issued by the Rector of the Jagiellon-ian University on 10th December 2012). The relevant principles along with the catalogue of services the Disability Sup-port Service provides are available on our website in Polish and English. We offer educational support to blind persons, deaf persons, those with mobility difficulties, psychiatric problems, or learning dif-ficulties.

We are especially proud of our work in psychiatric prophylaxis, which we offer in a comprehensive programme called Kon-stelacja Lwa (Constellation Leo), which has been operating at the Jagiellonian University since 2010, in its first two years on EU structural funds, and now as part of or standard offer and financed by the University. The programme is our response to the growing challenge the University is facing with rising numbers of its students experiencing psychiatric problems. Other units, such as the University Hospital, and

The President of Poland, Mr. Bronisław Komorowski, signs the ratification documents attended by paralympians and children with disabilities, 2012

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Participants at a workshop on the University and the problem of psychiatric disorders, held in the JU Auditorium Maximum, 2011

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the Students’ Self-Governing Body, have gradually been joining our efforts, which has enhanced our potential to respond to suggestions coming from the academic community and expand the programme on a continuous basis. More details are available on our website www.Konste-lacjaLwa.pl

Successful educational support is possible if there is viable co-operation between the student requesting educational support, a member of the staff of the Dis-ability Support Service, and the student’s academic tutor. If all three parties adopt an open attitude to the issue the effect may be astonishing and beneficial not only for the student, who will receive a satisfac-tory amount of support, but also for his/her tutor, whose teaching experience and qualifications will be enhanced. The Dis-ability Support Service is not in a position to perform the fundamental mission of the student’s tutor, that is to provide education, but it can provide all that is necessary to make the educational process a viable real-ity considering the constraints imposed by the specific type of disability.

To prepare the University’s teaching staff for these tasks we have set up a portal at www.DAReLearning.eu, which provides a comprehensive set of materials relating to the education of students suf-fering from any disability. There is also an e-learning course compiled jointly by the University’s Disability Support Service and its e-Learning Centre. Some of the educational materials on the portal come from other European universities, such as the Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris; Charles University, Prague; and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The Jagiellonian University has de-signed its state-of-the-art offer of edu-

cational support tak-ing its fine, historic tradition into consid-eration, and facilitates access to culture for disabled persons. For three years we have been running the Dot-knij kultury (To Touch Culture) project in partnership with the University Museum in the Collegium Maius building. The scheme involves the successive creation of a se-ries of adaptations of the Museum’s most celebrated exhibits for disabled persons, particularly for blind people, which will give them the opportu-nity to enjoy the exhibi-tion by touching copies or replicas of the various items. The visual arts are presented to them on the web by means of audio-description. You can find the adaptations we have made to date on www.DotknijKultury.pl

sporT and recreaTion

Sport and recreation is another aspect of uni-versity life open to disa-bled persons using our services. Every year jointly with the Uni-versity’s Sports Office we organise sports camps for both disabled and able-bodied persons, in which there are no divisions separating the two groups. The events are arranged to let disabled participants join in anything they wish to take part in. The

able-bodied participants learn to organise their contribution to the joint activities without excluding any of their disabled colleagues and without imposing any bar-

riers. We would like them all to learn this lesson at the Jagiellonian University and take it into their future life.

Ireneusz BiałekDisability Coordinator, Jagiellonian University

www.don.uj.edu.pl

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Visiting the exhibition put on by students of design from the Pedagogical University of Cracow during the 2013 To Touch Culture event

Adaptation of Jacek Malczewski’s painting “He and She” for blind persons, made by Lech Kolasiński for the 2013 To Touch Culture event

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Participants of the Wilkasy Sport and Recreation Camp, 2012


Stowarzyszenie Absolwentów, the Jagiellonian University’s graduates’

association, was established in 1964, the sexcentenary of the University’s founda-tion. A group of enthusiasts wanting to set up an association of alumni convened a meeting at which its first board was elected. Andrzej Górbiel was the Association’s first President, and held the office until 1983. As the oldest members recall, setting up an exclusive association of alumni wasn’t easy in the hard reality of those days.

What does the Association’s Statute say? One of its key passages says that the past and present of Poland’s oldest Univer-sity are strictly linked to the nation and its history. Making a contribution to the edu-cation of Poland’s educated classes is the business of Jagiellonian University gradu-ates. They are the social elite responsible for the country’s future. That is why its graduates’ association should keep in touch with its Alma Mater, stand up in support of it, promote its traditions and achievements, coordinate education and self-education, and foster the community spirit uniting its alumni and alumnae.

ThE GOLdEN JUBiLEE OF ThE JAGiELLONiAN UNIVERSITY GRADUATES’ ASSOCIATION

In 1989 Professor Józef Andrzej Gie-rowski, Rector for two terms, was elected President of the Association. It was his idea to confer the University’s honorary

doctorate on Pope John Paul II, and thanks to him this was successfully accomplished. Professor Gierowski was the first Rector to appreciate the work of the Association and granted it a subsidy to rent premises at ulica Studencka. He wanted the Associa-tion to “spread out” beyond the confines of Kraków and beyond the borders of Poland, stressing that there were a lot of Jagiellon-ian University graduates living abroad, especially in the USA, and that building up contacts with them was a worthwhile enterprise.

The Association is proud to have had the Holy Father Pope John Paul II as one of its friends. In 1992 he accepted the dignity of Honorary Member of the Association and always emphasised that he was an alumnus of the Jagiellonian University. Cardinal Franciszek Macharski also accepted our Honorary Membership and enjoyed attending our meetings on Wawel Hill. We are also honoured to have Professor Franciszek Ziejka, Rector in

Professor Tadeusz Ulewicz with members of the JU Graduates’ Association

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Professor Aleksander Krawczuk with members of the JU Graduates’ Association

The celebrations for the JU Graduates’ Association jubilee will culminate in a ceremony to be held on 21st June 2014, at which gold medals and honorary members’ diplomas will be awarded to individuals with distinguished service for the Association. Professor Franciszek Ziejka, an Honorary Member of the Association, will deliver the jubilee lecture. The jubilee events will close on 24th October with an academic session and the unveiling of a memorial plaque for Edmund Klemensiewicz, a JU graduate. More information on our website, www.stowarzyszenie-absolwentow.uj.edu.pl


1000-2005 and now Chairman of SKOZK, the Social Committee for the Restoration of the Monuments of Kraków, and Pro-fessor Andrzej Mania, Vice-Rector for Educational Affairs who has always been a great friend to us, as specially respected and admired Members.

In a review of the Association’s fifty years of activities we certainly cannot fail to mention our indefatigable Senior Lady, Krystyna Dec, who is always “on duty”, sometimes smiling, sometimes deeply con-cerned, offering a moral or a salient remark drawn from her long life. And we treasure the memory of our recently deceased Vice-President, Jan Karol Motty, a refined and elegant gentleman for whom concern for the Association made up a major part of his life. He was deeply committed to eve-rything that mattered for the Association, acted as its representative, and came up with ideas for many of our activities.

For many years Maria Gaweł recorded the Association’s events and activities in our chronicle, which contains an account of our Christmas meetings on Wawel Hill alongside a variety of entries illustrated with photographs commemorating our Presidents in the past decade, Professor Andrzej Małecki and Professor Marta Urszula Doleżał, as well as the smiling fac-es of our industrious colleagues, Bożena Adamska, Barbara Nikorowicz, Lena Kumięga-Tarchała, Grażyna Markowska,

Vice-President Szczepan Leszek Świątek, and many others. Many of the entries are of memorial evenings for members who have died, in recent years the late Professors Józef Wolski, Tadeusz Ulewicz, Andrzej Pelczar, Józef Niweliński, Antoni Podraza, Andrzej Pilch, Mieczysław Klimaszewski, Jan Włodek, as well as Wanda Malinows-ka, Helena Byrska, and Jan Karol Motty…

The Association’s members conduct a range of activities: excursions, lectures, meetings. On two occasions our members were the initiators of a campaign to put up a commemorative plaque in a public place, next to the entrance to our premises

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Members of the JU Graduates’ Association

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Prof. Tadeusz Ulewicz with JU graduates in front of the Faculty of Polish Studies at ul. Gołębia 20, where a plaque commemorating the undergraduate years of Karol Wojtyła

at the Jagiellonian University was unveiled on 27th April 2011

at ulica Grodzka 53, and on the house at ulica Gołębia 20, to commemorate the future Pope John Paul’s year as a student of Polish in the building.

The historian of medicine Professor Zdzisław Gajda has said that no-one can be regarded as a member of the Univer-sity community unless he appreciates the greatness of his Alma Mater and the idea inspiring its work, unless he identifies with its traditions. Of course his censure does apply to the members of the Jagiellonian University’s graduate association.

Ewa Owsiany


In 1982 the Senates of the Jagiellonian University and the (then) Medical Acad-

emy decided to launch an educational pro-gramme for the over-forties. We owe the establishment of Kraków’s University of the Third Age (Uniwersytet Trzeciego Wieku) to two distinguished scholars, Professor Maria Susułowska, pioneer of Clinical Psychology at the Jagiellonian University, one of whose scientific interests was the psychology of old age; and the distinguished gerontologist and geriatrist Professor Józef Kocemba, founder of the Geriatrics Clinic.

The Jagiellonian University of the Third Age has changed a lot over the 32 years of its activities and is still searching for the best model for its operations. The only thing that hasn’t changed are its aca-demic standards and its university level of education, to which the unit will always be committed. Currently the minimum age for admission is 50, and applicants must prove they have completed a full course of secondary education. Over 350 senior students are enrolled at present, in one of four different fields of study, History of Art, History and Culture of Kraków, Psy-chology of Maturity, or Healthy Lifestyle and Prevention of Diseases of Civilisa-tion. Jagiellonian Senior Students have weekly lectures by eminent academics, and seminars or workshops on subjects like memory training, assertiveness, concen-tration enhancement, skills of negotiation, or first aid. Every Senior Student may elect to attend as many additional seminars as he or she wishes. The most popular are Comparative Religious Studies and classes on the history and culture of other parts of the world (the Balkans, China, Ukraine, the USA). Senior Students enjoy classes on philosophy, film studies, social anth-ropology, archaeology, literature, and law. There are groups of committed followers of the Science and Astronomy Section, the Memoir Writing Workshop, and the Painting Workshop. This mode of tuition is supplemented with open lectures on a wide range of subjects, language classes conducted by professional language tutors from the Jagiellonian Language Centre, and physical fitness classes.

One of the biggest challenges for institu-tions providing education for senior citizens is the need to enhance the computer literacy of their students. Technological progress is so rapid that nowadays individuals engaged in advancing their education need to know more than just the basics of how to use a computer and the internet, they must also be able to enhance their computer proficiency, and that is why the Jagiellonian University of the Third Age offers them IT courses con-ducted by a specialist. Poland’s best university has the duty to provide a profound scope of up-to-date knowledge, along with today’s tools and the skills to acquire it, to its Senior Students as well.

Most of the senior citizens’ universities in Poland have always been based on the French model, which means they have always been

Inaugural lecture for the 2013/2014 Senior Students’ academic year

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fully integrated in their parent university. However, keeping up academic standards of education in them is difficult, some insti-tutions are finding this impossible or even dispensable. More and more often university courses for senior citizens are turning into social activities enhancing the physical fitness of their participants, offering them entertain-ment and recreation, or getting them to pursue a hobby. We believe that the Jagiellonian University of the Third Age, which conducts its activities within Poland’s oldest and best University, may be expected to provide much more. From the very outset our aim has always been to advance the intellectual skills and faculties of our mature students.

Ewa PiłatThe Rector’s Plenipotentiary

for the Jagiellonian University of the Third Age

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Nordic walking in the AWF Park

UNiVERSiTY FOR AMBiTiOUS SENiOR STUdENTS


It’s located at Łazy in Lesser Poland, but it’s also known as “Little Tuscany.” Its

vine terraces command a view of the local hills, deceptively like a Tuscan landscape. You can’t resist the feeling that the Nad Dworskim Potokiem (“Manor River”) Vineyard is a twin sister to the vineyards of Italy. The stream called Dworski Potok, to which the Jagiellonian University’s vineyard owes its name, rustles past at the feet of the vine-covered hills.

The vineyard is part of the Jagiellonian University’s agricultural research station at Łazy. The estate has a rich history. It was first owned by the Benedictine Convent of nearby Staniątki, as the 15th-century chro-nicler Jan Długosz wrote. After the Second World War it was nationalised and became state property under the land reform act. In 1970 Łazy was alienated to the Jagiellonian University in exchange for the agricultural research station at Gaik Brzezowa, which was part of the area flooded when the Dob- czyce Reservoir was built.

The originator of the idea to set up a vineyard at Łazy was Professor Karol Musioł, former Rector of the Jagiello-

LiTTLE TUSCANYnian University, and the inspiration came from the vineyards cultivated by other European universi-ties. The foundation of an experimental vineyard was in part a response to the University’s teaching needs. Young scien-tists have excellent conditions here to collect measurements and observations for the dissertations they have to write to gra-duate. The vineyard is managed by Elżbieta and Adam Kiszka.

The first vine va-rieties were planted in April 2005 – the white varieties Auro-ra, Bianca, Hibernal, Jutrzenka, Muscat, Seyval, and Blanc; and Léon Millot and Maréchal Foch, red. More plantations followed in 2006-2009, until the vineyard

reached its maximum area, 3.3 hectares. The varieties which have given the best wines are Seyval Blanc, Hiber-nal, Jutrzenka, Muscat, Bianca, and Aurora for the white wines; while Léon Millot, Maréchal Foch, and Regent have turned out particular-ly well among the red wines.

Oenologists agree that it takes 4-5 years of cultivating a vineyard for the wine made from its grapes to attain its best and fullest flavour. However, the wine from the Jagiellonian University’s vineyard

scored its first success just three years after the first plantation. In 2008 it was entered in the international winemaking competition organised by the University of Maribor, and it was awarded the debutant’s

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Rondo 2008, winner of medals at the Enoexpo, Vinoforum Trencin, and Muvina

Prešov wine competitions

Little Tuscany


distinction from among eight European universities contending for the title.

Our wine Novum, which has been awarded the Champion’s title and has won a grand prix nineteen times, was served at numerous events and ceremonies during Poland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Our principal award to date, of which we are especially proud, is the gold medal at the University Wine Championships in Maribor in 2010, when we beat competitors from eighteen other European universities. Our wine Hibernal 2008 was rated the best in the dry white category.

The distinctly growing interest we have been observing in recent years in vine cultivation, wine, and winemaking, which prompted the foundation of the University’s vineyard, has also helped to launch a new field of postgraduate study,

Oenology, in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Jagiellonian University’s Medical College. This academic year saw the third successive intake of students starting on the course, which entails issues like the biology of grapes, the chemistry of wine, winemaking, the cultural and health aspects of wine, and the legal regulations governing the production and distribution of wine. Fieldwork and practical classes in the University’s vineyard make up an important component of the course.

The Jagiellonian University vineyard is one of the few vineyards in Poland to conduct the sale of its wine. You can buy it in the shop on the vineyard premises. To keep the very best standards of quality the University has a Wine Chapter. Its members represent aca-demia, the media, and the world of politics, and are committed to the promotion of the culture of winemaking in Poland.

Rafał Kiszkagraduate of the JU Faculty of Law and Administration,

voluntary assistant at the vineyard

The vintner’s storeroom

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The Maréchal Foch variety of grapes gives

a noble red wine


LET NOT ONLY STONES SPEAK...

The Polish poet Cyprian Kamil Nor-wid wrote that one’s country means

one’s land and its graves, and that na-tions which lose their memory lose their life. I think we could replace the words “country” and “nation” in this maxim with another word without making it lose its deep sense. They could be exchanged for “university”. By definition every institution of higher education is more than just a community of the living; it is also a bridge linking its members across the generations – of its deceased with those who will come after us. So if we are to learn the history of a university, but also contribute to it, we should visit the graveyards where its professors and fellows lie.

It can never be repeated enough that if we cannot express our remembrance of those who have departed from us, if we cannot transmit to others our concern for the preservation of their memory, we should not expect those who come after us in the relay of the generations to re-member us. We keep the memory of the deceased professors and associates of the Jagiellonian University alive above all because without their mutual effort our Alma Mater would not be what it is now – one of the leading places of learning in Poland.

The commemoration of the deceased staff of the Jagiellonian University is the task set for a special memorial committee founded on 4th December 2008 on the grounds of a decision issued by Rector Karol Musioł. The Komitet ds. Opieki nad Grobami Profesorów Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego (Committee for the Care of the Graves of Jagiellonian University Professors) is the first institution of its kind in Poland, and so far the only one, we understand. The Committee’s job is not only to look after the material condi-tion of our professors’ graves, but also to cherish their memory, indeed sometimes to restore the memory of our professors and their achievements for the academic community, for our city, for our country. The Committee has drawn up a list of de-ceased Jagiellonian University professors since 1803, and its first instalment was pu-blished on the University website in late 2010 (http://www.uj.edu.pl/uniwersytet/aktualnosci/odeszli/lista-pamieci). We believe that this kind of record is the best memorial and testimonial of our gratitude we can give them.

Another memorial showing our gratitu-de is Pro Memoria, a hardcopy publication we are issuing to mark the University’s 650th anniversary, containing a list of 687 professors and senior staff of the Jagiello-nian University buried in the period from 1803 to 2003 in the Rakowicki Cemetery, Kraków’s largest burial ground and still in use. Our aim in this publication was not to reiterate the biographical informa-tion you can find in encyclopaedias, but instead to give an accurate location and photograph of the graves. It was more than a pioneering project, as no records have been kept of all the professors and staff of the Jagiellonian University for the whole of that period, so it was very hard to establish how many of them are buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery.

The Committee works on a voluntary basis, but our operations would be im-possible without the kind support of the Rector, Professor Wojciech Nowak, and the University’s central administrative Staff, the academic community, and all those who care and remember. Our corre-spondence is the best evidence of this. We get letters from well-wishers and people who tell us where to find the graves of Ja-giellonian University staff, and also with recollections of a variety of biographical data, often unknown details, relating to the lives of our late colleagues. Whenever we get such letters we inevitably think of the Committee’s motto, “We continue to live in others; and that is a good thing: let not only stones speak.” How true it is!

Jan Wiktor TkaczyńskiPresident of the Committee for the Care

of the Graves of Jagiellonian University Professors

Cover of the Pro Memoria volume

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ThE ALMA MATER READERS’ CLUB

Dear Readers,The Jagiellonian University magazine Alma Mater, which has been coming out since 1996, is intended to present the life of the academic community of Poland’s oldest university. Thanks to the joint efforts of its authors, editors, and co-workers, thanks to the friendly response and feedback from our Readers and the commitment of the University’s authorities, in the 18 years we have mana-ged to create an open forum for the exchange of information and opinion. The magazine has gradually increased its frequency of publication – from a quar-terly through a bimonthly, to a monthly now. We are offering membership of the Alma Mater Readers’ Club to all interested in regularly receiving the latest issue of Alma Mater. You can become a member by making a donation (the amount is up to you) for postage and packaging, to the account of the Jagiellonian University. Every member of the Club will receive a free copy of new editions of Alma Mater. The funds collected thanks to our Readers’ generosity will be allocated for the costs of distribution and printing.

If you decide to join, please pay your donation into the University’s bank account: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, PEKAO SA 87124047221111000048544672

fill in the following declaration and send it to our editorial office:Name and surname ......................................................................................................................................................Address........................................................................................................................................................................Telephone number – e-mail ...........................................................................................................................................Are you a Jagiellonian University graduate? Yes / No. If you are, please state your faculty, field of study, and year of gradu-ation…………………… I hereby declare that I shall pay a donation in the amount of ….. into the bank account of the Jagiel-lonian University in 2014. Please enrol me in the Alma Mater Readers’ Club and send me a regular copy of the Jagiellonian University’s magazine Alma Mater.I consent / do not consent (delete as appropriate) to the publication of my name, surname, and place of residence in the list of Club members published in Alma Mater.

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JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Alma mater 166

Documents

Transcript of Alma mater 166