FROM THE COLLEGIUM MAIUS TO THE AUDITORIUM MAXIMUM by Professor Andrzej Chwalba

Translated by: Anna Bereta Anna Bętkowska Weronika Branny Jakub Cholewka Justyna Czaczkowska Bartosz Fabjański Dobromiła Jagiełła Iza Jarosz Ewa Kuter Łukasz Moskała Maciej Piątek Katarzyna Podpora Rafał Ociepa Magdalena Ostrowska Karolina Sawczyn Sabina Szablowska Konrad Zwolak Hubert Życiński

Compiled by Justyna Czaczkowska

Please note: This translation is a shared effort of the students of the Institute of English Philology listed above. Names are listed in alphabetical order. FROM THE COLLEGIUM MAIUS TO THE AUDITORIUM MAXIMUM Inauguration lecture by Professor ANDRZEJ CHWALBA for the official opening of the Auditorium Maximum Building, October 1, 2005

The successful construction of the building in the Krupnicza turns our thoughts to its university origins, to the historic buildings of the , be it for the sole fact that the Auditorium Maximum reminds us of its predecessors such as the Collegium Maius and the Collegium Novum.

After the death of the University’s founder, Casimir the Great, lectures were held in churches, in the homes of professors and in the cathedral school on Wawel Hill. In all likelihood, the construction of a building to house the Studium Generale began in the Kazimierz District on today's Plac Wolnica at number 11. However, the lack of funds and interest did not facilitate further development. At the beginning of the1390s Vladislaus Jagiełło and his wife Jadwiga decided to restore the University. They agreed that it would be better to buy one of the existing buildings for the purposes of the University rather than construct a new one. They proceeded accordingly with what they had planned and in the years 1392-1395 such a building was found and in 1399, after the Queen’s death, the transaction was concluded. The building dated to circa 1300 was situated in the then Żydowska and it was the property of the Pęcherz family of Rzeszotary.

These were good times for Kraków and the Studium Generale, more and more frequently referred to as the University. The University very soon gained prestige both in and Central Europe, and the number of students and academics increased rapidly. Therefore, it was necessary to buy more buildings, which by the end of the 15th century developed more or less into what is now known as the Collegium Maius, with a central arcaded courtyard. This functional and well-constructed building ensured a peaceful and quiet atmosphere for teaching and learning. Also its arcaded galleries facilitated communication between academics and students. The University's founders were convinced that favorable conditions for learning, rest, and entertainment had to be created to let the University compete with other European universities. And so it happened. The Jagiellonians, the local Church and city authorities were aware of the fact that a good University would bring benefits both for Kraków and Poland- . The academics in turn knew that the monarchs were mindful of them, since they would send up tokens of gratitude such as game from the royal hunt.

During the 15th century the Lectorium Theologorum Hall was enlarged, in the following century it took its present shape and thus it remains today. Classes for theology students and university ceremonies were held there. Unfortunately, the interior decoration of the elegant hall in the then Auditorium Maximum did not even survive the 18th century, since after 1795 the Austrian partitioning power removed the furnishings and turned the Hall into a granary. Later the Hall, now named the Jagiellonian Hall [Sala Jagiellońska], was restored. As previously, not only lectures but also doctor’s promotion ceremonies were held there. The Hall's present-day and much admired decoration shown in the photograph is a successful 1950 design by Professor Karol Estreicher, the creator of the University Museum. It renders perfectly the atmosphere of the historic University.

Classes were held in lecture halls situated mainly on the first floor of Kolegium Królewskie [the Royal College], since the second half of the 15th century known as the Collegium Maius. In the 16th century the Collegium Maius comprised seven reading rooms named after the great ancient scholars: Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Galen, Ptolemy, and Pythagoras. Apart from the Collegium Maius, lectures took place in four colleges which were the centers of the academic activity of the Faculties of Law, Medicine, Theology, and Liberal Arts (Philosophy.) All the colleges were established in the 15th century and maintained their own buildings. Two of them have survived till the present day: the Collegium Iuridicum, located in the Grodzka (its later Early Baroque court is modeled on the court of ) and the Collegium Minus, then intended for junior lecturers. Lecture rooms were also placed in the larger residential halls (bourses), including the largest (meant for one hundred students) and oldest one, the Bursa Jerozolimska [Bursa Hierusalem] founded by Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki. The foundations of the residential hall have been recently excavated in the Collegium Novum. Archeologists have also dug down to the foundations of Bursa Filozofów [the Philosophers’ Bourse] founded by Andrzej Noskowski, Bishop of Płock. Lectures used to start at the crack of dawn and finished at dusk. It was the clock, if it worked, or the beadle with a small yet loud bell, who had to work if the clock failed, that announced the time for the lectures. Students used to bring small forms to sit on during lectures. Benches were supplied in lecture rooms gradually, as the cash from the benefactors flowed into the university budget. The benefactors’ money also allowed for the replacement of the membranes in the windows with convenient, though expensive panes of glass.

After lectures, the academics used to gather for meals, most frequently in the Stuba Communis [Common Room].

The room served as a refectory, and a meeting room as well as a venue for social events. A convivial atmosphere of discussions and debates enabled the preparation of projects for the development of university premises and the improvement of the quality of education; whereas the views from the windows were reassuring and constituted a source of pride, as more and more new university buildings appeared in front of the academics’ eyes. Unfortunately, few objects from the former Stuba Communis have survived till the present time. Therefore, its present-day interior decoration, which can be seen in the photograph, came into existence just fifty years ago and has been the outcome of Professor Karol Estreicher’s imagination and esthetic sense as well as his particular sentiment for the Baroque. Hence the Baroque wainscoting, which he chose for the permanent exhibition, and which resembles closely the wainscoting from the chapterhouse of the Cistercian Abbey in Mogiła. The beautiful stairs, on the other hand, come from the Potocki county house at Krzeszowice [near Kraków] and, like the wardrobes from Gdańsk, were saved from being requisitioned after 1945 for the government apartments in Warsaw. The room’s decoration has been completed with a Baroque ceramic stove from the county house at Głębowice.

One can hardly imagine any university without a library. The library story was built in the years 1515 – 1519. The rooms created by Tomasz Obiedziński were given his name but they are no longer used as a library. Occasional lectures and academic meetings were held there.

Until the 1830s – 1840s the most valuable books in the Obiedziński Rooms were chained for fear of possible “theft” committed not even by the students but by the academics, who borrowed books eagerly but were reluctant to return them. More often than not they would borrow them for keeps and only at death's door, in the face of imminent torment in Hell, would they have them returned at last. The library authorities, supervised by Father Hugo Kołłątaj, managed to change this, which inspired Józef Muczkowski, a vigorous library director in the times of the Republic of Kraków (1815 – 1847), to have the chains removed. He was convinced that they were only relics out of keeping with the modern epoch. The photograph on the right-hand side was taken in the 1860s, when there was the major conversion, called the Kremerowska Conversion, of the Collegium Maius into a Neo-Gothic style. Today, there is not much remaining of the 19th-century conversion except for the door and windows. Everything that can be admired nowadays, including the new name libraria, was created by none other than Professor Karol Estreicher. Although the name libraria might suggest antiquity, in reality it comes from less than a century ago.

In the second half of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century Poland fell into decline and so did Kraków, becoming a provincial town of no more than ten thousand inhabitants. The student numbers decreased, the quality of lectures deteriorated, and books started gathering dust. Improvement came with the Enlightenment period, starting in the years 1776 – 1783, thanks to the King's contribution and Father Hugo Kołłątaj's determination. Father Kołłątaj spared no effort to implement a major reform of the University, which then received a new name, Szkoła Główna Koronna [The Principal School of the Realm].

In the years 1787 – 1791 a new building in the Św. Anny was erected. It was named the Collegium Physicum, later changed to Collegium Kołłątaja. As planned, it encompassed the departments of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, including Mechanics and Hydraulics. The cobblestones and paving stones shown in the photograph were removed in the early 1960s in connection with the University's 600th Jubilee. In the following decades the building deteriorated, the lecture halls were being rented out to accommodate stores and a police station. In the documents from the University Archives one can read: "Nobody lives in the building, nothing happens there. If the lecture halls underwent refurbishment they could be rented out to accommodate a laundry."

It was only in the 1870s that the building's condition improved, which enabled two scholars, Professor Zygmunt Wróblewski and Professor Karol Olszewski, to liquefy oxygen and nitrogen in 1883. The chamber of geology and mineralogy in the Collegium Kołłątaja as well as an elegant lecture hall (currently used by historians dealing with education and culture) are signs of prosperity, good taste, and functionality. Fine items of bentwood furniture are also worth mentioning, unfortunately they have not survived until the present day. The next photograph shows the Aula in the Collegium Novum, the way it looked at the turn of the 1960s and 70s, i.e. in the last years of Gomułka’s time in office as Polish First Secretary and at the beginning of Gierek’s term. In the photograph we can see the Rector’s chair, saved during the Second World War by a local carpenter. The wall in the background is bare except for the White Eagle, the Polish emblem, without its crown. Until the end of the First World War, a portrait of His Imperial Majesty Francis Joseph I, painted by Kazimierz Pochwalski, hung upon it. However, on October 31, 1918 a group of the Jagiellonian University students tore it to pieces, thus manifesting their determination to create an independent Republic of Poland. However, a number of other paintings did survive, such as portraits of the University’s founding fathers Casimir the Great and Vladislaus Jagiełło, which date back to the early 1860s, a picture of Queen Jadwiga painted in 1900 to celebrate the Jubilee, as well as the works of the great master himself, including the famous “Copernicus.” In the photograph we cannot see the comfortable chairs designed by Tadeusz Stryjeński.

The Neo-Gothic edifice of the Collegium Novum, created by the architect Feliks Księżarski, was opened on June 14, 1887, after a few years of endeavor followed by a period of construction. Fortunately, in the Austrian capital of , where decisions were made regarding the allocation of subsidies, there was a man who supported the University’s interests. It was Julian Dunajewski, the then Finance Minister. Had it not been for his commitment, and the help of his brother, Cardinal Albin Dunajewski, the work might not have started at all. However, already at that time the Aula was too small to accommodate people on grand occasions, even though the number of students did not exceed 1200 and there were only a hundred professors. There was another problem connected with it, namely, the question of ladies, the professors’ wives. A debate arose over whether it was fitting or not to invite them to important ceremonies. Most of the academics, quite in keeping with the prevailing opinion at that time, were against the idea of inviting ladies. “Zoll requires no ticket and wishes the ceremony to be exclusively male;” Edward Janczewski “expresses his opposition to the idea of admitting ladies to the ceremonies,” as we can read in the University’s archives.

In the early 20th century (1908-1911) the University authorities decided to erect another building adjacent to the Collegium Novum. The new building, previously used by the physicists and today occupied by the historians, was named the Collegium Witkowskiego. The building prides itself on the already famous Józef Tischner Aula. In the photograph of the Collegium Witkowskiego in the early 1920s, we can see neither the charming hornbeams that are there today, nor the monument, created by Cyprian Godebski for the 500th Jubilee of the renewal of the University. The monument in question was removed from the Collegium Maius to be placed in front of the Collegium Witkowskiego only in 1953. One of the academics, outraged by this fact, telephoned the Mayor of Kraków, Marcin Waligóra. “Do you realize, Mayor, that in your city the most outstanding Polish scientist, Copernicus, has been served with an eviction notice?” “I do not,” answered the Mayor who had only just been roused from sleep, “but I can assure you, Professor, that tomorrow he will receive alternative accommodation.”

Nevertheless, it was the Grzegórzecka and the Kopernika area, not the old university district, that became the biggest building site in the days of autonomy (1868 – 1918). There, clinics offering medical training for doctors were mushrooming all the time, so that by the early 20th century Kraków could boast the greatest number of doctors per ten thousand inhabitants in the whole k.u.k. (kaiserlich und königlich – Imperial and Royal) monarchy. Apart from the Theatrum Anatomicum, where the first dissection room was located, numerous other buildings were erected, that is the Collegium Medicum on the Grzegórzecka and the clinics on the Kopernika: the Surgical Clinic and the Ophthalmological Clinic (1889-1898), the Internal Disease Clinic (1900), the Neurological and Psychiatric Clinic (1909-1914) and the Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine on the corner of the Czysta and the Mickiewicza, known as the Polish Pasteur Institute. Certainly, such a large-scale investment would not have been possible without budget grants, from Vienna and Lwów, the regional administrative center (now ), obtained only after long endeavors, which is understandable in such circumstances. As one source says,

professors wrote papers and memorials, went to Lwów and Vienna, introduced themselves to ministers and dignitaries, various civil servants and their assistants, as well as members of parliament and councilors, explaining and asking, persuading and teaching patience, they had to deal with narrow-mindedness and backwardness, ignorance and sometimes utter helplessness. From time to time they returned with some winnings. But it consumed their time and enthusiasm, their energy and health. One of the new buildings was the Pathology Department, at Grzegórzecka 15, with a hall esthetically and rationally designed in an amphitheatrical shape. Interestingly, among the students a group of females was to be found, despite the prevailing opinion that studying, especially reading Medicine, was unbecoming for women, had a negative influence on their health and attractiveness, and could ruin their marriage prospects.

After Poland regained its independence (1918), the number of students continued to increase. While in 1912/13 it had amounted to 3736, by the late 1930s student numbers reached around six thousand. The lack of space becoming troublesome, more new university buildings and premises were needed. It was not infrequent for the quality of the buildings to fall short of the required standards. The astronomical observatory, for instance, erected in the days of Kołłątaj, often experienced power cuts or interruptions in the water supply. In 1922-1923, thanks to the Government’s support, the University was able to purchase building plots for new premises. Thus, in 1936 the Obstetric and Gynecology Clinic, impressive in size and remarkably modern, was completed. The construction of the Laryngological Clinic, started in 1938, was left unfinished due to the outbreak of the War. In 1939 books began to be transferred to the , which had been under construction since 1931. The Jagiellonian Library was the most ambitious investment enterprise undertaken by the University in the interwar period.

Several other buildings were purchased (e.g. a building for botanists in the Lubicz) and some others were extended (e.g. a building for Chemistry and the Faculty of Arts in the Gołębia).

Also, the laboratories in the Institute of Geography were moved to their new premises in the Grodzka, the Arsenal Building, presented in 1920 to the University by the armed forces. The laboratories, lavishly and attractively furnished, were functional, spacious and brightly lit. At that time, it was standard practise for laboratories to be of high quality.

The Chemistry lecture hall and laboratories located in the Collegium Chemicum in the Olszewskiego, built in 1870, could boast the same high quality. Soon after the end of the Second World War, the Chemistry professors were trying to convince the ministerial authorities of the necessity of a new investment. Of all the investment projects this was the only one to succeed, since the Collegium Chemicum, situated beyond the second ring road, on the second campus-to-be, was the only project that was carried out. Built according to the interwar standards, the Collegium has one of the best lecture halls in the whole Jagiellonian University.

The 600th Jubilee of the King Casimir Foundation gave a wonderful opportunity to increase the University’s material assets, meaning also educational and academic facilities. Already in 1957 the authorities were presented with a list of the University’s most urgent investment needs. Soon followed the commissioning of construction work for new facilities situated near Dr. Jordan’s Park, as well as of extending many of the existing ones. But, typically for the period, the pace of the work was just next to a standstill. The blame might be put on any of the four seasons, lack of specialists or “production capacity”, or even shortage of such trifles as aluminum screws or nuts. Those days construction managing called for nerves of steel – not a job for the scholars who were delegated by the University to supervise the sites. In September 1962 Professor Witold Taszycki and Dr. Tadeusz Ulewicz, supervisors of the construction of the Collegium Humanisticum, wrote to the Rector: “Because of the situation at the construction site…, where bad work is not only tolerated, but officially endorsed, we hereby resign from all our duties concerning this construction. We do not wish to lend our modest, but nonetheless honest names, to what is going on at the site.”

Despite the difficulties and the missed deadlines the Jubilee brought the University a number of new facilities; among them were the Collegium Biologicum, Collegium Paderevianum, financed from the legacy left by Ignacy Paderewski, the sports complex on the Piastowska. The latter is still the Jagiellonian University’s only sports facility, even though the number of students has quadrupled since that time.

The University was also given the Collegium Mathematicum; shown in the photograph is one of its modern lecture theatres, furnished according to the contemporary standards and fitted out with fashionable wooden paneling. The facility has served mathematicians, physicists and IT specialists very well.

After the Jubilee, the National Council of the City of Kraków handed over to the University the former Jesuit buildings, previously occupied by courts of law, on the Grodzka. In 1991 one of the most prestigious university buildings in Przegorzały, founded by the Polish communities abroad, was completed. In the same year the University bought the first building plot in Pychowice, the future location of the Third University Campus, named after the Sexcentenary of the University’s Renewal. The work is still in progress there. It is worth noting that at the turn of the 20th and 21st century, a number of old buildings were renovated. Thanks to this the Faculty of Law and Administration obtained new rooms in the Larisch House and in the building at Olszewskiego 2. The Institute of Archeology obtained new rooms in the Collegium Minus, and the Institute of Botany on the Kopernika. Similarly, the Faculty of Medicine extended its premises with new rooms on the Braci Śniadeckich and the Kopernika, the Institute of Musicology in the Pusłowski House. Finally, the Faculty of Pharmacy moved to new buildings in Prokocim.

It is also worth mentioning two unaccomplished projects, in connection with the Auditorium Maximum, the subject of today’s ceremony. The first goes back to 1889, when a Jagiellonian University graduate, Kazimierz Ratuld, decided to bequeath 22 700 rubles to the University.

After the benefactor’s death a building plot and a house on the Garbarska were bought. A considerable amount of credit was also needed, for the legacy was not enough to complete the project. In the photograph, one can see a visionary project of a three-story building which would feature a lecture theatre to house 1,500 (!) people, a gallery, six lecture halls, professors’ offices, and guest rooms. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the First World War frustrated these ambitious plans.

The next, already second, design is from 1923. According to the plans, three buildings (for the Institutes of Fishery, Zoology, and the Humanities) were to be erected in the Mickiewicza on a site recently purchased by the University. Today the main building of the Agricultural University of Kraków stands there. The architect was Wacław Krzyżanowski, whose design matched the style of the buildings characteristic for Kraków of that time, such as the PKO Bank Building and the Press House in the Wielopole.

The detailed design for the Auditorium Maximum included a large central lecture hall with offices for such eminent professors as Konopczyński, Piotrowicz, Semkowicz, Kot, and Sternbach as well as the servant’s room. Despite favorable reactions from the government and the Kraków press, the time proved inauspicious and the money insufficient for such an enterprise, even though the University authorities showed a lot of good will, if too little determination. In the end the project foundered in the initial stage of planning and fund collecting. The investment had to give way to other more urgent projects, which have already been mentioned, first and foremost the erection of a new building for the Jagiellonian Library. Another reason was the Second World War. However, the University community did not forget the plans for an Auditorium Maximum that had been made before the First and the Second World War. As early as 1946 the rectors of the Jagiellonian University were trying to persuade the authorities of the necessity to build an Auditorium Maximum for six hundred people, emphasizing the fact that it might serve as a venue for public educational events. After a few years they had to rest their case. The plans to build an Auditorium Maximum were considered less important than the investments at and the rebuilding of Warsaw.

“Third time lucky” goes the saying. In the case of the initiatives which eventually resulted in the erection of the Auditorium Maximum it would be more appropriate to say: “Fourth time lucky.”

Over the ages lecture halls, as the name itself suggests, were used for lessons, lectures, seminars and classes. But that is not all. A variety of events took place in lecture halls such as jubilee celebrations, banquets and graduation ceremonies, as well as discussions and debates held by professional associations of scholars, scientific associations and various student organizations. Occasionally, a political rally or demonstration would take place in one of the lecture rooms, sometimes without official permission from the University. An age-old tradition of the University are the popular lectures open to the general public, such as the lectures offered by the Popular University, the Flying University, the Workers’ or People’s University, or since recent times the University of the Third Age for Senior Citizens. In his last will Kazimierz Ratuld wrote that the envisioned University Lecture Hall should also serve as a venue for popular lectures and be available for public use connected with the pursuit of the sciences and letters. Political gatherings of any kind were to be strictly excluded.

Additionally, meetings with artists and men of letters, exhibitions and screenings were held in the lecture halls. The variety of events and initiatives shows that the University’s mission is not limited to education and research only.

The erection of the Auditorium Maximum gives us a reason to think of the Jagiellonian University as a venue for high-rank events, such as international congresses. However, despite the fact that Kraków is destined to have such events, it still lacks adequate facilities to properly fulfill this role. Let us hope that the Auditorium Maximum will mark the beginning of a new exciting period not only for the University but for Kraków as well, especially in view of the fact that international meetings and congresses are part of the cultural traditions of academic centers across Europe.

Concerts are another wonderful tradition at the Jagiellonian University. For centuries music has been an important part of the University’s cultural life. Many concerts have been held in the court of the Collegium Maius, occasionally at the Collegium Iuridicum and the Collegium Nowodworskie too. Concerts that take place in the Collegium Novum are still fairly popular. It will be wonderful to have the University New Year’s Concerts in the new building in the Krupnicza where the acoustics are splendid, as we already know.

Photos: p. 35 – The Aula of the Collegium Maius Building p. 36 – The Stuba Communis in the Collegium Maius p. 37 – An Obiedziński Room in the Collegium Maius p. 38 – The Collegium Physicum (now Collegium Kołłątaja) Building p. 40 – The Aula of the Collegium Novum Building p. 41 – The Collegium Witkowskiego Building p. 45 – The Aula of the Collegium Mathematicum Building

[front page photo: The Aula of the Auditorium Maximum Building] [last page photo: The Aula of the Collegium Maius Building] [p 4: The Auditorium Maximum Building]