Upon Successful Construction of the Building in the Krupnicza O
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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 Jagiellonian University, 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 Poland 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- Lithuania. 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 Wawel Castle) 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.