Studium Generale(1364–1397) Collegium Regium(1397–1400) Collegium Maius(1400–c. late 1500s) Kraków Academy(c. late 1500s–1777) Principal School of the Realm(1777–1795) Principal School of Kraków(1795–1817)
The campus of the Jagiellonian University is centrally located within thecity of Kraków. The university consists of thirteen main faculties, in addition to three faculties composing theCollegium Medicum. It employs roughly 4,000 academics and provides education to more than 35,000 students who study in 166 fields.[4] The main language of instruction is Polish, although around 30 degrees are offered in English and some in German.[5] The university library and Collegium Novium house a significant number of medieval and Renaissance art pieces and manuscripts, including the landmarkDe revolutionibus orbium coelestium by the university alumnusNicolaus Copernicus.
The founding of the university in 1364, painted byJan Matejko (1838–1893)
In the mid-14th century,King Casimir III the Great realised that the nation needed a class of educated people, especially lawyers, who could arrange a better set of the country's laws and administer the courts and offices. His efforts to found an institution of higher learning in Poland were rewarded whenPope Urban V granted him permission to set up a university in Kraków. Aroyal charter of foundation was issued on 12 May 1364, and a simultaneous document was issued by the city council granting privileges to theStudium Generale.
Development of the University of Kraków stalled upon the death of Casimir III, and lectures were held in various places across the city, including, amongst others, in professors' houses, churches and in the cathedral school on the Wawel Hill. It is believed that the construction of a building to house theStudium Generale began on Plac Wolnica in what is today the district of Kazimierz.
After a period of low interest and lack of funds, the institution was restored in the 1390s byJadwiga, king[7] of Poland, the daughter ofLouis the Great. The royal couple, Jadwiga and her husbandWładysław II Jagiełło decided that, instead of building new premises for the university, it would be better to buy an existing edifice; it was thus that a building on Żydowska Street, which had previously been the property of the Pęcherz family, was acquired in 1399. The Queen donated all of her personal jewellery to the university, allowing it to enroll 203 students.
Following Jadwiga's death in 1399, her husband of Lithuanian origin Władysław II Jagiełło became the sole monarch of the Kingdom of Poland who on 26 July 1400 had reformed the university based on the model of theSorbonne University and the Faculty of Theology was established.[8] In ~1400, abourse of Lithuanian students (a shared accommodation, maintenance and education institution) was established and in the 15th-16th centuries more than 300 Lithuanian students studied in the university, including one of the creators of theLithuanian language writingAbraomas Kulvietis andStanislovas Rapalionis.[8][9] In 1401, the Lithuanian dukeJonas Vaidutis, a grandson of the former Lithuanian monarchKęstutis and a relative of Władysław II Jagiełło from theGediminids dynasty, was elected as the secondrector of the university.[8][10]
The faculties of astronomy, law and theology attracted eminent scholars: for example,John Cantius,Stanisław of Skarbimierz,Paweł Włodkowic,Jan of Głogów,Sandivogius of Czechel andAlbert Brudzewski, who from 1491 to 1495 was one ofNicolaus Copernicus' teachers.[11] The university was the first university in Europe to establish independent chairs in Mathematics andAstronomy. This rapid expansion in the university's faculty necessitated the purchase of larger premises in which to house them; it was thus that the building known today as theCollegium Maius, with its quadrangle and beautiful arcade, came into being towards the beginning of the 15th century. TheCollegium Maius' qualities, many of which directly contributed to the sheltered, academic atmosphere at the university, became widely respected, helping the university establish its reputation as a place of learning in Central Europe.
For several centuries, almost the entire intellectual elite of Poland was educated at the university,[citation needed] where they enjoyed particular royal favors. While it was, and largely remains, Polish students who make up the majority of the university's students, it has, over its long history, educated thousands of foreign students from countries such as Lithuania, Russia, Hungary,Bohemia, Germany, and Spain. During the second half of the 15th century, over 40 percent of students came from the outside of theKingdom of Poland.
The main baroque entrance to the university'sCollegium Iuridicum
The first chancellor of the university wasPiotr Wysz, and the first professors wereCzechs,Germans and Poles, most of them trained at theCharles University in Prague. By 1520 Greek philology was introduced by Constanzo Claretti and Wenzel von Hirschberg;Hebrew was also taught. At this time, theCollegium Maius consisted of seven reading rooms, six of which were named for the great ancient scholars:Aristotle,Socrates,Plato,Galen,Ptolemy, andPythagoras. Furthermore, it was during this period that the faculties of Law, Medicine, Theology, and Philosophy were established in their own premises; two of these buildings, theCollegium Iuridicum andCollegium Minus, survive to this day. The golden era of the University of Kraków took place during thePolish Renaissance, between 1500 and 1535, when it was attended by 3,215 students in the first decade of the 16th century, and it was in these years that the foundations for theJagiellonian Library were set, which allowed for the addition of a library floor to theCollegium Maius. The library's original rooms in which all books were chained to their cases in order to prevent theft are no longer used as such. However, they are still occasionally open to hosting visiting lecturers' talks.
As the university's popularity, along with that of the ever more provincial Kraków's, declined in later centuries, the number of students attending the university also fell and, as such, the attendance record set in the early 16th-century wasn't surpassed until the late 18th century. This phenomenon was recorded as part of a more general economic and political decline seen in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was suffering from the effects of poor governance and the policies of hostile neighbors at the time. In fact, despite a number of expansion projects during the late 18th century, many of the university's buildings had fallen into disrepair and were being used for a range of other purposes; in the university's archives, there is one entry which reads: 'Nobody lives in the building, nothing happens there. If the lecture halls underwent refurbishment they could be rented out to accommodate a laundry'. This period thus represents one of the darkest periods in the university's history and is almost certainly the one during which the closure of the institution seemed most imminent.
After thethird partition of Poland in 1795 and the ensuingNapoleonic Wars, Kraków became afree city under the protection of theAustrian Empire; this, however, was not to last long. In 1846, after theKraków Uprising, the city and its university became part of theAustrian Empire.[12] The Austrians were in many ways hostile to the institution and, soon after their arrival, removed many of the furnishings from theCollegium Maius'Auditorium Maximum in order to convert it into a grain store. However, the threat of closure of the University was ultimately dissipated byFerdinand I of Austria's decree to maintain it. By the 1870s the fortunes of the university had improved so greatly that many scholars had returned. The liquefaction of nitrogen and oxygen was successfully demonstrated by professors Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski in 1883. Thereafter the Austrian authorities took on a new role in the development of the university and provided funds for the construction of a number of new buildings, including the neo-gothicCollegium Novum, which opened in 1887.[12] It was, conversely, from this building that in 1918 a large painting ofKaiserFranz Joseph was removed anddestroyed by Polish students advocating the reestablishment of an independent Polish state.[13]
CountStanisław Tarnowski was, between 1871 and 1909, twice rector of the university.The university around 1900
For the 500th anniversary of the university's foundation, a monument toCopernicus was placed in the quadrangle of theCollegium Maius; this statue is now to be found in the direct vicinity of theCollegium Novum, outside theCollegium Witkowskiego, to where it was moved in 1953.[14] Nevertheless, it was in the Grzegórzecka and the Kopernika areas that much of the university's expansion took place up to 1918; during this time theCollegium Medicum was relocated to a site just east of the centre, and was expanded with the addition of a number of modern teaching hospitals – this 'medical campus' remains to this day. By the late 1930s, the number of students at the university had increased dramatically to almost 6,000. Now a major centre for education in the independentRepublic of Poland, the university attained government support for the purchase of building plots for new premises, as a result of which a number of residencies were built for students and professors alike. However, of all the projects begun during this era, the most important would have to be the creation of theJagiellonian Library. The library's monumental building, construction of which began in 1931, was finally completed towards the end of the interwar period, which allowed the university's many varied literary collections to be relocated to their new home by the outbreak of war in 1939.[15]
On 6 November 1939, following theGerman invasion of Poland, 184 professors were arrested and deported toSachsenhausen concentration camp during an operation codenamedSonderaktion Krakau (Special Operation Krakow). The university, along with the rest of Poland's higher and secondary education, was closed for the remainder ofWorld War II.[16] Despite the university's reopening after the cessation of hostilities in 1945, the new government of Poland was hostile to the teachings of the pre-war university and the faculty was suppressed by theCommunists in 1954.[16] By 1957 the Polish government decided that it would invest in the establishment of new facilities nearJordan Park and expansion of other smaller existing facilities. Construction work proved slow and many of the stated goals were never achieved; it was this poor management that eventually led a number of scholars to openly criticise the government for its apparent lack of interest in educational development and disregard for the university's future. A number of new buildings, such as theCollegium Paderevianum, were built with funds from the legacy ofIgnacy Paderewski.
By 1989, Poland had overthrown its Communist government. In that same year, the Jagiellonian University successfully completed the purchase of its first building plot inPychowice, Kraków, where, from 2000, construction began of a new complex of university buildings, the so-called Third Campus. The new campus, officially named the '600th Anniversary Campus', was developed in conjunction with the new LifeScience Park, which is managed by the Jagiellonian Centre for Innovation, the university's research consortium.[17] Public funds earmarked for the project amounted to 946.5 millionzlotys, or 240 millioneuros.[18] Poland's entry into theEuropean Union in 2004 has proved instrumental in improving the fortunes of the Jagiellonian University, which has seen huge increases in funding from both central government and European authorities, allowing it to develop new departments, research centres, and better support the work of its students and academics.
The university's academic advancement in both Poland and abroad is illustrated by its widely recognized research achievements. The scientists and physicians from the Collegium Medicum carry out pioneer studies, e.g. in cardiac surgery, urology and neurology, often leading to the development of novel treatment methods.[19] Their findings have been published in international journals such as European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Medicine,New England Journal of Medicine, andThe Lancet. UJ archaeologists lead explorations of ancient sites in various parts of the world, including Egypt, Cyprus, Central America, South Asia and Altay.[20] The astronomers take part in major international projects, includingH.E.S.S. and VIPERS. The work of UJ bio-technologists has been published in journals, such asBioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry,Molecular Ecology Resources, andEuropean Journal of Human Genetics.
The university's main library, theJagiellonian Library (Biblioteka Jagiellońska), is one of Poland's largest, with almost 6.5 million volumes; it is a constituent of the Polish National Libraries system.[26] It is home to a world-renowned collection ofmedieval manuscripts,[27] which includesCopernicus'De Revolutionibus, theBalthasar Behem Codex and theBerlinka. The library also has an extensive collection of underground political literature (so-calleddrugi obieg orsamizdat) fromPoland's period of Communist rule between 1945 and 1989.
The beginning of the Jagiellonian Library is traditionally considered the same as that of the entire university – in 1364;[28] however, instead of having one central library it had several smaller branches at buildings of various departments (the largest collection was inCollegium Maius, where works related to theology andliberal arts were kept). After 1775, during the reforms ofKomisja Edukacji Narodowej, which established the firstMinistry of Education in the world, various small libraries of the university were formally centralised into one public collection inCollegium Maius. During thepartitions of Poland, the library continued to grow thanks to the support of such people asKarol Józef Teofil Estreicher andKarol Estreicher. Its collections were made public in 1812. Since 1932, it has been recognised as alegal deposit library, comparable to theBodleian Library at theUniversity of Oxford orCambridge University Library orTrinity College Library in Dublin, and thus has the right to receive a copy of any book issued by Polish publishers within Poland. In 1940, the library finally obtained a new building of its own, which has subsequently been expanded on two occasions, most recently in 1995–2001. During theSecond World War, library workers cooperated withunderground universities. Since the 1990s, the library's collection has become increasingly digitised.
In addition to the Jagiellonian Library, the university maintains a large medical library (Biblioteka Medyczna) and many other subject specialised libraries in its various faculties and institutes. Finally, the collections of the university libraries' collections are enriched by the presence of the university's archives, which date back to the university's own foundation and record the entire history of its development up to the present day.
The university is divided into the following faculties, which have different organisational sub-structures partly reflecting their history and partly their operational needs. Teaching and research at UJ are organised by these faculties, including a number of additional institutes:
The new seat of the University Hospital has been recently opened at Prokocim in 2019, as a result of more than 1.2 billion zloty investment projects.[39] As 2022 the University Hospital in Krakow is the biggest supra-regional public hospital in Poland and comprises: 37 clinical departments, 12 diagnostic and research institutes, and 71 out-patient units.[40]
In 1851, the university's first student scientific association was founded. In 2021, over 70 student scientific associations exist at the Jagiellonian University, most of them affiliated with Collegium Medicum. Usually, their purpose is to promote students' scientific achievements by organizing lecture sessions, scienceexcursions, and international student conferences, such as the International Workshop for Young Mathematicians, which is organized by theZaremba Association of Mathematicians.
^Jadwiga was officially crowned as "King of Poland" –Hedvig Rex Poloniæ, notHedvig Regina Poloniæ. Polish law had no provision for a female ruler (queen regnant), but did not specify that the monarch had to be male.
^"Strona główna".KRAKOWSKI SZPITAL SPECJALISTYCZNY IM. JANA PAWŁA II (in Polish). 29 February 2016.Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved19 February 2022.
^"Fundusze europejskie".Szpital Uniwersytecki w Krakowie (in Polish).Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved28 January 2022.
^empressia."O nas".Szpital Uniwersytecki w Krakowie (in Polish).Archived from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved28 January 2022.
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