Matejko House

You’re standing in a house that began life as a private tenement—and became, after Jan Matejko’s death, one of Kraków’s first public shrines to a single artist. The museum here is the Dom Jana Matejki, known in German as the Jan-Matejko-Haus, and today it operates as a branch of the National Museum in Kraków. The building itself grew in stages.

The Floriańska 41 tenement was erected in the 16th century as a one-storey structure. In the 18th century, a second storey was added; then, in the 19th century, a third storey was raised and capped with a mansard roof. That mansard silhouette marks the moment when the property stopped being just a straightforward city dwelling and became something more substantial—an address capable of holding collections and, later, memories on display.

Ownership ties the house directly to the Matejko family. In 1752, Ignacy and Anna Hendel bought the tenement. In 1794, Jan Piotr Rosberg and Marianna Rosberg acquired the property—parents of Franiszek Ksawery Matejko’s wife.

After Franciszek (Franciszek Ksawey) Matejko died in 1860, the tenement was inherited by his children. Then, in 1871, one of Franciszek’s sons—Jan Matejko—paid off his siblings and assumed sole ownership.