The permanent exhibition at the Dominican Museum takes up two storeys of the monastery: the ground floor and the mediaeval vaults which have been expanded to fit the exhibits. Some of the most captivating things to see are the Romanesque walls, a Gothic hypocaust (an early example of a central heating system) and the 13th-century vaults, previously unavailable to the public. It’s hard to imagine a finer location for a museum celebrating the Dominican Order in Poland. The site has served as the seat of the Dominican Province for centuries, which – depending on the period – covered areas including the Kingdom of Poland and Silesia, Pomerania, Prussia and Lithuanian and Ruthenian lands. It also holds cultural treasures and archival records from the eastern lands of interwar Republic of Poland, collected by the brothers after 1945.
The most precious item in the collection is Poland’s oldest quartet of stained-glass windows, dating back to the turn of the 14th century, previously deposited at the National Museum in Kraków. Also notable is the collection of 13th-century objects, dating back to the monastery’s early days, discovered during an architectural dig.
Other important exhibits at the Dominican Museum include:
- Set of six alabaster figurines depicting Christ and five apostles, made in the southern Netherlands or northern France in the mid-15th century
- Our Lady of St. Jacek – an alabaster figurine linked with St. Jacek and said to have been saved by him from Kiev during a major fire
- Two pages from the lost copy of The Life and Miracles of St. Jacek (De vita et miraculis sancti Iacchonis) written by Brother Stanisłaus – the oldest-known record of St. Jacek Odrowąż, dating back to ca. 1360
- Bronze seal stamp most likely made in western Europe (France?) at the turn of the 14th century
- The three-volume Graduale Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum, transcribed in 1536 by the clerk Wiktoryn on parchment donated by the Cracovian paper-maker Jerzy. The choral manuscript remained in use at the monastery until the 19th century
- School of St. Thomas Aquinas, painted by Tomasso Dolabella, the Venetian artist working at the royal court of King Sigismund II Vasa; he leased a tenement house at Stolarska Street from the Dominican Monastery in 1618. This marked the beginning of the “Italian” stage of the renovation of the monastery complex; Dolabella himself was laid to rest in 1650 at the Chapel of Our Lord Jesus, Crucified, at the Dominican Church of the Holy Trinity. Until the fire in 1850, the monastery held a major collection of the artist’s paintings
- Gold monstrance from the monastery in Podkamień, decorated with many colours of vitreous enamel with a wreath traditionally believed to be Queen Bona Sforza’s marriage ornament. Made in Poland in the second half of the 17th century, bearing a footing added in the late 18th or early 19th century. One of the finest examples of goldsmithery from the former Commonwealth
- Crucifix column of the chasuble depicting the Holy Trinity, most likely made in Kraków between ca. 1385 and 1390 meticulously embroidered with metallic and silk threads. Unique example of mediaeval embroidery and the oldest liturgical cloth at the monastery
- Treasure trove of antique jewellery comprising Roman gold rings with inset gems, earrings, lunulas and a cast bronze figurine of a panther. The collection of items originates from an unknown archaeological dig
