On the first floor of the Wawel Royal Castle, overlooking the historic Old Town of Kraków, NArchitekTURA have created a chapel like space to house a permanent exhibition of Renaissance art from the Lanckoroński Collection including works by Paolo Uccello, Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder, and Barend Graat.

The layout of nearby Wawel Cathedral is referenced with the new art space adjoining the existing castle layout and visiting routes much as Renaissance and Baroque chapels adjoin the main nave and ambulatory in the Cathedral.

A bent plywood ribbon acts as a balustrade which also displays descriptions of the individual paintings and hides spot lighting. Small, portable round mirrors above the descriptions reflect fragments of paintings and the historic coffered ceiling but also act as references to optical illusions in Uccello’s Renaissance works.

The paintings hang on a curved wall finished with copper panels. The shape of the wall is taken from Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder’s ‘Portrait of a Girl’ and the muted colours a nod to Barend Graat’s ‘Company in a Garden.’ The exhibition overlooks the historic Krakow Old Town and the towers, spiers and domes of the churches stand out against the cityscape. Many of the roofs are covered with copper sheet, which also influenced the use of the material as part of the exhibition.