National Museum (now the New Building of the National Museum)
The new building of the National Museum opens the representational frontage of the Mickiewicza and Słowackiego Avenue. The edifice in the shape of a cuboid is situated at the crossing of Krasińskiego and Mickiewicza Avenue with the axis leading along the Kraków Commons, towards the Kościuszko mound. Its entrance faces a large piazza. The construction of the Museum followed the competition of the year 1933, whereby an another entry than the winning one was completed. Feliks Kopera, the then director and spiritus movens of the Museum, had a vision of a pantheon of national art, but the designed rotunda was not completed before 1939. The Museum was finished as late as in the 1980s. Nevertheless, a classical, monumental but modernised architecture was erected, with the crepidoma and recessed entrance. It has perfect rhythms and proportions, even though the interior was altered after the war.