Audience Chamber, Library

Audience Chamber, Library
Its present decor comes from the end of the XV c. Then it was made higher and covered present many stellar vault leaning on the eight corbels. In this chamber bishop Lukas Watzenrode (1489–1512), Nicolas Copernicus’s uncle, saw emissaries, who were brought through the Grand Refectory or straight from the cloisters through the pointed arches entry closed down in the XVII c. The present passage, decorated by a sandstone portal, comes from the second half of the XVII c. and was founded by bishop Michael Stefan Radziejowski (1679–1688). In the passage has survived a fragment of the old flooring, arranged as a “fir”. Since the time of bishop John Dantyszek (1537–1548) has been situated in this chamber a library, where in 1633 were: 164 theological books, 179 historical books, 175 law and 266 “secular and heretical” books.
In the years of 1936–1937, during the restoration works was discovered a fragment of the alcove with an XVI c. arcade. In the time between 1971 and 1974 have been discovered and reconstructed murals. As documentation are left the fragments of the oldest mural.