In the southeastern corner of the courtyard of the Cathedral Hill complex is the Old Bishops' Palace. This is now Nicolaus Copernicus Museum's main exhibition space. On the ground floor are objects discovered during postwar archaeological excavations, while the other levels are largely devoted to the life and work of Copernicus, along with temporary displays and a collection of old telescopes.
The most interesting section is on the first floor, where modern artists' interpretations of the great man, in sculpture and oils, are presented, before you pass into the room containing books and other artefacts from his time.
Though Copernicus is essentially remembered for his astronomical achievements (supplanting the old geocentric Ptolemaic system with his revelation that the earth revolves around the sun), his interests extended to many other fields, including medicine, economy and the law. Apart from an early edition of his famous De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres),there are copies displayed of his treatises and manuscripts on a range of subjects, together with astronomical instruments and a copy of Jan Matejko's painting depicting the astronomer at work. The exhibits are well-lit and creatively placed, though there's no English captioning.
