Founding of the University of Kraków

Timeline

1. 1362–1363Avignon · FranceTo train legal talent and strengthen royal justice, Casimir III sent envoys to Pope Urban V, then residing at Avignon, to request permission to establish a studium generale at Kraków. On 23 July 1363 the pope gave verbal approval. This brought Poland into the Central European university movement, closely following Prague in 1348.
2. 1364Kraków · KrakówOn 12 May Casimir issued the founding charter, and the Kraków municipal authorities issued privilege guarantees the same day. The studium generale was set up with faculties of arts, medicine, and law, modeled on Bologna and Padua, with Roman law and jurisprudence given priority to meet the king's need for professional judges.
3. 1364Avignon · FranceOn 1 September Urban V issued a bull confirming the king's foundation and granting it studium generale status, but did not approve a faculty of theology. The lack of theology left the school incomplete within the medieval university hierarchy and affected its ability to attract clerical students. The University of Vienna was founded the following year, and the Central European network of higher education took shape.
4. 1364–1370Kraków · KrakówDuring the king's lifetime only arts and medicine actually held classes; law never fully functioned. The school halted after Casimir's death in 1370. Theology was approved by the papal court in 1397, and in 1400 Jogaila re-established the school using the legacy left by Queen Jadwiga's will, later called the Jagiellonian University. The initial founding of 1364 nonetheless made Kraków the site of Central Europe's second university, forming a north–south pairing with the University of Vienna founded in 1365.