The main purpose of the article is to present the role of the Dr. Władysław Kretkowski Fund in the development of mathematics in Kraków. Kretkowski graduated in mathematics from Sorbonne (1867) and he received his PhD from the Jagiellonian University (1882). He was a private docent at the Polytechnic and University of Lvov. Kretkowski donated his huge fortune to mathematicians in Kraków. From 1911 to 1920 the Kretkowski Fund sponsored very modern mathematical lectures and seminars at the Jagiellonian University. Kretkowski also donated his extensive library for the use of the mathematical seminar in Kraków. This paper lists the lectures financed from the Kretkowski Fund as well as the research fellows of the Fund (with the time and place of studies). This is followed by a presentation of the state of the Kretkowski Library, now the property of the Institute of Mathematics of the Jagiellonian University. The article provides also a brief biography of Władysław Kretkowski (1840–1910).