LET'S EXPLORE POLAND

Copyright 1995 by the AngloPol Corporation

This series will take us through the cities, towns, villages and countryside of Poland, 
as well as give us insights into the rich history and culture of the nation.

Part 3

MUSEUMS

An important part in Poland's cultural life is played by museums, of which there are over 550. This number includes huge institutions with many different sections, such as the National Museums in Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, Kielce, Poznan, Szczecin and Wroclaw, but these are also partnered by small, more intimate museums, ones that developed from private collections amassed by enthusiasts and then donated to the nation.

Some of these museums allow us to study the history of art, permitting us to travel in both time and space. From monumental sculptures that adorned the temples and tombs of ancient Egypt or Coptic/Byzantine frescos from Farras, both exhibited in the Gallery of Ancient Art of Warsaw' s National Museum, to representative works of Poland's avant garde painters and sculptors in the Lodz Museum of Art. From the paintings of Jan Matejko, Artur Grottger and Jacek Malczewski, devoted to the history and fortunes of their native Poland and on display in Krakow's Cloth Hall, to the exotic collections of art and crafts in Warsaw's Museum of Asia and the Pacific or in the Museum of African Studies in Olkusz.

The history of past battles and military operations, and of towns and entire regions of the country, is presented in several dozen museums, from major institutions such as the Museum of the Polish Army or the Warsaw History Museum, to small ones set up by groups of ardent enthusiasts, such as those in Dobczyce near Krakow or Pyzdry near Konin.

There is also a wide range of museums presenting exhibits connected with science and engineering and their development over the ages. In addition to the central Technical Museum run by the Federation of Engineers' Associations in Warsaw, visitors may also view the exhibits at the Museums of the Gas Industry and of Rail Transport, both also in Warsaw, of Narrow-Gauge Railways in Wenecja near Znin, of Aviation in Krakow, of Papermaking in Duszniki Zdroj, of Posts and Telecommunications in Wroclaw, of Firefighting in Alwernia near Krakow, Lidzbark Welski, Lasin, Myslowice and Rakoniewice, of Textiles and Weaving in Andrychow and Lodz, of Glass in Krosno and of Water Supply in Warsaw.

A separate and particularly attractive group of museums are those underground, in mines. Pride of place here goes to Wieliczka, a salt mine that has been operating non-stop since the 18th century. By the time of Poland's Saxon kings in the early 18th century, the mine was already attracting so many visitors that in 1744 special stairs had to be built for them. Present-day visitors descend the Danilowicz shaft by elevator, to undertake a tour of three levels of the mine, located at a depth of 60-135 meters below ground; the tour covers three kilometers passing through chambers, galleries and chapels carved out of salt. Over the centuries, these have been decorated with crucifixes, statues of the saints and even altars, all sculpted in crystalline rock salt. Tours of Wieliczka generally end with a visit to the underground Museum of Krakow Saltmining, with its exhibits of old mining equipment and tools, petrographic samples and specimens of the mine's flora and fauna.

Even older is the Neolithic flint mine at Krzemionki Opatowskie, not far from Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. Dating back around 4,000 years, it is now an archaeological conservation area. Several shafts, galleries and chambers are open to the public. Considerably younger than this, dating from the 18th century, is the Black Trout Gallery at the old silver and lead mine in Tarnowskie Gory, where a short part of the tour for visitors is conducted by boat. In the historical reconstruction of coalmining at the "Zabrze" colliery, on the other hand, visitors descend 300 meters underground, and after a walk of another 500 meters can see how the coalface was worked in the past.

For those interested in old working techniques, other interesting spots are the Farming Museum at Szreniawa near Poznan, whose exhibits occupy ten large pavilions, and the smaller specialist Museum of Windmills at Besia in Olsztyn voivodship, of Brewing in Bielsko Biala and Grodzisk Wielkopolski, and of Bee Keeping in Kluczbork, Nowogrod Lomzyriski and Swarzedz, where it turns out that a beehive can be a work of art.

Lovers of Polish literature also have a number of museums which cater to their interests. The most interesting are the Museum of Literature on the Old Town Market Square in Warsaw, the Museum of Romanticism in the small neo-Gothic castle at Opinogora that was home to Zygmunt Krasiriski, one of the most outstanding Polish poets of the 19th century, and the Museum of the Young Poland Movement--a school of artistic and literary expression at the beginning of this century--which is located in what was once a village and is now a suburb of Krakow.

Also of interest are the numerous biographical museums devoted to Polish writers of various periods: that of Mikolaj Rej at Naglowice, of Jan Kochanowski at Czarnolas, of Ignacy Krasicki at Dubieck, of Adam Mickiewicz at Gmielow, of Henryk Sienkiewicz at Oblegorek in Poznan and at Wola Okrzejska, of Boleslaw Prus in Naleczow, of Wladyslaw Reymont at Kolaczkowo near Wrzesnia, of Stefan Zeromski in Kielce, Naleczow and in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, of Maria Dabrowska in Russow, and of Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz at Stawiska near Warsaw.

In addition, some really interesting finds and rarities can be unearthed in museums of, shall we say, a miscellaneous nature. One of these is certainly the museum at Jedrzejow, donated to the nation by the Przypkowski family, which contains a collection of over 350 sun dials--one of the three largest collections in the world. Another is the Jerzy Dunin Borkowski museum at Krosniewice, which abounds in documents of Polish kings and lords, mementos of great figures of history, including Napoleon, old coins, bookplates and masterpieces of decorative art.

All of the above are part of the rainbow-colored mosaic of Polish culture--to admire at your leisure when you next follow the rainbow to Poland.