Museum of the Origins of the Polish State
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Entrance area of the museum |
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| Data | |
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| place | ul.Kostrzewskiego 1 62-200 Gniezno , Poland |
| Art |
Archaeological Museum
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| opening | March 1983 |
| operator |
City of Gniezno
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| management |
Gerard Radecki
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| Website | |
The Museum of the Origins of the Polish State (Polish: Muzeum Początków Państwa Polskiego w Gnieźnie ) is an archaeological museum in Gniezno that documents the early history of the Polish state . The museum's collection includes more than 17,000 exhibits related to Polish culture.
History of the museum
The idea of establishing a museum of the origins of the Polish state in Gniezno was connected with the archaeological excavations since 1948 and the associated social goal of finding scientific evidence of the origins of the Polish state and its first capital Gniezno. The museum was founded in Gniezno in 1956 as a branch of the Poznań Archaeological Museum .
In 1966, during the celebrations for the 1000th anniversary of a Polish state, it was decided to expand the range of museum activities. A new building was created for the development facility. In 1973 the museum was spun off from the Poznań Archaeological Museum and became independent. Construction of the modern museum building on Józefa Kostrzewskiego Street, nr 1 began. The official opening of the permanent exhibition took place in March 1983, when the museum was given its current name: “Museum of the Origins of the Polish State”.
The main objective of the museum is to present the historical legacy of “Poland in the Middle Ages” and the history of the first capital of Poland and its region. It is the only museum in Poland that permanently presents exhibitions on Poland's medieval culture and art.
In 2012, the museum's permanent exhibitions were completely revised and redesigned. In addition, the museum was brought up to international standards with EU funding. Information boards can now be found everywhere in the museum in Polish and English.
Permanent exhibitions (since 2012)
The origins of the Polish state
Original title: Początków Państwa Polskiego . This is the latest permanent exhibition dedicated to the origins of the Polish state. It opened on April 12, 2012. Its title refers to the 1983 exhibition, when multimedia technology was first used in Poland. This permanent exhibition is unique in its presentation of the history of Poland during the Piast era . From three perspectives are illuminated:
- Politics and Authority of the Polish State
- archaeological and historical sources
- material and spiritual culture of the Poles at that time
That is why the exhibition was divided into the following three modules : The State, The Sources, The culture . Their content has been made more attractive through introductory 3D films . They are both an introduction to the exhibition theme and a comment by the exhibitors.
The main idea of the permanent exhibition is the multimedia communication of Greater Poland as the cradle of the founding of the Polish state, with particular emphasis on Gniezno as the first capital of Poland. In historical studies, the Gniezno act in the year 1000 is regarded as a “great moment” and “first high point” in the history of German-Polish relations, as well as a “world historical event” that left its mark on the entire West Slavonic-Hungarian-German region for the coming millennium have. The events that are significant for contemporary history are presented using texts by important chroniclers , including a. by Thietmar von Merseburg and Gallus Anonymus , but also through relationships between the historical figures: Mieszko I. , Bolesław I. Chobry , St. Wojciech and Emperor Otto III. (HRR) . One of the most valuable exhibits in the permanent exhibition is the original protective wall that surrounded Gniezno's first settlement on the Lech hill (Gniezno) . The reconstruction of this protective wall was carried out exclusively with original material that was discovered during archaeological excavations in 1948–53 under the direction of Prof. Kazimierz Żurowski .
The third and last part of the permanent exhibition ( The culture ) is devoted to the Christianization of Poland and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the culture and art of the early Middle Ages. The road from pagan customs and the subsequent reversal process to Christianity through Poland is shown to be a critical turning point not only in the spiritual dimension, but also as a belief system of the ruling as a legitimation of the sovereignty of Polans among other countries of Europe . The permanent exhibition also shows a film with an animated reconstruction of the destroyed Romanesque Arch-Cathedral of Gniezno .
The permanent exhibition is available in Polish and in three international languages: German , English and French (some information boards also in Braille ).
Gniezno in the past centuries
Original title: Gniezno w dawnych wiekach . The permanent exhibition presents the history of Gniezno and the region from its beginnings to 1819, when the city was destroyed by fire. It is the result of many years of work by the "Museum of the Origins of the Polish State", which has been striving for a meaningful archaeological collection as well as collections in the historical and artistic field for several decades. There are currently around 190 archaeological exhibits and around 40 historical antiques in this permanent exhibition, which document the later history of Gniezno (15th – 18th centuries). These include:
- Fragment of the original floor of the destroyed Romanesque Arch-Cathedral of Gniezno
- Copies of important manuscripts and documents related to the city
- Miniature models of Gnieznos from the 11th century
- Collection of stove tiles with relief decorations from Gothic and Renaissance of European importance
- Collection of table knives from the 16th / 17th centuries century
The weapons in old Poland
Original title: Broń w dawnej Polsce . The permanent exhibition shows the various forms of armament that were typical in Poland between the 10th and 18th centuries.
The copy of the Szczerbiec , the "notched sword", which is the most important crown jewel in Poland and the only surviving crown insignia of the Piast dynasty, should be emphasized . The original is in the treasury of the Royal Castle in Krakow .
The painted history of the Piasts
Original title: Piastów malowane dzieje . A collection of oil paintings from the 19th century shows historical and legendary events related to the first Polish royal dynasty (the so-called Piast dynasty). The Polans united in the 10th century under the Piast dynasty and the conversion to Catholicism under Mieszko I (approx. 960-92) in 966 led to the formation of the Polish state. The country flourished under the reign of Kazimir the Great (1333–70). The permanent exhibition shows u. a. Paintings by Józef Peszka , Aleksander Lesser , Wojciech Gerson and Witold Pruszkowski , reflecting the historical awareness of Polish painters in the 19th century and the artistic vision of Poland's turbulent history under the Piast rulers.
Special exhibitions of the museum
In the whole history of the museum, several dozen different exhibitions were organized, which showed monuments of material art as well as works of art from the oldest epochs from the Middle Ages to our century, among others:
- Gniezno - the first capital of Poland, the city of St. Wojciech (1994)
- Jan Matejko - the historian of Poland (1981)
- Gniezno through the centuries (1982)
- Kruszwica (1985)
2003: Gothic and Renaissance stove tiles
This special exhibition showed tiles that were found during excavations in 1990, mainly by Czesław Strzyżewski near the Lech hill . Discovered on the hill, they were examined by Tomasz Sawicki and Tomasz Janiak during 1993–96. Characterized by an abundance of ornaments from heraldry , chivalry customs , biblical scenes , saints , plants and animals as well as a technical variety, they became part of the permanent exhibition after the special exhibition. At the special exhibition in 2003, tiles from Gdańsk , Bolesławiec , Warsaw , Zamość and Toruń were shown. All types of tiles used in Poland from the 16th to 17th centuries were presented. In addition to the exhibition catalog, a monograph on the local stove tiles was also published for the exhibition.
2008: Ars Scribendi
From April 1 to July 31, 2008 the museum held the special exhibition Ars Scribendi - On the Art of Writing in Medieval Poland , dedicated to the writings of Poland's earliest years in memory of Brygida Kürbis. The organizers succeeded in bringing together 121 works of European writing for the special exhibition. On display were, among other things, an illuminated manuscript from the Carolingian era, the bull Ex commisso nobis from Pope Innocent II from 1136, the Codex aureus Gnesnensis , the Bible by Jarosław Skotnicki and Casimir the Great and among the first Polish rulers of the Jagiellonians -Dynasty published documents. The collection came from the holdings of the Archbishop's Archives in Gniezno and the Kórnik Library .
literature
- Czesław Strzyżewski (komisarz wystawy): Kafle gotyckie i renesansowe na ziemiach Polski. Muzeum Początków Państwa Polskiego, Gniezno 2003, ISBN 83-85654-15-1 (Polish)
- Tomasz Janiak: Kafle gotyckie w zbiorach Muzeum Początków Państwa Polskiego. Muzeum Początków Państwa Polskiego, Gniezno 2003, ISBN 83-914494-4-0 (Polish)
- Ars scribendi. O sztuce pisania w średniowiecznej Polsce - catalog wystawy pod red. Leszka Wetesko . Muzeum Początków Państwa Polskiego, Gniezno 2008, ISBN 978-83-61391-00-5 (Polish)
- Muzea Wielkopolski. Poznań 2004, ISBN 83-917016-5-4 , pp. 13-14 (Polish)
- Muzeum Początków Państwa polskiego - Museum of the Beginnings of the Polish State in Gniezno , brochure of the Museum of the Origins of the Polish. State, Gniezno 1999, ISBN 83-906800-5-X (engl.)
- Początków Państwa polskiego - The origins of the Polish state. Brochure of the Museum of the Origins of the Polish. State, Gniezno 2013 (engl.)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The permanent exhibitions (since 2012) on the official website of the museum (Polish). Accessed March 15, 2014
- ↑ Muzeum Początków Państwa polskiego - Museum of the Beginnings of the Polish State in Gniezno , Wystawa / Exhibition. Brochure of the Museum of the Origins of the Polish. Staates , Gniezno 1999, ISBN 83-906800-5-X (English).
- ^ Herbert Ludat: An Elbe and Oder around the year 1000. Sketches on the politics of the Ottonian empire and the Slavic powers. Cologne u. a. 1971, p. 81.
- ↑ Johannes Fried: Otto III. and Boleslaw Chrobry. The dedication image of the Aachen Gospel, the "Act of Gniezno" and the early Polish and Hungarian royalty. Stuttgart 1989, p. 81.
Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 1.3 ″ N , 17 ° 34 ′ 59.8 ″ E