Cribs in the City Museum. Exhibition in the Royal Palace
This year the City Museum in the Royal Palace again invites everyone to an exhibition of historic Silesian Christmas cribs before Christmas.
This year the City Museum in the Royal Palace again invites everyone to an exhibition of historic Silesian Christmas cribs before Christmas. The exhibition started on 2nd December and will last until 27th February 2022.
From an unusual collection of Henryk Tomaszewski
The tradition is a dream come true for Henryk Tomaszewski – an outstanding dancer and choreographer and the creator of the Wroclaw Mime Theatre who has collected priceless cribs for years. Now we have an unusual opportunity to admire them. The tradition of making cribs in Silesia dates back to the second half of the 16th century. They appeared first in churches and magnate mansions and subsequently in burghers’ houses.
Box cribs became very popular. Apart from the Holy Family and the procession of the Magi in box cribs, figures of burghers, often dressed in clothes worn in those days, were placed. Figures representing various social groups and professions occupied more and more space, too. They were also accompanied by characteristic Silesian characters, monks from the Cistercian Order or even Liczyrzepa – the ghost of Karkonosze, as well as panoramas of Karkonosze, Lower Silesian towns and villages.
Cribs with Silesian motifs
The former inhabitants of the region mentioned that cribs were coloured and mobile and contained toy figures alongside clearly archaic or simple folk figures. ‘Some are typically German, and others are exotically Eastern or typically Silesian, where Liczyrzepa and cobolds slide into the earthly company of Mary and Joseph. Or styles intermingle so bizarrely that the palms of Galilee grow beside a mountain shelter or the snow lies on architectural dreams of 1,001 night
Unfortunately, the tradition of Silesian cribs vanished after 1945 and few of them have survived, so they are particularly valuable and kept with special care by owners.
Exhibits also from Bonn
At the exhibition in the City Museum, a few dozen objects are presented; many of them are a part of the collection granted to the museum by Henryk Tomaszewski, but there are also exhibits from the Silesian House near Bonn (e.g., a 19th-century crib bought by a member of the family that subsequently emigrated to the USA). Kraków cribs will be there, too.
Entrance costs 15 PLN (full-price ticket) and 10 PLN (discount ticket). The exhibition can be visited from Wednesday to Saturday from 11:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 10:00 a.m. till 6:00 p.m.
Event details:
muzeum.miejskie.wroclaw.pl
