Cultural adventure

museum.wroclaw.pl

The Wroclaw City Museum includes seven branches with different activities: Archaeological, Historical, Medallic Art, Militaria, Bourgeois Art, Cemetery Art and Henryk Tomaszewski Theater. Almost all of them are located in the heart of Wroclaw, in the Market Square or on its outskirts, so you can visit most of them in one day.

The Historical Museum (35 Kazimierza Wielkiego St., Royal Palace) collects and provides access to monuments related to the history and art of Wroclaw. Its headquarters is the baroque-classicist Royal Palace with its garden, which was one of the residences of the Prussian rulers of the Hohenzollern family in the years 1750-1918. Since 1926, the palace has served as a museum. Today, after extensive renovation, it is a modern exhibition center. The rich collections of the Historical Museum are presented at the multimedia permanent exhibition “1000 Years of Wroclaw” – visiting this exhibition is the best way to learn about the history of the city from the Middle Ages to the present day. When visiting the Royal Palace, be sure to visit the monarch’s chambers and the original baroque room lined with delft-type ceramic tiles.

The Museum of Medallic Art (35 Kazimierza Wielkiego St., Royal Palace) is the only institution in Poland specializing in the collection of medals and faleristics (dedicated to orders and badges). Here you will see Polish and foreign (mainly European) medals, medallions, orders, decorations and badges (the collection numbers about 50,000 exhibits). The museum also has a rich documentation of the work of Polish and foreign sculptors engaged in medal-making. Currently, the museum’s collections enrich the “1000 Years of Wroclaw” exhibition.

Archaeological Museum (9 A. Cieszynska St., City Arsenal) was established in 1815, and has repeatedly changed locations and been part of various museums. It is among the oldest institutions of its kind in Europe. The museum was and is focused on acquiring, developing and providing access to archaeological artifacts from Silesia. Exhibits from both the 19th century and those dating back to the older Stone Age and created more than 500,000 years ago await you here. The museum is housed in the historic City Arsenal of Gothic origin – one of the few secular medieval buildings in the city preserved in its entirety. In the museum space, the permanent exhibition “Ancient and Medieval Silesia” is available for viewing.

The Museum of Bourgeois Art (Market Square 50, Old Town Hall) is the place where you will learn all about Wroclaw’s crafts and art from the earliest times to the present. The museum is located in the Old Town Hall – the most important building in Wroclaw and one of the most outstanding monuments of late Gothic secular architecture in Europe. Among the exceptional historic interiors, the Great Hall with its impressive cross-ribbed vault is particularly notable. Also noteworthy are the Prince’s Hall, the Council Senior Chamber, the Council Hall and the Council Chancellery. In the oldest part of the City Hall – the Burgher Hall – you can see marble busts of prominent personalities associated with Wroclaw.

The Museum of Militaria (9 A. Cieszynska St., City Arsenal) is located in the building of the City Arsenal and is a natural continuation of the military purpose of this defensive building and former weapons storehouse. Its collections, displayed in four permanent exhibitions, are primarily armaments of the Polish soldier from the 18th to the 20th centuries, including an exceptionally valuable collection of sabers and other small arms. You’ll also see such gems as a curved-barrel heavy machine gun from 1953 and a Polish Ur anti-tank rifle from the 1930s. The museum also houses a collection of military helmets and uniforms that is unique in Europe.

The Old Jewish Cemetery is open to the public as the Museum of Cemetery Art (37/39 Slezna St.). It is the only preserved necropolis in Wroclaw from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is also an original and unique complex of tombstone sculpture and small architecture. The first burial at the cemetery took place in 1856, and the last in 1942. The appearance of the gravestones has undergone gradual changes over the years – from traditional matzevot to bold in form and monumental family grave monuments. In the latter one can see the inspiration of architecture of almost all periods. Many prominent Wroclaw citizens rest in the cemetery, including artists, scientists, politicians and businessmen.

Henryk Tomaszewski Theater Museum (7a Wolności Square) is located in the former south wing of the Royal Palace built around 1945. The main purpose of the museum is to present and promote the achievements of the Wroclaw theater scene, considered one of the most important in Europe. A special place in the Theater Museum is occupied by the figure of Henryk Tomaszewski, one of the most important artists of the world theater of the 20th century, creator of the Wroclaw Pantomime Theater. In addition to exhibits on Tomaszewski’s theatrical activities, you can see his apartment here, recreated and made available as part of the permanent exhibition.

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This Poland’s only Museum of Architecture is located in a former Bernardian monastery. It was established in 1965 as a collection of architectural details saved from the war. In the permanent exhibitions you’ll see exhibits showing changes in architecture and architectural craftsmanship (including a rich collection of stained glass windows). After the tour, stop, if only for a moment, in the atmospheric cemetery in the inner courtyard of the former monastery.

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The National Museum’s main exhibition is housed in the neo-Renaissance building of the former Silesian Regency. In addition to an extremely rich collection of Silesian art, you’ll find works by Polish artists from the 17th-19th centuries. A real cultural feast for you will surely be the permanent exhibition “European Art of the 15th-20th Century,” with works such as “Eve” by Lucas Cranach st, “Winter Landscape with Skaters and Bird Trap” by Pieter Bruegel the Younger, “Christ at the Scourging Column” by Francisco de Zurbarán, or Vassily Kandinsky’s work “Evening.” The newest permanent exhibition, called “Miracle-Makers,” includes collections of Middle and Far Eastern art, handicrafts and material culture, as well as contemporary ceramics and art glass. Here you’ll find both the armor of a Japanese samurai and a Louis Vuitton travel trunk, and learn how we came from inkwells and goose pens to the popular BIC pens.

The largest painting in Poland, measuring 15 by 114 meters, the work of Wojciech Kossak and Jan Styka, depicts the victorious battle fought at Raclawice in 1794 between Polish insurgents led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Russian troops. The painting is presented in a specially built rotunda, and the space between the canvas and the visitors’ platform is filled with a special staffage, so that the viewer has the impression of being inside the painting, so to speak, and observing the battle from the battlefield.

The Four Domes Pavilion, the work of prominent architect Hans Poelzig, was built in 1912 as a space for a historical exhibition commemorating the Battle of Leipzig, which was victorious for Prussia. In 2006, along with Centennial Hall, this modernist building was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today you can admire one of the country’s largest collections of Polish contemporary art in its dazzling white rooms.

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You’ll recognize this museum right away: it’s housed in a former World War II air raid shelter. In this “art shelter” you will see what is most important in current, open, socially sensitive art. Paintings, sculpture, video art, installations, photography and records of performance activities show the explorations and experiments of contemporary artists with material and form.

Right next to the museum is the largest outdoor sculpture in Poland – “Train to Heaven” by Andrzej Jarodzki.

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A museum dedicated to one book? Will it be boring? Absolutely not! The manuscript of “Pan Tadeusz” became the leaven for a modern, interactive exhibition showing the era of the Napoleonic wars, traditions, customs and culture of the Polish nobility. Here you will learn what they drank and ate, how they dressed, how they spent their time in Poland at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition to the exhibition devoted to “Pan Tadeusz,” at the museum you will see the expositions “Mission: Poland” – whose heroes are Władysław Bartoszewski and Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, and “Pan Tadeusz Różewicz” – dedicated to the life and works of this outstanding poet.

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The center is located in the MPK depot, where the Wroclaw Solidarity movement was born in 1980 during a solidarity strike with workers from the coast. The main exhibition “History of Wroclaw 1945-2016” is a presentation of the most important events in the post-war history of the city, using modern exhibition techniques that engage visitors, making learning about history an interesting adventure. Among the issues presented are: the exchange of population after World War II, the reconstruction of the city from war damage, the cultural and scientific life of Wroclaw, the post-war everyday life of its inhabitants.

Mural painting can be seen at almost every turn in Wroclaw. Murals, or large-format wall paintings, adorn many backyards and gray facades. Thanks to murals, art goes beyond exhibitions, museums or galleries and becomes part of public space. More and more works by street artists, not only from Poland, are appearing in Wroclaw. Currently, you’ll see the most paintings and installations on walls in Nadodrze and Ołbin – Wroclaw’s most artistic neighborhoods, where you’ll also find artisan studios, open art studios or atmospheric cafes that often serve as art galleries.

There are several theaters in Wroclaw, including internationally recognized alternative theaters. The largest theater in Wroclaw is the Polish Theater (3 G. Zapolska St.), where every theater lover will find something for himself. The theater’s repertoire is extremely rich: from light comedies through classics to ambitious theater. The Polish Theater has as many as three stages: the main stage named after J. Grzegorzewski, the Chamber Stage and the Stage on Świebodzki.

The Contemporary Theater (13 Rzeźnicza St.) stages the works of playwrights creating in the 20th and 21st centuries, innovative, open art.

The Wroclaw Puppet Theater (4 Theater Square), in addition to performances for children, offers interesting productions for adult audiences.

Song of the Goat (10 Karkonoska Avenue) is a mecca for proponents of avant-garde, “exploratory theater” who come here from all over Europe. Song of the Goat Theater is considered one of Europe’s most innovative companies.

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In the city you will find both multiplexes of well-known chains and studio cinemas. A special point on the cinema map of Wroclaw is the New Horizons Cinema. It is a multiplex and a studio cinema in one, located in the very center of the city. The repertoire of the KNH is diverse: good middle cinema, hits of festivals, reviews of films from around the world, film academies, screenings for children, parents and seniors. The cinema conducts educational activities, hosts exhibitions and concerts, and you can also see an opera broadcast from New York’s legendary Metropolitan Opera. The facility is also the main venue for film festivals held in Wroclaw: New Horizons International Film Festival and American Film Festival.

Wroclaw has its own cinematic history – such Polish classics as Andrzej Wajda’s “Ashes and Diamonds”, Wojciech Jerzy Has’ “The Saragossa Manuscript”, Roman Polanski’s “Knife in the Water” and Agnieszka Holland’s “A Lonely Woman” were made at the local film studio. The city has also been the location of famous world productions; Peter Greenaway and Steven Spielberg, among others, have shot films here.

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To play a concert at the NFM in Wroclaw, a modern building designed by S. Kurylowicz’s studio, is a distinction and an honor for many musicians, as the largest concert hall with 1,800 seats is known worldwide for its excellent acoustics. You can see the most famous conductors and soloists here during one of the most important musical events in Poland – the Wratislavia Cantans International Festival.

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The opera house, designed by the famous Carl Ferdinand Langhans, extensively rebuilt after two fires, inside resembles a beautiful chocolate box, with lots of gold and purple. Such celebrities as Niccolò Paganini, Ferenc Liszt, Henryk Wieniawski and Richard Wagner have given concerts in this stylish interior. Today it is one of the country’s most important opera houses, famous for its grand staging projects.

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Modern on the outside, the Capitol building conceals the auditorium of a former movie theater from the 1930s. During the 2013 renovation, the pre-war appearance of the main theater hall and corridors was recreated, and even such details as the numbers on the red seat upholstery written in Broadway font were not forgotten. In this unique setting you will see ambitious musical performances, both adaptations of world literature (“Macbeth,” “Master and Margarita”) and author’s stagings of famous musicals (“The Threepenny Opera”). For the youngest audience there will be adaptations of fairy tales.

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BWA Wrocław’s four galleries present primarily contemporary art.

BWA Wroclaw Glowny (105 Pilsudski St., mezzanine level at Wroclaw Central Railway Station) is the largest of BWA Wroclaw’s four galleries. The gallery’s program draws on the context of the site – a 19th-century terminal used for transportation – and pursues such themes as travel, migration and communication. Contemporary art and artistic activities are presented here in relation to current socio-environmental issues, such as the climate catastrophe.

Dizajn Gallery (2-4 Świdnicka St.) disseminates creative circles related to the subject of design. Its program consists of curated exhibitions, which most often deal with the social dimensions of design, as well as publishing, journalistic and workshop activities.

SIC! Gallery (pl. Kosciuszki 9/10) is the only public gallery in Poland dedicated to artistic, studio and applied glass.

Studio Gallery (46 Ruska St., seg. A, unit 301, 3rd floor) is a space in the neighborhood of the energetic courtyard at 46 Ruska St., where the themes explored in the OUT OF STH International Biennial of Outdoor Art are developed. The space combines the functions of a residence, an open studio, a reading room, a meeting and debate space, while retaining the character of an art gallery.

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The Leopoldina Hall (also known as the Leopoldine Hall) is a unique monument of the late Baroque era, and one of the most representative elements of the University of Wroclaw building. Erected between 1728 and 1732 according to a design by renowned architect Christophorus Tausch, the auditorium was named after Emperor Leopold I, the university’s founder. If you’re looking for a place to learn about the highlights of Baroque art, Leopoldina will be your best choice. The auditorium is decorated with paintings, sculptures, stucco ornaments, frescoes and gilded details.

umw.edu.pl/en/museum-farmacy

The tenement, which now houses the Museum of Pharmacy, was continuously owned by apothecaries from the 13th century until the early 1950s, and a pharmacy operated there for centuries. The museum preserves the chronological arrangement of the exposition – from the alchemical laboratory presented in the basement, through the interior of the Renaissance pharmacy on the first floor, the exhibition devoted to natural medicines and ancient tools for the production of medicines, to the exposition on the second floor, showing analytical measuring apparatus and synthetic and semi-synthetic medicines.