The District Museum in Tarnów

The District Museum in Tarnów presents the rich and diverse culture of Tarnów and its surroundings. The history of the region is linked with its great aristocratic family of Sanguszko, its minor nobility and the local peasant community. The museum pieces are presented in nine departments and branches.
In one of them – the Ethnographic Museum – there is the first and so far the only permanent exhibition devoted to the culture and history of the Romani in Poland. Among the exhibits, one can see, for example, Romani costumes and original Romani wagons. Felicja Curyłowa’s Farm in Zalipie, famous for its distinctive folk paintings, is a branch of the Ethnographic Museum. It presents the interior of the painter’s former house, decorated with floral motifs, cut-outs, and painted figures on paper.

Branches:
Main Building [Gmach Główny] – temporary and historic exhibitions
Ethnographic Museum [Muzeum Etnograficzne] – the history and culture of the Romani
Town Hall [Ratusz] – works of arts from the collection of the Sanguszko family
Castle in Dębno [Zamek w Dębnie] – furnishing of castle interiors
Wincenty Witos’ Museum [Muzeum Wincentego Witosa] – the biography of the peasant activist in his family home
Manor in Dołęga [Dwór w Dołędze] – a traditional Galician manor of the nobility
Jan Matejko’s Memorabilia Museum in Nowy Wiśnicz [Muzeum Pamiątek po Janie Matejce w Nowym Wiśniczu] – drawings and notes kept in a house of the artist’s relatives
Felicja Curyłowa’s Farm in Zalipie [Zagroda Felicji Curyłowej w Zalipiu] – Zalipie paintings
Hall of Memory of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers [Izba Pamięci Światowego Związku Żołnierzy Armii Krajowej] – guerrilla activity of Home Army soldiers during World War II

Elaborated by Julia Czapla, Joanna Kotarba,

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Poland License.

Photograph by Marek Antoniusz Święch, arch. MIK (2014),

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Poland License.

www.muzeum.tarnow.pl

Rynek 3,
33-100 Tarnów

phone 14 621 21 49
phone 14 639 08 64
Fax 14 639 08 65
page museum

How to get there :

on foot

by car

Opening hours

Rynek 3, Tarnów

Monday

closed

Tuesday

9.00 — 15.00

Wednesday

9.00 — 15.00

Thursday

9.00 — 17.00

Friday

9.00 — 15.00

Saturday

closed

Sunday

10.00 — 14.00

Ticket Prices

normal 8 PLN reduced 5 PLN family 16 PLN normal pass 16 PLN reduced pass 10 PLN Sunday — free admission to the permanent exhibition

“Stipo (studiolo, scrigno) a bambocci” writing cabinet with a table

The wall cabinet is made of nut wood, with an architectural structure referring to the façade of a Renaissance palazzo with artistic decoration of human figures and heads fully sculpted. A series of drawers and lockers in symmetrical arrangement are placed around the centrally located architectural construction door. It is placed on a secondary adjusted table, made in the 2nd half of the 19th century — especially for this particular cabinet.

Hunting arquebus

Hunting arquebus with a wheel-lock, after Jan Klemens Branicki (1689–1771), the Grand Hetman of the Crown. Old-time hunting, being an elite form of entertainment for the highest levels of society, required an adequate frame, created by, e.g., luxurious firearms. This kind of weapon was usually made from precious materials and artfully decorated in a style typical of the epoch.

Chalice with coats of arms “Pogoń” and “Szreniawa”

This is one of the tallest glass goblets preserved in Polish collections, fully covered with a cut design, the so-called carp scales, a decoration that is unique in its kind, typical only of products made in the Crystal Glassworks in Lubaczów.

“Corda Fidelium” cup

In the case of the Tarnów collection, the cultural background of the epoch has its counterparts in the Sarmatian culture, characterised by the owner’s need for the ostentatious presentation of his affluence and wealth. The primacy of nobility and magnates, who were in possession of huge estates and enjoyed wide privileges in the 18th century, influenced the development and industrialisation of the country.

Mug with a cover

European goldsmithing between the 16th and the 18th century reached an unprecedented artistic and technical level, which was largely due to German masters operating mostly in the chief goldsmithing centre — Augsburg. Thanks to their mass production and high artistic class, goldsmith products from Augsburg soon dominated the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.

Painting “Portrait of Teresa née Czartoryska Lubomirska”

The pride of the palace in Slavuta was a small pastel portrait which presented a charming teenage girl. It depicts Teresa née Czartoryska, the daughter of Józef Klemens, the founder of the china manufacturing plant in Korets. The girl’s mother was duchess Dorota née Jabłonowska, who was famous for her beauty. The author of the portrait was one of the most outstanding French painters, Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun /1755–1842/.

Painting “Portrait of a Young Dutch Girl”

Portraits of the members of the Sanguszko family, one of the wealthiest and most influential families in the former Commonwealth, as well as of their closest relatives make a large group in the collection of the Museum in Tarnów. They were a part of the furnishing and decoration of palace interiors in numerous ducal mansions. The portrait presented here comes from Slavuta situated on the Horyn, one of the main rivers of Volhynia (Ukraine).

Sculpture “Portrait Study”

The sculpture was made after 1900 by the artist-sculptor Henryk Hochman, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, a disciple of Florian Cynk and Konstanty Laszczka. Hochman continued his education in the workshop of August Rodin in Paris.

Painting “Portrait of Klementyna Sanguszko Ostrowska” of Vincenzo Camuccini

The portrait of Klementyna Countess Ostrowska, of the aristocratic Sanguszko family (1786–1841), was made around 1822. The author was Vincenzo Camuccini, a famous Italian artist, professor of the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. It comes from the palace of the Sanguszko family in Gumniska where, among a rich collection of works of art, there was also a collection of family portraits.

Manuscript of the “Letter granting freedom to the town of Tarnów by Emperor Francis”

Francis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, Hungary, Czech, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Jerusalem, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, etc., confers a privilege granting freedom to Tarnów and its inhabitants. It approves the property of Tarnów burghers and the possessions of the town.

“Obesłanie” – metal plate bearing the emblem of the grand guild of Tarnów

One common object which was very useful in the life of a guild was the obesłanie – a sign used to authenticate transferred messages. The Obesłanie was used by a messenger when he had to pass a message from the guild elders to other members of the guild. They were informed of all important issues concerning the guild: meetings, funerals, celebrations and the like, and obesłanie had a similar function to a contemporary membership card.

Bond Committee for the Construction of the New Synagogue in Tarnów

The document was issued by the Committee for the Construction of New Synagogue in Freunds Druckerei in Breslau in the autumn of 1864. The bond amount is 50 Austrian guilders, and it was issued in the name of Zelig Offner. Exactly 44 years separate the date of the bond issuing and the moment when the New Synagogue was opened, which took place on the 18th of September 1908. The grand opening of the magnificent building, which is the pride of the Jews of Tarnów, was preceded by an excruciatingly long period of several decades when the walls were built slowly.

The document with the seal of hetman Jan Tarnowski

A parchment with texts in Latin, issued in Wiewiórka, a holiday residence of the Tarnowski family. Suspended on an olive coloured rope is the knight seal of Jan Tarnowski – round, made of red wax, in a wax bowl of a natural colour, with an image of the Leliwa coat of arms, which functions as a symbol of Tarnów to this today, with the legend “IOANNIS COMES IN TARNOW.”

Axe with a sleeve

A decorated axe with a sleeve and an eyelet, found in the 1970s on a field in Gorzyce near Żabno. The eyelet was of practical value; it was used to attach the axe to a handle, which was bent at a right angle and entered into the sleeve. The handles were made of carefully selected bent pieces of wood.

Dacia bowl

A clay vessel of an ashen colour, turned on a potter's wheel. It has the form of a shallow bowl or a platter on a hollow leg. It has been preserved in its entirety; few imperfections were corrected with plaster. An analysis of the form, the manner in which the vessel was made, and the analogies suggest that the bowl should be associated with the Dacian environment.

Sculpture “Roman Damian Sanguszko's bust”

In the collection there is a bust sculpture depicting an image of Roman Damian Sanguszko (1832–1917). Roman Damian was the eldest son of Władysław and Izabela née Lubomirski, and a landowner in the Zaslav Region, an heir to the family property in Volyn. He managed property in the Slavuta Region and the famous horse stud in Chrystivka.

Wooden sculpture “Pensive Christ”

A wooden polychrome sculpture of Pensive Christ by an unknown author from the 2nd half of the 19th century, coming from the village of Borowa in the district of Tarnów; it was originally located in a box roadside shrine.

Sculpture “Sikorski grave”

The sculpture Sikorski's Tomb was made in 1987 by Julian Stręk of Pustków-Rudki near Dębica, one of the recently discovered, leading Polish naive artists. It is a composition of many three-dimensional figures and elements made of pine wood, with oil polychrome of aquamarine dominant and with details in silver, walnut and blue colours.

Chalice with 12 months representation

One of the most valuable objects in the Museum in Tarnów, due to its artistic status, is a goblet with a lid, and with a depiction of 12 months. It is associated with Saxony, with the Royal Glassworks in Dresden. It has a structure typical of celebratory chalices, and it is additionally enriched with a conical decorative lid.

“Roztruchan” decorative cup

Aside from its practical functions, the silver tableware collected and stored in Old Polish houses also had representative functions. There was also a separate group of dishes of a primarily decorative character, whose original, sophisticated form, perfection of composition, and materials used for their production were to dazzle and delight the guests.

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