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Sculpture “Portrait of a Roman woman” The portrait of a head comes from a bust of a Roman woman who lived in the mid–3rd century. With a realistic expression of facial features, it depicts a middle-aged woman. The big eyes looking straight and thin, slightly tight lips suggest a firm character. The cheeks are fleshy but with visible zygomatic bones; the jaw is massive, with a clearly marked full chin. The hairdo expresses the fashion at the time, referring to a hairstyle introduced by Julia Domna, the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. |
The hoard with iron axe-like bars (“grzywna”) from 13 Kanonicza Street in Kraków This treasure was found during rescue investigations in the basements of the backyard annex at 13 Kanonicza Street in Kraków in 1979. The deposit fell under the core of the early medieval bank of Okol. It was hidden in a pit measuring 108 x 210 cm, at a depth of about 100 cm, under walls partially covered with oak and fir wood... |
A sword from Small Market in Kraków The iron sword from the Mały Rynek [Small Market] Square in Kraków was discovered during the renovation of the square’s surface in 2007. So far, it is the only sword found in the archaeological research in the area of Kraków. |
Tournament armour The tournament armour is compiled of several suits of West-European armours created in the mid-16th century. Its basic parts are the cuirass, collarbone guard, and pads and thigh guards made by the best armourers from southern Germany. The breastplate with the fishbone and goose — that is a protrusion in the stomach area — has vertical stripes with an etched motif of a floral twig entwined over a panoply and musical instruments. |
Executioner's sword In the collection of the Regional Museum in Olkusz, there is a well-preserved medieval sword. It is called an executioner's sword, because local legend claims that it was used for an execution carried out in the square in Olkusz. Scientific research does not, however, confirm such a hypothesis with regard to the presented exhibit. |
Corinthian capital The exhibit comes from the collection of the Field Museum No. 2 established by Polish soldiers who fought in Egypt during the WW II. The creator and spiritus movens of this unique project was Jarosław Sagan. The head, with relatively shallow sculpting is a simplified form of a Corinthian capital. It could have been based on classical extended examples from Byzantine architecture. It consists of two zones, with the lower row made in a shallow relief resembling stylised acanthus. The leaves in the upper row, which are carved deeper in marble, spread towards four edges under the rectangular abacus. |
Necklace from Czersk Silver necklace made of several strands of double stranded wire. The ends of the necklace are forged in the lenticular plate form, decorated on one ornament, completed with hook and eye fastening. |
Sculpture “Bust of Kazimierz Count Potulicki” by Tomasz Oskar Sosnowski The sculpture comes from the palace in Bobrek and represents one of the Potulicki Counts (the trouble is that it is unclear which one). The name “Kazimierz Count Potulicki” was used in the case of Kazimierz Ludwik Łukasz Count Potulicki of Więcborg, of the Grzymała coat of arms (1793–1871) and his son, Kazimierz Wojciech Count Potulicki of Więcborg, of the Grzymała (1820–1880) coat of arms. |
Salada type helmet The closed profile of the helmet and the shiny, smooth surface of steel, contrasts with the heads of spirally twisted rivets, that — despite their severe functionality — provide it with an extraordinary elegance. Until the middle of the 20th century, this helmet was considered a 19th-century copy. Covered with a thick layer of black paint (designed to protect against corrosion) it closely guarded its secrets. After being subjected to maintenance procedures, not only did this reveal its raw beauty, but also shed light on its mysterious past. It represents a late Gothic form of the helmet, evolved from the medieval cervelliere, widespread at the end of the 15th and early 16th century. It appeared in numerous variations and variants, serving both knights and soldiers from other classes. |
Head of a ruler The head is a fragment of the ruler's statue, it is covered with nemes [scarf] with a wide head-band over the forehead, decorated with the insignia of the Pharaonic power uraeus [cobra]. It is a face with faded features; the eyes are shown without detail; it has a wide nose with distended nostrils. |
Head of a ruler from Saqqara Features of style, like treatment of the eyes, uraeus form and the soft outline of the nemes permit attribution to Ptolemaic times. Based on similarities with the head of a sphinx of 150 BC, it is possible to assume that our head had once belonged to a sphinx set up at Saqqara, if the place of discovery is anything to go by. |
Spear of the Lombards The presented spear could have been forged either in the fifth or fifteenth century. In spite of the metallurgical examination carried out by specialists from the Jagiellonian University, it was not possible to determine the production date of the spearhead. |
Hanukkah lamp Chanukah — the eight-day Jewish festival of lights – in its historical aspect commemorates the victorious Maccabean Revolt against the Greeks under Antiochus IV Epiphanes, whereas in its ethical aspect refers to the salvation of Judaism, the only existing monotheistic religion based on the coherent system of moral values in the 2ndcentury BC. |
Parade miner’s sabre Carrying weapons was a privilege of miners as free people. Salt Works introduced uniforms for their employees in 1773. A sabre was an important element of the outfit and later also the mining uniform. Parade weapons are a special type of weapon that have almost lost their utilitarian functions in favour of representational ones. |
Wrought padlock, Samson Eight Lever The American padlock Samson Eight Lever. How did it end up in the Świątniki Museum? It bears traces of levering up the sheet metal. Somebody probably wanted to check how its mechanism worked. Initially, padlock makers from Świątniki watched how others did it. On the basis of the knowledge gained in this way, they created their own mechanisms, being a compilation of those peeped at others. |
Sculpture “Halabardier” The exhibit comes from a castle in Biecz which was a castellan seat and has not survived. For residents and lovers of the history of Biecz, this exhibit is a romantic contribution to the history of the city and tells the story of its size and importance in the past. |
Baptismal font A baptismal font of a goblet shaped with a dodecagon base, with a pyramidal bowl and a foot. The narrowing in the middle bears a band (a so-called node) which is covered by a net ornament with three coats of arms (one of which is now missing). The bowl of the baptismal font is covered by a bas-relief decoration, the fields of which are separated by tracery. |
Hungarian-style horse mill The Hungarian-style horse mill was the best machine for the vertical transportation of salt. It was able to lift loads that weighed over 2 tonnes from a depth greater than 300 m. It was an improved version of the Saxon-style horse mill implemented by Austrians after the First Partition of Poland. Since 1861 it was replaced by steam engines and after 1913 by electrical machines. |
Horse mill Because of the fact that in the salt mines of the Kraków region, i.e. salt mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia, salt lies deep underground, it was excavated through shafts by using the right tools, like devices with a horizontal drive shaft (windlass), handwheels, treadwheels (internal and external), devices with a vertical drive shaft (cross, water-mill), devices with a vertical-horizontal drive shaft (gear mill with a winding reel, gear mill with two winding reels, gear mill with a brake drum) and braking devices. |
Sculpture “First whispers of love” (“Whispers of love”, “Secrets of love”) by Wiktor Brodzki The scene shows the goddess Aphrodite leaning her head towards a winged Cupid to listen to what he wants to say to her. The goddess’s enigmatic smile suggests the frivolous character of the conversation. The artistic virtuosity: flawlessly smooth moulding and details rendered carefully are the typical features of Wiktor Brodzki’s sculptures. |