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Did you know that A man of Renaissance from Biecz? Who was Martin Kromer, author of 16th century work on Polish history, which two editions we present on our website? |
Did you know that Wyspiański in Biecz We were very close to having the opportunity to see polychromes and stained-glass panels made by Stanisław Wyspiański in the parish church in Biecz. The artist stayed in Biecz in 1889 during a scientific trip around the regions of Biecz and Sącz organized by the professor of the Kraków School of Fine Arts (today’s Academy of Fine Arts) Władysław Łuszczkiewicz... |
Did you know that The Pope’s different faces Andrzej Jawień, A.J., Stanisław Andrzej Gruda, Piotr Jasień – what do these names have to do with Karol Wojtyła? Karol was a young priest, but also a poet and a playwright. He wrote often, but kept his writings in a drawer and published them rarely under the selected pseudonyms. |
Did you know that Discover Białoszewski’s Biecz The poem, which we present here, comes from the debut volume of Białoszewski’s poems entitled Obroty rzeczy [How things revolve] from 1956. The works that made up this volume were created during the years 1952–1955 during the outings made by the poet together with his long-time friend and life partner, painter Leszek Soliński, in the vicinity of the Low Beskids, Bieszczady and Krosno. Apart from the cited Medieval tapestry about Biecz the works included in Obroty rzeczy were also the ones inspired by the area such as Barbara z Harczowa, Ballada krośnieńska or the Stara pieśń nad Binnarową which has been repeatedly interpreted... |
Did you know that The symbolism of the door in theatrical performances by Kantor The symbolism of a door is to some extent universal — common to different cultures and religions. Because a door is always on the border, its significance, first of all, is revealed at the moment of crossing a threshold. It illustrates the existence of opposition and the transition from one state to another. |
Did you know that "The present is theirs; the future […] is mine"— Nikola Tesla An eccentric and a visionary. A genius and discoverer. But, above all, Nikola Tesla was an inventor, holding almost 300 patents, patents which protected his 125 inventions in several dozen countries around the world. His inventions have completely changed human civilisation. It is also worth remembering that he was almost forgotten, deceived and ridiculed in his own lifetime. Others stole his ideas and he was unable to turn them into a financial success. |
Did you know that Artistic episode in Tadeusz Kościuszko’s life Could Tadeusz Kościuszko, the famous leader of the Uprising in 1794, have been a painter? In the National Museum in Kraków, there are nudes made with a red-brown chalk (so-called sanguine) and watercolour panoramas of Rome painted by Kościuszko. |
Did you know that Recording, documentation The reconstruction of Kantor’s work on his performances is possible thanks to, among others, the video recordings of rehearsals which were made on the artist’s request, starting with the play Niech sczezną artyści [Let the Artists Die] from 1985. Forty eight hours of rehearsals were recorded during the preparation for the play Dziś są moje urodziny [Today Is My Birthday]. |
Did you know that Known/Unknown Konstanty Laszczka Konstanty Laszczka (1865–1956) seems to have been less famous than his contemporary Young Poland artists, with many of whom he befriended and portrayed in his works. Was his style not original enough? |
Did you know that Textile Decoration of Interiors. Groups of Small Tapestries from the Collection of Sigismund Augustus and Their Function Decorative textiles, such as tapestries, constituted a decoration for chambers of the Royal Residence, adding splendour and a stately nature thereto. All tapestries commissioned by King Sigismund Augustus, from large-format to quite small ones, had specific functions in the residence interiors, aside from their artistic value. Forms and sizes of certain categories of textiles were adjusted directly to the place of their destination; therefore, they were closely related to architecture. These groups include small tapestries complementing the decor of the castle interiors, namely over-window, under-window, over-door and upholstery tapestries. |
Did you know that History of Deutsche Emailwarenfabrik Oskar Schindler’s Emalia Factory belongs to one of the branches of the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków and is located in the administrative building of the former factory of enamelware in Zabłocie. The factory was known as... |
Did you know that Józef Szujski — who was he? Józef Szujski (1835–1883), born in Tarnów, was permanently associated with Kraków because of his life, academic work, and political activity. A pupil of the Saint Anna Junior High School in Kraków, he had shown many abilities since he was a child. He knew six foreign languages, wrote poetry, and, in later years... |
Did you know that Lorenzo Lotto and adversities Adoration of the Child was shown in Kraków for the first time in 1882. Under the painting, there is a plate with the name of the author — Gaudenzio Ferrari. As it turned out later, the exhibition organised as part of a charity campaign by Katarzyna Potocka contributed not only to increasing the funds of the Charitable Association… |
Did you know that Boy about Wyspiański’s furniture Recognising Wyspiański’s genius, Boy-Żeleński joked that if he were asked to design a locomotive, as a complete artist, he would have scrupulously brought the completed design on the next day. It is no wonder then that furniture became one of the fields of his activity. |
Did you know that Photography of Wyspiański and Mehoffer In the collection of the Museum of Ziemia Biecka in Biecz, there is a unique photo from 1889, depicting the students of the second year of thethen School of Fine Arts (today’s Academy of Fine Arts) in Kraków, during an educational trip around the regions of Sądecczyzna and Biecz under the supervision of Prof. Władysław Łuszkiewicz. |
Did you know that Wiesław Tomaszkiewicz — photographer, operator, mountaineer... The collection of the Museum of Photography in Kraków contains many photos by the renowned photographer and cinematographer, Wiesław Tomaszkiewicz. He was born on 1 July 1924 in Nowy Sącz and died in 2009. He was a master of Oriental Philology, a cinematographer — he took photos for documentary films — a photographer, a mountaineer and an amateur radioman. |
Did you know that What connects the valuables of the Scythian princess with a Tibetan medical kit? What connects the Tibetan medical kit – one of the oldest items in the collection of the Ethnographic Museum – to the costume of the Scynthian princess – one of the most valuable exhibits of the Archaeological Museum of Kraków? |
Painting “Portrait of the Artist's Wife: In the Summer Apartment” by Józef Mehoffer This painting, characteristically shaped as a vertically extended rectangle, is a portrait of the artist's wife against a background of the interior of a summer apartment. This piece was created in 1904 in Zakopane, where the Mehoffers rented a newly completed wooden highland house for a few months. |
Ignacy Łukasiewicz’s distilling apparatus The presented apparatus is the pride of the Gorlice collection. With this apparatus Ignacy Łukasiewicz managed to obtain kerosene, which — when applied to lamps then — allowed him to light up not only the inside of flats, but also the streets. For the first time in the world a kerosene street lamp flared up in... |
Commemorative spade Among the four mounds in Krakow, the Piłsudski Mound is the youngest and the biggest. It was raised on the top of Sowiniec Hill, situated in the Wolski Forest. In 1934 the Association of Polish Legionnaires put forward the idea of raising a mound-statue of the nation’s fight for independence. |