Muzeum Warmii i Mazur w Olsztynie
ul. Zamkowa 2, 10-074 Olsztyn
mgr Janusz Cygański
tel. (+48 89) 527 95 96
fax (+48 89) 527 20 39
www.muzeum.olsztyn.pl

The Museum of Warmia and Mazury (Masuria) is housed in a castle built from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, to which was added a Baroque wing in the eighteenth century. When the Masurian Museum opened in 1945, it assumed possession of whatever objects had been preserved from the collections in former East Prussia and from Olsztyn's Heimatmuseum. In 1975, the museum received its present name.

The Archaeological Collection contains objects from all periods found in the regions of Warmia, Masuria and the Kaliningrad Obvod - from the early Stone Age to the Middle Ages, up to early modern times. Most valuable are the bronze Roman bowls from Sambian burial sites, early medieval swords of Scandinavian origin and terra sigillata vessels, and Roman imports from Pons Auns discovered at Pomielin.

The Historical Collection preserves documents and artefacts which testify to the Polish character of Warmia and Masuria and reflect the region's history from the sixteenth century to the present day. The holdings include cartography, iconography of former East Prussian towns, records of past and present events, including culture, and numismatics.

The Early Art Collection comprises medieval and early modern pieces as well as works by local artists of the nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth century, and is renowned for its Gothic art from Teutonic Prussia, sixteenth to eighteenth century woodwork from Warmia and Krolewiec (present-day Kaliningrad, known in German as Kšnigsberg), seventeenth century Dutch portraits and sixteenth to twentieth century Prussian portraits. The Decorative Arts Collection contains regional as well as European decorative arts from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries and including sixteenth through twentieth century pewter, guns and cannons, as well as copper and brass objects, most notably a set of coffin plates belonging to Prussian families, Warmian goldsmithery masterpieces from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries and a collection of stove tiles from the fifteenth through the twentieth century. On display are also woodworking objects, such as furniture from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, with a large collection of guild chests and coffers as well as textiles, most notably a late fifteenth century liturgical cope made of Italian brocade, seventeenth-century funeral banners, nineteenth century guild standards and women's underwear from the early twentieth century.

The Icon Collection contains primarily Russian icons from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, which includes a unique collection of works from the Old Believers' monastery in the Masurian village of Wojnowo, with the most valuable bust picture of Christ Pantokrator from the early sixteenth century. The Ethnographic Collection includes local folk art from the late eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, most notably collections of Warmian sacred sculpture, embroidered Warmian bonnets, Masurian painted tiles from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and Warmian and Masurian hand-woven textiles. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Art Collection includes paintings, drawings and prints by Polish and foreign artists from the early nineteenth century onwards, contemporary ceramics, decorative glass, sculpture, photography and posters, which are mainly local. The collection's highlights include the early twentieth century paintings by Jacek Malczewski, Jozef Mehoffer, Jan Stanislawski, Teodor Axentowicz and Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz.

The Manuscripts Collection includes manuscripts and old prints from Krolewiec (Kšnigsberg) and Braniewo (Braunsberg) as well as manuscripts and prints by local men of letters and other prominent figures.

The Natural Sciences Collection includes exhibits on the zoology botany of north-eastern Poland, and also on its geology and fossils. Among the most valuable items are a 460-page-long herbarium collected by Hans Steffen, the distinguished German botanist; a collection of insects and vertebrates, principally birds; some 880 stuffed mammals, birds, fish and reptiles, and a rich collection of maps, including some made in Germany in the early twentieth century.

The Photographic Collection is particularly noted for the photographs by Jan Bulhak.

Permanent exhibitions: Mikolaj Kopernik: Resident of the Olsztyn Castle. There are also two exhibitions at the museum's other branches: The Olsztyn Gazette, 1886-1939, at the House of the Olsztyn Gazette, 10-019 Olsztyn, Targ Rybny 1, Tel: (0-89) 534 01 19, and The Wildlife of Warmia and Mazury through the Ages at the Nature and Wildlife Museum, 10-603 Olsztyn, ul. Metalowa 5, Tel: (0-89) 533 47 80.

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