(Museum of the Archdiocese, main entrance)

(Madonna - a sculpture from 13th century) (Pieta - a sculpture from 15th century) ("Madonna Under Firs" - Lucas Cranach Senior, 1510) (Part of an altar from 1510) (Baptism of Jesus in Jordan - part of an altar from 1591) ("Christmas" - painting from the Flemish school, 17th century) (Sepulchral painting from 17th century) (Baroque chasuble from 18th century)

Collections and Exhibitions The History of Museum Foundation Lectures, Concerts, Publications Collections and Exhibitions: The most notable items are: Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age items found in Silesia, such as: axes, arrowheads, needles, pots, bowls; mummies from 4th century B.C., clay plates with wedge alphabet, old Christian relics: Damascene reliefs, olive lamps and St. Menas ampoules from 3rd century. Roman figure depicting St. John the Baptist from 1160, baptisteries from 13th and 14th century, sepulchral slabs of Canonical Mikolaj of Olawa (dec. 1471), Gothic keystones, capitals and mascarons from the Wroclaw Cathedral, alabaster figure depicting a girl from 16th century, and coats of arms from 17th century. Wooden sculptures - reliefs with scenes from Christ and Virgin Mary life dating back to 1350, Resurrection from 1380. Virgin Mary with the Child and St. Catherine, St. Dorothy from 1501. Lamenting Christ from 1506, beautiful Madonnas from 11th and 15th century, several triptychs dated back to 15th century, altar predellae, of which the most notable is carved Holy Family from 1503 and decapitation of John the Baptist from the beginning of 16th century, Pietas, including the oldest "crying" from 14th century, Gothic crucifix from 14th century and a number of figures of saints from 15th and 16th century. Painting - this field is especially represented in boards and triptychs, and includes many valuable paintings, such as: Christ in the Press from 1486, 2 wings of triptych with figures of saints from 15th century, Man of Sorrow from 1520 and the Holy Family -- with a strong influence of Cranach, wings from a Cathedral altar with the life of St. John the Baptist painted by Bartlomiej Fichtenberger in 1591, Lamenting Christ by Jan Effenberger from 1507, Sleep of Virgin Mary from Wielowies painted in 15th century, Throne of Mercy from the beginning of 17th century. There also are many graphics, with a collection of chalcography and copper plates from 18th century, made by the Strachowscy. Goldware, which includes chalices, ciboria, monstrances, trays, ampoules, crucifices, reliquaries and lampshades. The most interesting are: an ostulatory from 1374, a chalice from Muszkowice from 1400, two Baroque goblets from 1620 and 1634, several cylindrical and towery monstrances from 15th and 16th century, Baroque monstrances from 18th century, a reliquary from the St. Cross Church, containing a cross-shaped root in its Baroque case, found during the building of the St. Bartlomiej collegiate church, two canonical sceptres from 1506 and 1520 with Polish coats of arms, a mug of prince Bp Ferdynand Waza. Tapestry - parts of liturgical vestments from 1250, called the vestment of St. Jadwiga, an elaborate embroidered chasuble from Glogow from 1520, an Italian cherry silk chasuble from 16th century, several French chasubles made of silk, brocade, golden plush and damask from 17th and 18th century. Miscellaneous - the oldest bell in Poland "Swietoslaw" from 1300, Gothic archive cabinet of Jan Paszkowic from 1455. There is also the "Henrykowska" Book, containing the first written words in Polish from 1270, a tin jug of the Holy Mary Brotherhood from Paczkow with an engraved Madonna depiction from 1586, a beautiful glass goblet of the Altar Brotherhood from the first half of 18th century, armoured boxes, forged sepulchral crucifices and a number of other invaluable memoirs. Permanent exhibitions: Ancient Art – Etruscan dishes; mummies; St Menas ampoules, olive lamps from 9th century B.C. to 3rd century A.D. Sculpture, painting, artistic craft and textiles dated from 14th to 18th century. Along with permanent exhibitions, the Museum organises temporary ones, referring to the most important church, national or cultural episodes. Museum History The Museum of the Archdiocese in Wroclaw is one of the oldest such places in Poland. It distinguishes from other museum with vast, and rare collection of antiques, so one may call it a shrine of invaluable memoirs of the past. The speciality of the collection is a set of ancient and Gothic relics, dating back to the Piast times of Silesia. The circumstances of its establishment, as well as its collection, is extraordinary, thus deserving closer learning.

The Beginnings of the Church Museum in Wroclaw The first idea of establishing the Museum of the Diocese - renamed to Museum of the Archdiocese later on - came in connection with large destruction of most of relics withdrawn from religious use during brutal secularization of Silesian monasteries in 1810, and intense rebuilding of churches in the end of 19th century, where the fixture from older, often wooden, monumental temples did not fit. Many invaluable items were moved to attics or basements. Most often however, they were burned according to then recognised principle that the "sanctity does not lie about". In 1896, in order to prevent devastation, the church authorities of Wroclaw diocese put an order to catalogue and collect all items of artistic or historical value, withdrawn from cult in Silesia, and to gather them in Wroclaw.

(a part of the Museuminterior)

This work has been entrusted to Rev. Dr. Jozef Jungnitz. It is he who arranged the rooms in the archive and library building, where he deposited selected items. Eventually the first exhibition had opened here, which opened to the Wroclaw public in 1903. A beautiful Gothic post-library room in the capitular building from 1520, as well as some rooms of Neogothic archive and library building from 1898 were used for the exhibition. It was intended as a temporary site for a nascent church museum.

Securing the Collections During World Wars

The outbreak of the World War I and a fear of frontline warfare in the city made the director of the museum secure the collection. Therefore the most valuable items were packed in four large boxes and transported, together with the archives, to Hildesheim. The collection returned to Wroclaw unchanged in 1918.
The same year the director Rev. Jungnitz deceased, and the Rev. Alfons Nowack (dec. 1942) took over management of the archive and the museum, having to put the collection in order again. He used the original rooms for this purpose, delaying the organisation of a new museum (the museum was located in the same rooms, which were used primarily, until 1942). A newly organised museum in the summer residence of bishops in Janowa Gora was meant to be some solution in 1938, but during the work it was given a different character than the Wroclaw museum had.
The successor of Rev. Nowack, who worked for 22 years in the museum, was Rev. Dr. Kurt Engelbert, who has taken up management in 1940. He participated in preparation of the collection for the next evacuation in 1942. This time the relics were put in special boxes and secured in several Silesian towns. But the long exodus was less merciful for the collection, because a part of the items got in wrong hands, other were destroyed or dispersed. Beautiful paintings by Lucas Cranach: "Madonna" from Glogow collegiate church and "Madonna under Firs" from Wroclaw Cathedral, unique numismatic collection, and some Medieval triptychs and sculptures disappeared. The museum building was seriously destroyed, too.

Rebuilding of the Museum and Revindication of Collection After 1945

At the end of warfare, the rebuilding of the museum has been commenced in very difficult conditions, and revindication of individual items, being in possession of many institutions and persons, begun. The lack of transport and people made the action especially difficult. It did not complete even until now, and many "losses" are the most prominent decorations in state galleries. A frequent argument against returning the items was a small room of the Museum of the Archdiocese, which is literally pushed in between the archive and the library. The effort made in order to get the buildings that belonged to the church returned, where a splendid exhibition could be arranged, got no response.
On account of a strenuous work of the museum staff after the war, the revindicated and saved items were cleaned, conserved, and promptly included in the collection. A ceremonial opening of the Museum to the public was made on 16th July, 1947 in connection with the Exhibition of Recovered Land in Wroclaw. The first director of the restituted Museum was a well-known art historian, Rev. Dr. Piotr Sledziewski (1948-1950), and successively Dr. Wlodzimierz Lenkiewicz (1951-1956). The longest term of office was done by Rev. Bp. Prof. Wincenty Urban - Wroclaw suffragan (dec. 1983). Along with the 38-year long management of Capitular Library and Archive, the management of the Museum was entrusted to him three times after 1946. Following his predecessors, he published a neat information booklet and a catalogue of the collection in 1975. Rev. Dr. Jozef Pater continues the catalogue.
Faced with enormous housing difficulties, the church authorities planned to move the museum, especially larger sculptures, board paintings and triptychs, to the newly reconstructed the St. Cross church, and the lower St. Bartlomiej church was intended to become the Wroclaw Piast mausoleum. Eventually the triptychs were moved to the Mother of God church on the Piasek island, which was reconstructed in 1966. Afterwards, the reconstructed Wroclaw bishops' palace had been meant as a location, but it was taken away by the government and the Low Temperatures Institute opened there. Returned in 1990, the palace houses the Pope's Theology Faculty. The effort was made to get capitular buildings in Katedralna St. 7 and 9 returned, to no avail, and the buildings were only returned in 1996 still ruined. After partial reconstruction one of the buildings houses the secretary of 46th International Eucharistic Congress, and the other has tu undergo an overhaul.
In 1984, within the framework of Museum of the Archdiocese, the Contemporary Religious Art Gallery in St. Marcin church has been brought to existence, where meetings with authors, lectures and concerts were organised along with exhibitions. It was a thorn in the side of the Bureau of Religion and Security Office, because it preferred independent thought of the authors openly disrespectful of censors.

Overhauls and Reorganisation in the Latest Time

The Gallery closed by itself in the face of social and political changes in 1989. Few years of its functioning did not solve basic museum problems. Therefore there was a need to find additional room in the house at Kanonia St. 12, and similarly as with archives, the attic and a part of the basement accommodated the storeroom and the restoration workshop in 1985. In 1986-1989, all exhibition rooms were equipped with a wiring system and light spots, an alarm system, security cameras and speakers were installed in some rooms, and all interiors were repainted. On this opportunity, individual exhibitions were put in chronological order, as well as by subject, in 1991. Some of the items, which are exposed as a part of thematic exhibitions, were moved to the storeroom.
In connection with social and political changes the Municipality returned a post-capitular building dated 1756 at Katedralny Square 16 to the Metropolitan Curia with the assignation for museum purpose. Such "return" turned out to be literally "relic", where everything but broken external walls had to be reconstructed. It was only the support from Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz and financial aid from Metropolitan Curia, Polish-German Cooperation Foundation, several companies, St. Katarzyna Shepherd Sisters, Sercanki Sisters from Wroclaw and individual persons, that made the commencing of the overhaul possible in 1992. On 21st April, 1994 an exhibition titled "St. Jadwiga of Andechs, Polish-German Saint", organised by the Free Land of Bavaria and Wroclaw Archdiocese, was opened. The location of the building, which was officially given solely for museum purpose by Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz on 30th August 1994, makes the museum treasury more visible and accessible. Suffice to say, that during three months approximately 12 thousand people visited the Jadwiga exhibition. Both the subsequent exhibition, "Icon Exhibition" and permanent exhibitions were seen by twice this number of people between September and December. The permanent exhibitions are quite rich, including sculpture, painting and tapestry from between 12th and 18th century.

3. Lectures, Concerts and Publications

There are 15 to 20 thousand people, mainly school youth and students, visiting the museum every year, there are also students of guide courses, who attend lectures on Church and sacral art history. For several years, there are concerts of Wroclaw instrumental and vocal groups, in a series called "Music among Relics", taking place in the Gothic room couple of times a year. Every year, the Museum of the Archdiocese houses a meeting of city and area guides associated in PTTK Guide Federation, with the spiritual guidance of Rev. Dr. Jozef Pater. In order to improve educational work in the museum, especially with students' and guides' groups, the Cardinal have given a beautiful capitulary in the ground floor of a building from 1520.
Since 1987, the Museum of the Archdiocese has published catholic wall calendars, exhibition catalogues and advertisements. In 1990 a Polish translation of the famous "Henrykowska" Book, approved by the Ministry of National Education for school libraries, was published, and in the next year the anniversary edition, with facsimile of the manuscript, printed Latin and Polish text, and a commentary was published. In 1991 the book "Wroclaw Churches" by Zygmunt Antkowiak was published. The museum also prepared the Polish translation of the life of St. Jadwiga "Vita major" from 1353 with many Medieval illustrations, a book "Saint Jadwiga in Silesian Art", published by the Lower Silesia Culture Association in 1994, and "Silesian Goldware", Wroclaw 1995, being the gleanings of the 7th session in the series titled "Applied Art in Silesia", that took place with participants from all over Poland in the museum on 7th October, 1993. On the occasion of 46th International Eucharistic Congress the museum published a catholic calendar of 1997 with many illustrations showing the examples of Silesian goldware from the Museum of the Archdiocese collection. Additionally, the museum has prepared a dozen of interesting and moralizing radio and television programmes regarding both sacral monuments and religious ceremonies and holidays. The year 1998 is the hundredth's anniversary of the Museum of the Archdiocese as one of few that kept its historical continuity in its character and activity. It celebrates the anniversary with rich chattel. The management dreams, however, of publishing a true catalogue of the collection of this rich and unique treasury of works of art.