Acquisitions. Exhibits. Narratives. Collection Building by Muzeum Zamkowe w Pszczynie, 1946-2026

TEMPORARY EXHIBITION | PRINCE'S STABLES IN PSZCZYNA | 9 May – 28 November 2027

Acquisitions. Exhibits. Narratives.

Collection building by Muzeum Zamkowe w Pszczynie in the years 1946-2026

Exhibits always form the primary reason for all activities carried out by museum institutions. Without museum objects that build collections and holdings, museums would have no raison d'être. This fundamental role of the exhibit has become the inspiration to present, in this jubilee exhibition, the history of collection building by Muzeum Zamkowe w Pszczynie.

This year the Muzeum Zamkowe w Pszczynie celebrates the 80th anniversary of its activity. Open to the public on exactly 9 May 1946, the institution has for decades been an important landmark on the map of Polish museums-residences. Among the many events marking this significant date, a temporary exhibition deserves special attention: „Acquisitions. Exhibits. Narratives. Collection Building by Muzeum Zamkowe w Pszczynie in the years 1946-2026”, presented from 9 May in the building of the Stajnie Książęce. The curators of the exhibition, Malina Czosnowska and Marcin Nyga, have set out to reveal to visitors a little-known aspect of the Museum's activity, namely the history of collection building. Many visitors to the Museum have wondered how it came to be that the castle chambers and diverse displays are filled with magnificent works of painting, sculpture and applied art. After all, not everything we are able to see comes from the former furnishings of the castle of the Princes of Pszczyna.

The authors of the exhibition outline for the viewer three key periods in the building of the collections. The 1940s and 1950s, when the Museum served as a Museum Depot, where objects left without care as a result of the Second World War, coming from palaces, residences and manor houses, mainly from the Silesian region, were secured. In the following decades the acquisitions served to complete the decoration of the castle chambers, but also new collections were created from scratch. The period after 1989 brought a consistent search for relics connected with the Princes and the Pszczyna land, objects associated with former aristocratic customs, and the completion of existing collections, including in particular militaria, paintings and miniatures.

In total, several hundred objects are presented in the exhibition – transfers, purchases and gifts – that have entered the Museum over the last 80 years. The curators have selected the most interesting and most representative objects revealing the complexity and diversity of the Pszczyna collections. The whole, as befits a jubilee exhibition, has been enriched with numerous facts, numerical data and curiosities presented in a modern graphic form. Thanks to this, the viewer can admire the objects, but also understand the principles of building museum collections.

The exhibition encourages reflection on the role of Polish museology in protecting our shared cultural heritage. It shows how thoughtful and planned collection building shapes the profile of a museum, its exhibition activity, and the creation of new narratives.

Curators: Malina Czosnowska, Marcin Nyga

Plan your visit

exhibition | prices

Exhibition open:

Wednesday – Friday 9.00 – 16.00 | last entry 15.00

Saturday – Sunday 10.00 – 17.00 | last entry 16.00

Accompanying events:

The exhibition will be accompanied by a Museum studium and curator-led tours. Information on dates will be regularly published in news and on social media.