Description of the attraction
The idea of creating a Silesian Museum in Katowice was born back in 1924, when the Silesian Land Society began to collect objects of cultural and spiritual heritage created in Silesia. The museum was opened on January 23, 1929 and operated until the outbreak of the war in 1939. Museum exhibits were displayed on the fifth floor of the building of the Silesian Sejm. Its first director was Tadeusz Dobrowolski, who was the initiator and inspirer of the museum. At the first exhibition, guests were able to get acquainted with folk costumes, crafts, paintings and a collection of sacred art.
In 1936, construction began on a new building for the museum, which was to become one of the most exciting and modern structures of this type in Europe. Construction work was completed in 1939, but the museum was never officially opened as the Nazis dismantled the building. The collection of the museum also suffered: some of the items were stolen, the surviving exhibits were sent to another museum.
The Silesian Museum was only restored in 1984. The transformation process of the 4-storey building continued until 1992, when all the halls for the permanent exhibition were ready. To date, the museum has collected more than 109,000 items from various fields of art, archeology, ethnography, historical artifacts. The most valuable exhibits of the museum include: Polish paintings before and after 1945 (works by Joseph Chelmonski, Artur Grottger, Tadeusz Makovski, Jan Matejko and others), art and documentary photographs, as well as a number of Polish posters.
In 2006, the Silesian Museum was entered in the National Register of Museums.
