Ethnographic Museum of Kraków

The exhibition in the former Town Hall of Kazimierz transports us into the bygone world of the Polish countryside: both into its everyday and festive lives.

The museum situated in the building of the former Town Hall of Kazimierz transports visitors into the past: into the utterly vanished world of 19th-century villages. The exhibition devoted to Polish folk culture presents the heritage of folklore, and folk crafts and arts together with archival photographs that on the one hand render the everyday, ordinary life of a farmer and shepherd, and on the other speak of the extraordinary and grand events connected to traditional rites and magic. Here is an opportunity to take a peek into the interior of a traditional cottage and a craftsman’s workshop, and to follow the annual cycle of rites and examine festive costumes, accompanying various holidays. The museum also provides an opportunity to admire works of folk art and crafts developed over the centuries. Most of the works are anonymous, yet we can find examples of great imaginativeness among recognised Polish artists of the naïve arts of the 20th century, including the most popular Epifan Drowniak – Nikifor. The guide to the presentation consists of texts selected from the works of a Polish Nobel Prize-winning poet, Czesław Miłosz.

The museum also presents temporary exhibitions, both in the Town Hall and in the Dom Esterki at ul. Krakowska 46.