National Museum in Wrocław

The National Museum in Wrocław is one of the main museums of Wrocław and Lower Silesia, housed in an imposing building on Powstańców Warszawy Square. The collection covers primarily painting and sculpture, with particular focus on the art of the whole of Silesia, and numbers over 200,000 objects.

History of the institution

The museum was founded on 1 January 1947 as the State Museum, and opened to the public on 11 July 1948. In 1950 its name was changed to the Silesian Museum, and in 1970 it was raised to the rank of National Museum. It had three earlier predecessor institutions: the Royal Museum of Art and Antiquities founded in 1815, the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts from 1880, and the Silesian Museum of Applied Arts and Antiquities from 1899.

The building

The museum building was built between 1883 and 1886 in the neo-Renaissance style, to a design by Karl Friedrich Endell, as the seat of the Silesian Provincial Administration. After the Second World War, in 1946-1947, the building was adapted for museum use. It is built of brick and entered in the register of immovable heritage sites.

Collection

Among the most important exhibits are the Gothic tomb of Duke Henry IV the Righteous, a Romanesque tympanum from Ołbin dating from the 12th century, a Pietà from around 1400 from the Church of Our Lady on the Sand, and the 14th-century Madonna on a Lion from Kowalów. The painting collection includes works by, among others, Lucas Cranach, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Matejko, Aleksander Gierymski, Jacek Malczewski, Michael Willmann, Wassily Kandinsky and Francisco de Zurbarán.

Exhibitions

Medieval art from the Wrocław collection can be seen at the permanent exhibition "The Century" in the Four Domes Pavilion and in the museum's Digital Museum. The institution also runs a museum shop, and audio description and Polish sign language interpretation are provided for visitors.

Museum branches

The National Museum in Wrocław has three branches: the Ethnographic Museum, the Panorama of the Battle of Racławice, which houses the cyclorama painting of the Battle of Racławice, and the Four Domes Pavilion.

Nearby

Right beside the main building lies Powstańców Warszawy Square, and it is also a short walk to the Peace Bridge and the Museum Footbridge crossing the Oder.

Practical information

• Address: Plac Powstańców Warszawy 5, Stare Miasto, Wrocław
• Getting there: Wrocław city centre, reachable on foot or by public transport; the entrance is adapted for wheelchair users
• What to expect: permanent and temporary exhibitions of painting and sculpture to visit, tickets available at the museum ticket office or online