HISTORY OF THE BIERUŃ TOWN MUSEUM

The Bieruń Town Museum (in the process of formation) was established out of the need to preserve and nurture the local history and cultural tradition. The necessity to found a museum in Bieruń that would collect, store and disseminate cultural heritage objects, documents, and photographs concerning the history and culture of Bieruń was repeatedly mentioned by the local history enthusiasts for years. Numerous traces of how the over 600-year-old town had been created and shaped still remained inaccessible to a wider public.
In 2018, the authorities of the town of Bieruń took steps to establish an institution aimed at protecting and promoting the cultural tangible and intangible heritage, particularly of the town of Bieruń and the bieruńsko-lędziński district as the historical part of Silesia and the Pszczyna region in the field of history, ethnography and art. It was assumed that the Museum would collect historical heritage objects and documents illustrating the local history. Pursuant to the assumptions, this institution is to be an important element affecting the town’s image as well as a tool for integration and creation of the local residents’ common identity.

The process establishing a museum in Bieruń began at the beginning of 2018. The cultural institution of the Bieruń commune named the Bieruń Town Museum (in the process of formation) was established by means of a resolution adopted by the Town Council in Bieruń on August 30, 2018. This is also when its Charter was adopted.

ACTIVITIES OF THE BIERUŃ TOWN MUSEUM

Since its establishment, the Museum’s activities have primarily been focused on starting the construction of the museum collection. The exhibits received are forwarded to four collections: historical, ethnographic, photographic and art collections. What is more, the Museum has prepared the first exhibition entitled Inhabitants of Bieruń at the beginning of the 20th century in the photographs of father Mateusz Bielok. The exhibition was opened on August 18th, 2019. Both the vernissage and other events accompanying the exhibition aroused great interest among Bieruń residents.

At present the Museum’s activities focus on expanding the institution’s collection and presenting the historical and cultural heritage of Bieruń through publications, exhibitions, articles and wide-ranging educational activities (including historical and photographic walks, photo shows, and making films of the „Visiting Bieruń” series).

The Museum’s activities particularly concern:

  • the history of the town of Bieruń establishment,
  • the history of individual districts, i.e. Bieruń Stary, Ściernie, Jajosty, Bieruń Nowy, Zabrzeg, Czarnuchowice, Bijasowice, Kopań,
  • the history of local families and those who came from other regions of Poland,
  • the history of service and craft plants and factories operating in and around Bieruń,
  • works of artists associated with Bieruń and the bieruńsko-lędziński district,
  • the Vistula as a water border and transportation route,
  • cultural heritage of the Silesian and Lesser Poland borderland and of the Pszczyna region.

BIERUŃ

Bieruń has a very rich history. The town was first mentioned in historical sources in 1376. In the mid-16th century, the town was granted market privileges, which contributed to its economic boom. Thanks to the well-developed fish economy, the Great Bieruń Pond was created here in the 16th century as well. In its heyday, the Pond’s area was 625 hectares and at that time it was the largest reservoir of this type in Upper Silesia. Today, in the Town of Bieruń, you can still admire, among others: a medieval mound dating back to 1295, a market square with a medieval urban layout preserved, a dyke built in 1530-1540 (a civil engineering monument), a wooden St. Valentine’s Sanctuary (16th/17th century) or a Jewish cemetery established in the 19th century.

In 1824, the first paved interstate road in Upper Silesia was built in Bieruń, it led from Wrocław to the border on the Vistula at that time, to Oświęcim and Krakow. In 1830, the Royal-Prussian Chief Customs Office was built by that road. A railway line from Bieruń Nowy to Mysłowice was commissioned in 1859. In 1863 a railway connection between Nowy Bieruń in Prussia and Oświęcim in Galicia was started. The stop served as a border station between Prussia and Austria.

The history and identity of Bieruń also comprise: the establishment of the „Piast” Coal Mine and the two-week underground strike of the mine workers after the introduction of martial law in 1981 (the longest protest of this type in the history of post-war mining) or the flood in 2010 which severely affected the residents of Bieruń.

Documentation of these and many other events fits well with the substantive program of the institution established.

CONTACT

Contact Details

Rynek St. 14, 43-150 Bieruń
building of the Town Hall in Bieruń, segment B, room No. 213

Phone No. +48 32 708 09 89

muzeum@muzeum.bierun.pl

Opening Hours

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

7.30 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.
7.30 a.m. – 3.30 p.m.
7.30 a.m. – 3.30 p.m.
7.30 a.m. – 3.30 p.m.
7.30 a.m. – 2.00 p.m.

Director

Agnieszka Szymula

Phone No. +48 32 708 09 89

dyrektor@muzeum.bierun.pl

Chief Accountant

Ewa Myszor-Knahl

Phone No. +48 32 708 09 89

Department of Resources Collection and Dissemination

Piotr Knapczyk

Phone No. +48 32 708 09 10

zbiory@muzeum.bierun.pl

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MUZEUM MIEJSKIE
W BIERUNIU
ul. Rynek 14, 43-150 Bieruń

2024 © Muzeum Miejskie w Bieruniu
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