A visit to the Silesian Museum is most when you visit Katowice in the southern Poland. Im not usually a big fan of regional museum but this one hit the spot. The modern museum its well located just outside the city center at the top of an old coal mine. But the museum have a history going back to 1929 when the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. However the museums collection was stolen by the Nazis during World War 2 and the museum was not set up again until 1984.
The museum have a very attractive ticket prize of only 24 PLN, and its big enough for a half days visit. One of the things I do like with this museum is that it don’t borrow art from other museum. Al their exhibitions is from their own collection. And when you see how broad fields the museum covers you get really amazed. I will just mention two of the exhibitions, but I can honestly say that the others are great as well.
Light of history
My favorite exhibition on the Silesian Museum was the “Light of history. Upper Silesia throughout history”. The exhibition gate looks like the gate to the Katowice coal mine. On the other side you find 1370 square meters showing us the Silesian history. From the earliest time until 1989. Even if you ain’t love history this is an amazing exhibition. For me who is born during the 70-ties the history of the communist era and the growth of solidarność was a true time journey.
Beyond Edenwas
By this exhibition the Silesian museum show us the Silesian Collection of Contemporary Art. The collections roots goes back to 2001, making it an amazing collection of both well known and talented upcoming artists. Two generations of Polish artist are present by painting, photography, graphics, sculpture and video-art. Maybe it was my leftist youth that came back, but I specially liked the part with critical art. I have always have hard for art that don’t makes me think out of the box.
Make sure you visit the Silesian museum
Even if you ain’t a museum lover, the Silesian museum is worth a visit. Not only on a rainy day because the site of the museum are well fitted for a picnic between the exhibitions.
The collection that we visited was al of a very high quality and made you reflect on the pas as well as on the future. When I visited the light of history, I could feel the history and recognize part of it as my own. At the same the Beyond edenwas made me reflect of the world of today and tomorrow. A museum that so well connect the past with the future deserves definitely a visit.
You can easy reach Katowice by for example Wizz Air that flies to Katowice international airport and if you want to stay really close to the Silesian museum I recommend Ibis Budget or Novotel.