The Museum of the Opole Countryside

The Museum of the Opole Countryside was established on November 14, 1961 as a scientific, research and educational institution, whose tasks include, in particular, the collection, conservation, scientific study and access to monuments of folk culture of Opole Silesia, with particular emphasis on wooden folk architecture. It was supposed to be an open-air museum of the open-air museum type. In April 1966, the Museum obtained the statute and full independence as an autonomous unit with a regional range. Subordinated and financed initially by the Provincial National Council, then the Provincial Office, and now the Marshal's Office in Opole. The foundations for the Museum of the Opole Countryside in Opole were laid as early as 1955 by Stanisław Bronicz, head of the Ethnography Department of the Opole Silesia Museum in Opole, later the first director of the Opole open-air museum. In the years 1956-58, together with the Department of Ethnography of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, he initiated penetrations and scientific research in Opole Silesia, which led to the collection of relatively abundant documentary material and the preparation of a list of over 20 historic objects, selected in the first place for transfer to the site of the future museum. For implementation, the concept of placing the transferred objects in such a way that they grouped on the one hand into homesteads representative of individual socio-economic strata, and on the other hand - into larger groups representing subregions of Opole Silesia, was approved. At the entrance there are mostly objects from the left-bank (southern) areas, in the middle - objects from the Opole poviat, and on the north side - objects from the right-bank (northern) areas of Opole Silesia. The first object erected on the premises of the Museum in 1967 was a small granary from the village of Sternalice in the Oleski poviat. The museum was opened to visitors on September 23, 1970. On the premises of the museum, 9 homesteads from the Oleskie and Opole regions were created, as well as the Kozielsko-Racibórz homestead which is under reconstruction. The vast majority of objects in these homesteads show a carcass construction of the walls. Two additional homesteads from the Nysa region present a post-and-beam half-timbered structure. In addition, the Museum has self-standing public buildings (church, school, tower, inn), free-standing cottages with a different use, a blacksmith's shop, two chapels and two windmills. There are flower, herbal and vegetable gardens next to the fenced pens and picket fences. Old crops such as flax, parsnips, millet and buckwheat are grown in the field. #opole #poland #museum