Wyposażenie sejfu chroniącego wizerunek Matki Boskiej na Jasnej Górze w nową szybę kuloodporną, system klimatyzacyjny i specjalne oświetlenie

• Authors: Kurpik Wojciech , Farke Matthias

Title variants

EN

Equipping the safe protecting the painting of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa with a new, bullet-proof glass, the air conditioning system and special lighting

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, cared for by the Pauline monks at the Jasna Góra monastery for over 600 years, which is of a great religious importance and, in addition, belongs to the most valuable monuments of the Polish history and religious art, has been secured with a new, bulletproof glass and equipped with the specially designed air conditioning system. The system ensures maintaining optimum humidity, temperature and air quality, similarly to air-conditioned museum display cases for particularly valuable exhibits. In the case under consideration, the difference is that, instead of a display case, there is an old, historical safe, which has been protecting the painting for more than 100 years. Now, thanks to the modern air conditioning system of the company “Glasbau Hahn GmbH” from Frankfurt am Main, it will be possible for it to protect the painting for a long time. The safe was built in the historical period most dramatic for Poland and the Pauline monks, when, after the January Uprising, Russian occupant authorities decided on a gradual dissolution of the order and when, in the atmosphere of the upcoming disaster, at night, on 22/23 October 1909, the jewels decorating the painting were stolen. Immediately after the theft, Father Euzebiusz Rejman, the prior of Jasna Góra, decided to secure the painting. He thought that the maximum protection would only be ensured by a safe, similar to strongboxes in banks. He hired Romuald Szymański’s firm for that purpose. The execution of that task, begun in spring 1910, lasted until August that year. A special system for lifting a heavy curtain covering the face of the painting, with counterbalances and gears was developed. Together with the safe itself, it is a valuable example of technology from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus, the discussed monument combines the historical values, both those of a technical nature and those which are a testimony of historical events. For that reason, it was resolved to leave the safe unchanged and increase its protective function by ensuring the air conditioning system for the painting. As a result of installing an autonomous air conditioner in combination with the use of gas – nitrogen, the task of protection of the painting from the conservator’s point of view was executed. It required a modification of the entire existing security system. The historical strongbox was carefully sealed and, from the side of the altar, closed with armour glass (sandwiched with PVB interlayers), 24 mm thick, with strong antireflex, fixed permanently in the construction of the frame with various control sensors and bundles of optical fibres which are the basic lighting for the painting.

Keywords

PL

Matka Boska Częstochowska; Jasna Góra; zabytkowy sejf; kradzież klejnotów na Jasnej Górze; ochrona i zabezpieczenie Cudownego Obrazu; oświetlenie obrazu

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 212-217

Dates

published

2015

Contributors

author

Kurpik Wojciech

• konserwator dzieł sztuki

author

Farke Matthias

• restaurator

Identifiers

ISSN

0029-8247