The main problem discussed in the article is the protection of archaeological posts. The hitherto Polish literature on this subject has primarily been limited to bringing archaeological reservations to life and adapting thus posts for exhibition purposes, provided that they possess either ground forms (grave mounds, strongholds) or that wooden or brick relics are of a calibre that would guarantee them tourist attraction. The author points out a rich variety of reservations as well as a need to classify them and assess the effectiveness o f different exhibition forms in respect o f protecting the sites, which would make it possible to work out principal methods of operation for individual types o f archaeological posts. Still, in the author’s view, the main question in the protection o f sites is a necessity o f promoting social care in this field, which can only be achieved by revealing their value and significance as well as by making them open to the public. The author finds actions taken so far and based on legal resolutions and administrative sanctions to be ineffective and constiuting merely a link when compared with a magnitude o f the task. To exemplify this, the author mentions the Ślęża, a mountain in the Lower Silesia, on which ancient articles o f worship were discovered and examined. Until the works were not undertaken to tidy up the surrounding area and to arrange and mark tourist routes for visiting, then their presence in social mind was not fixed and it was not possible to secure necessary protection. As far as less spectacular archaeological monuments are concerned, the author suggests to work out forms of their permanent marking, e.g. by planting distinctive trees. Such actions should be undertaken in not too distant future, if only because of the fact that a planned campaing o f recording all archaeological posts would enrich conservation card indexes with a great number o f posts to be placed under protection.
An essential element of the system of monuments’ protection is knowledge on their resources and condition. This information can be found in records of monuments. Within 25 years of its existence the Monuments' Documentation Centre has produced and developed model systems for monuments’ registering. Record cards of individual kinds of monuments are interlinked; they are of the same size and have the same columns. Moreover, they are adapted for the use in a computerized information system. . In its recording activities the Monument’ Documentation Centre follows the principle according to which recording of monuments must be regularly verified and updated. This, i.a., flows from the fact that criteria of the evaluation of monuments’ values get changed. Taking the above principle into consideration it may be said that the completeness of recording of different kinds of monuments varies. One of most comprehensive, although regularly updated, is the register of historic towns kept by Town Developing Department. It has been based on a preliminary recording of 1,264 localities carried out still in 1962-1963. The material from that period includes basic historic and demographic information as well as statistical registers of historic objects, characteristics of spatial a rrangements and illustrative material. These data were verified and updated in the seventies and eighties. The verification is continued. Town Developing Department collects also aerial photographs (black and white and colour ones) of towns, buildings and architectural complexes. This collection has become very useful in the work done by the team of experts of the Interbranch Commission for the Rehabilitation of Towns and Old- -Town Complexes. Another register carried out by the Monuments' Documentation Centre comprises structures and complexes of architecture and building. In a way it is made up of two parts: the so-called green cards produced during the recording done at the end of the fifties and the so-called white cards. Green cards cover ca 46,000 buildings. White ones, introduced in 1975, are more comprehensive when compared to green ones with regard to the descriptive information and photographic material. White cards (drawn by 1987) cover ca 30,000 objects. Along with the introduction of white cards work was initiated on a new register of monuments of architecture and building on index cards. This register provided abbreviated data on objects but it covered quite a big number of structures. Until 1987 nearly 260,000 index cards were prepared. The data written on them provided the basis for publications containing registers of monuments of architecture and building in individual voivodships. It also enables a statistical analysis of historic resources. In the last decade the Monuments’ Documentation Centre got engaged in the recording of archaeological properties. The programme for a complete register of archaeological sites available during surface studies (The Archaeological Picture of Poland) covers record cards, instructions, division into research sites, trainings, mode of financing and supervision of the studies made. It was developed in the Monuments’ Documentation Centre, which is its coordinator. By 1987 nearly half of Poland was examined and ca 136,000 archaeological sites were recorded. The register of movable property is a separate item. Department for Movable Monuments prepares ca 10,000 cards a year. It runs a central index of works of art and artistic crafts. Special attention is paid to those historic objects which are the subject of interest to a small number of specialists only and because of that the possibility to documentate them is rather small. This applies to goldsmithery, music instruments, textiles, vehicles et.c. The recording of movable property is combined with the making of dictionaries of specialized terminology, which are both a tool in recording work and an indispensable instrument for future computerization. An important place in recording activities of the Monuments' Documentation Centre is occupied by the compiling of information on museums. Museology Department compiles and updates an index of all museums in Poland. It also draws documentation on museum exhibits, microfilming of inventory books and scientific cards. The publishing of attainments of the Centre is the task of Publishing Department. It publishes 3 periodicals („Spotkania z Zabytkami” ,, „Ochrona Zabytkow", „Muzealnictwo” ), 3 series of „Biblioteka Muzealnictwa” and „Ochrona Zabytkow" as well as other publications (e.g. district registers of monuments). In implementing its tasks the Monuments' Documentation Centre cooperates with a number of organizations and scientific institutions such as the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Nicolas Copernicus University in Toruń, the Institute of Architecture and Engineering of the Technological University in Wrocław and others. This cooperation is very important for the work of the Centre. Summing up this brief outline of recording activities of the Centre it may be said that over 25 years of its existence it has been compiling records on historic structures, providing thus conservation service as well as people and institutions interested in the protection of monuments with information on the state and resources of cultural property in Poland.
In 1994 the President of the Republic of Poland signed fifteen by–laws recognising fifteen complexes and fragments of towns as historical monuments. In this manner, he realised a delegacy to issue an executive act acknowledging the existence of historical monuments, mentioned in 1990 in an amendment of the law of 15 February 1962 on the protection of cultural property and museums. Unfortunately, until this day an executive decree, which remains the obligation of the Minister of Culture and Art and defines the organisation of the protection of thus distinguished historical complexes, has not been made public. The author of the presented study discusses the intentions of the legislator: — to set up a list enumerating objects to be introduced into the World List of Cultural and Natural Heritage; — to create conditions for the protection of areas containing not only the objects mentioned in the register of monuments, but also contemporary buildings; — to ensure conditions for benefiting from special funds set up by the President or financial assistance offered by international projects; — to establish a precedent organisation dealing with protection in the form of special boards or institutions to be entrusted with this type of protection, modelled on measures applied in the protection of Nature. In the opinion of the author, the devise about historical monuments provides an opportunity for introducing an additional instrument, neglected up to now.
Several years ago the National Committee of the ICOMOS presented a list of over ten complexes of historical monuments which could compete for a place on the list of world cultural and natural heritage. Ostrow Lednicki was one of them. An analysis of criteria which meet the conditions for justifying such a proposal indicates that it would be difficult to demonstrate the uniqueness of Ostrow on a global scale. The castle and the ruins of tenth-twelfth-century buildings do not constitute an unprecedented example. Ostrow Lednicki is, however, undoubtedly of exceptional value both on a national and European scale. Its merits include an unchanged landscape which combines cultural and natural values, a unique historical site connected by means of relics and their symbols with the beginning of the state and Christianity in Poland, as well as the discovery of the original function of a chapel which according to archeological and architectonic investigations conducted during the recent years, was, in its oldest stage, a baptistry associated with the baptism of dignitaries and knights closest to Mieszko I. In addition, we have the greatly probably hypothesis that the foundations of a small church discovered by J.Łomnicki next to the palatium are part of the first Polish church erected for bishop Jordan, a missionary who arrived together with Dobrawa to consolidate the Christian faith of our forebears. Had we had 27 years ago at our disposal our present-day knowledge then the ceremonies commemorating a thousand years of Polish statehood would have been celebrated in Lednica (near Gniezno). In seven years, however, this locality could still play a special role: in 2000 we whall recall the anniversary of the extraordinary events which took place in the year 1000 when Emperor Otto III made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St.Wojciech. The accompanying council established the metropolitan organization of the Polish Church and an independent archbishopric in Gniezno; since only a king was entitled to perform the investiture of a bishop, Bolesław, the duke of Poland, was crowned by the Emperor. The meeting inaugurated an independent church and sovereign secular power. This was the de iure birth of the Polish state. The alliance between Otto III and Bolesław also reflected the universalist policy pursued by the Emperor who envisaged a united Europe based on the principle of partnership. His successors already referred to a different political conception and a whole millenium had to pass before Otto's plans could be realized. In seven years, the union of the Polish Republic and Europe will, hopefully, materialize and we can expect that this special anniversary of an unusual episode in the history of Europe will be duly honoured. It is quite possible that an analogous meeting of the leaders of Poland and Germany, and probably other European partners, will take place. Gniezno and Ostrow Lednicki, the site of unique relics from the past, which witnessed historical moments, should be suitably prepared. Care should be taken to properly exploit the symbolism of the locality and to inform society about the rank of Ostrow and the findings made there. It is necessary to publish the results of investigation not only in Polish; popular publications and a suitable display of the entire complex are just as urgent. These undertakings, however, must be preceded by conservation work which will prevent the growing process of deterioration that, unfortunately, affects the oldest elements of the complex — the baptistry and the palatium. Their state depends not only on intervention but to an equal degree on the creation of such a system of protection which will prevent the impact of climatic factors. The method of conserving architectural monuments proposed by S.Skibiński takes into account complex operations and includes the conception of safeguarding the whole monument, as well as an interesting and novel suggestion of a display based on holography, which does not disturb the substance and does not interfere by means of artificial devices.
Twenty-five years have already passed this year since the opening of the Historical Monuments Documentation Centre (the H.M.D.C.), which was separated in 1962 from the Central Board for Museums and Monuments Protection, attached to the Ministry of Culture and Arts. The author of a work programme and the first director of the Centre was the late Professor Kazimierz Malinowski. The basic task of the Centre is to complete and render accessible monuments' documentation, to systematize and classify it as well as to cooperate with various organizations and co-workers in this field. These tasks о fthe Centre have been pursued for a quarter of the century, though a scope of its activities has already gone beyond the aims assumed. First of all, the number of record cards of different kinds of monuments have been increasing all the time; then, a new type of a record card has been prepared to cover monuments of architecture and building with an expanded substantial description and illustrational part. The recording has also comprised monuments of rural buildings, structures erected after the second half of the 19th century, monuments of engineering, cemeteries. The Centre has included into its activities the inventorying of archaeological sites within a framework of the programme referred to as the Archaeological Picture of Poland. Department of Monuments of Architecture and Building has now more than 30,000 cards, while Movable Cultural Property Department — 200,000 cards. In 1985 the latter collection of cards of movable cultural property was recorded on computer discs. At present, computerization is to cover other collections as well. The H.M.D.C. records also historic towns and it carries out town-planning studies and has rich iconographie documentation. From 1976 the Centre has been coordinating — together with the Polish Academy of Sciences — research work within an interbranch programme known as „Monuments of culture — the source of national consciousness” . Card indexes of goldsmith’s work and music instruments are set and research work is done on the history of engineering. Architectonic and archeological studies are carried out on fine examples of Romanesque architecture (e.g. in Strzelno). Apart from the books Publishing Department of the H.M.C.D. publishes three magazines („Ochrona Zabytkow” , „Spotkania z Zabytkami" and „Muzealnictwo” ). Archives Department collects priceless collections left behind by deceased conservators and research workers and carries out, i.a., the inventorying of architectonic drawings. Museology Department covers bibliography of the content of museum publications. Photo library of the Centre has nearly 30,000 photographic negatives of architectural monuments and the Library has almost 20,000 books and 630 titles of magazines. Because of such an intensive development the Centre suffers from the shortage of space, the more so that plans for future envisage a further expansion, just to mention the opening of a computer section for all collections. The Centre plays an essential role in the organization of the work of conservation services and cooperates on a regular base with district offices for monuments documentation. The most important feature of the Centre is an excellent atmosphere with regard to human relations, the understanding of the aim of work and its priority statute in face of difficulties caused by rather hard conditions.
Archaeological reserves are recognized as one of the best forms of the protection o f uncovered archaeological objects and their presentation to the society. They boast a big popularity and they make it possible for those interested to get into contact with an authentic historic monument set in natural surroundings in which it has been discovered. This authenticity affects imagination and allows fcr an easier assimilation of history inherent in the works already uncovered and shown in museums. The first Polish reserve was opened in Biskupin in 1938 and it covered relics of a defensive settlement illustrating Lusatian culture from before 2,500 years. In the post- war period a number o f reserves representing different epochs were opened. There are many methods to organize a reserve and the way differs depending on the kind o f the reserve (i.e. whether this is a cemetery, a prehistoric industrial unit, an old settlement or a grave monud). The archaeological conservation service in Poland often marks such objects with tables or stones, which is a good form o f their protection and constitutes a link in the reserve organization. Unfortu lately, until today there is no complete list o f archaeological reserves in Poland. This, inter alia, is due to difficulties involved in the specification of the term and stating what is and what is not the reserve. A definition of the reserve was given in 1961 by K. Piwocki but it has been misused in literature on the subject. In this situation the author undertaken the task to put forward a definition that would allow to point out in an explicit way the objects that can be considered as reserves. Apart from well-known criterions such as the fact that the object must be uncovered by archaeological methods and be in situ, of importance is also its adaptation for public. Different methods may be used here but neither archaeological character of the object nor its arrangement decide whether or not this is a reserve. A decisive role is played by the result in the form of a post which is easily accesible and where one can get full information on the subject. In this context a reserve may be both a group of grave mounds to which leads a well-marked road and about which one can acquire full information on the spot (written on a special plate or given by a guide). It may also be remainings o f the excavated building placed in a pavilion or a museum (like on the Wawel Castle) and open for visitors, with full information furnished. With such an assumption in mind, the author presents a list of 31 reserves, open and operating in Poland in 1980. The list does not contain a number of places which might become a reserve (such as an old settlement at Kalisz — Zawodzie, at Stare Bródno in Warsaw or a Romanesque building at Przemyśl, grave mounds in Suwalska Szwajcaria) but which have not been brought into life and thus do not meet the conditions set in the definition.
Nos 3-4/85 and 1/86 of „Ochrona Zabytkow” contained a number of articles devoted to problems of the organization of conservation service in Poland and proposals to amend the law „O n the Protection of Cultural Property and on M u se um s " of February 15, 1962. The author of this article has made an attempt to specify what is most important in the 1962 Law and what requires amending. According to him, it is necessary to harmonize the views on the wording of 3 articles, namely 4, 8, 20, which define the subject of the protection, position of the bodies of conservation authorities and a scope of the protection. Just like T. Zielniewicz, the author thinks that the main organ should be the General Conservator of Monuments and that this will be possible only If he performs the function of the V ice - M i nister of Culture and Art. At a voivodship level this o r ga n ils and still should be a voivodship monuments’ conservator, while at other administrative levels functions of con servators may be performed by the persons specially a uthorized by a voivodship monuments’ conservator. The author shares the view that the subject of the p ro tection should include also historic landscape and no n-ma terial values such a s names of towns and streets. Nevertheless, in his view, in order that this extension of the protection of cultural property was not merely a declaration, the Law should include amendments that would set out guidelines for the legal action in this respect and thus introduce into the monuments’ register entries on landscape and names. This results from the wording of articles 20 and 4. The later article is the subject of long-standing d iscu s sion, just as it defines which cultural property is covered by legal protection. According to the author, the present wording of the article is ambiguous and he suggests its new reading. At the same time the author proposes that historic structures which are not included.
Professor Wojciech Kalinowski, a celebrated expert on the history o f Polish towns, lecturer, eminent scholar and conservator o f historical monuments, died two years after retirement. He was wounded in September 1939, an inmate o f the concentration camps o f Sachsenhausen and Dachau, a soldier o f the Warsaw Uprising o f 1944 and prisoner o f war. Professor Kalinowski was a graduate o f the Department o f Architecture at Warsaw University. From 1946 he worked as an assistant to Professor Jan Zachwatowicz and in the years 1951-1969 was the scientific secretary and vice-director o f the Institute o f Town Planning and Architecture. From 1969 professor Kalinowski lectured in the Institute o f Historical Monuments and Conservation at the Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń, a post he held until death. In the 1970-1975 period he worked in the Institute o f History o f M aterial Culture at the Polish Academy o f Science and from 1975- to 1989 held the post o f director o f the Centre for the Documentation o f Monuments in Warsaw. His Ph.D. dissertation entitled „Industrial Architecture o f Textile Manufactures in the Kingdom o f Poland, 1815-1830" was presented in 1961 at Warsaw Polytechnic and the title o f doctor hab. was granted upon the basis o f „C ity Development in Poland up to mid-19th Century"published in the United States. In 1973 Wojciech Kalinowski was nominated professor. His scientific achievements include over 200 publications. The main topic o f his studies was the history o f towns in Poland, and in particular, town planning; he also dealt with architecture and especially wooden and industrial buildings, including sacral constructions. Numerous works were devoted to terminology, principles for the documentation o f monuments and the revalorization o f old towns. His historical-town planning study concerning Radom became a model work copied by his successors. Professor Kalinowski published many sources (including cartography) for nineteenth-century towns. In 1968 in a group work edited by E. Camasasco he presented the part pertaining to the history o f Polish towns; and entitled „Storia della casa". Professor Kalinowski was the author o f 30 historical studies concerning towns and the editor and co-author o f the first volume o f „The Monuments o f Town Planning and Architecture in Poland. Reconstruction and Conservation", entitled „H is to rical Towns" (Warsaw 1986). He also published valuable academic textbooks at the University o f Toruń dealing with the history o f towns and the principles o f their protection. Professor Kalinowski was an extraordinarily active lecturer; he spoke at Warsaw University (the Institute o f Art), The Technical University in Dresden, and acted as a guest lecturer in England, France, the United States and East Germany. He was a member o f ICOMOS from 1973, and took part in numerous conferences held in Ingelheim, Milan, Graz and Budapest where he presented his accomplishments and took an activité part in international cooperation for the protection o f the cultural heritage. He also gave a new impetus to the Centre for the Documentation o f Monuments in Warsaw. It was upon his initiative that a fu ll register o f architectonic monuments in Poland, some 600000, was inaugurated together with the inventory o f archeological sides and the publication o f „Spotkania z Zabytkami". Professor Kalinowski transformed the Centre from an archive devoted to documents into a centre for the organization o f scientific investigations concerned with the protection o f monuments. Thanks to his universal interests. Professor Kalinowski remained a precursor o f the protection o f the cultural heritage. He was an extremely well liked head o f an institution and an independent expert during the most difficult period o f censorship in Poland. He was a member o f the Society o f Polish Architects, the Society o f Polish Town Planners and an honorary member o f the Association o f the Conservators o f Monuments. Professor Kalinowski was awarded the Cavalier Cross o f the Polonia Restitute medal, and the Cross o f the Warsaw Uprising and in 1987 he received an award o f the first degree from the Minister o f Culture and A rt for his achievements in the domain o f the protection o f historical monuments and didactics.
Offices for the examination and documentation of historic monuments brought to life over 20 years ago are the institutions included into conservation service in Poland. There is still much doubt about their status, scope of activities and work, their rights and relations between them and administration. It is also not clear what way they should be developing as their legal status has not as yet been settled. Because of that, various professional circles have developed their own traditions and specificities, which resulted in marked differences in their size, manning, mode of functioning and legal status. The author of the article discusses reasons for the existing situation on the example of individual offices and taking for granted that an initial organizational stage has been completed he suggests that it should be necessary to harmonize the objectives of their existence with structural forms assumed by them. The implemented organizational system should be flexible and allow for their specific situations in individual voivodships. Still, it should not permit of diverging from the basic assumptions that have been proved correct as an effective instrument of the execution of conservation policy.
The communique summarizes in brief a comprehensive study on activities of archaeological conservation servicing in Poland in the years 1977—1978. Based on a questionnaire, it describes the organisation and work conditions of the service, staff, state of archaeological posts’records, scope of rescue activities and problems o f cooperation with other institutions, and finally a short general assessment and postulates. In 48 out of 49 voivodships there operated in 1978 archaeological services organized within the framework of conservation offices or museums. Altogether 46 archaeologists were employed. The records listed 45 thousand posts (an index of 11.2 per 100 squaer km). # ' The number of specially protected items came to 5,176. There were 912/18 rescue operations performed per one voivodship. About 300 stationary studies are performed in Poland a year. Of them, over 50 per cent are financed by conservators. In general terms, centres in Wroclaw, Koszalin and Opole can boast of best results of work. Transformations of the recent three years that followed the administration reform have as a rule been assessed favourably. They brought about an intensified protection of archaeological monuments in Poland.
A response to the polemical text by J. Pruszyński. In Pomniki historii, nie wykorzystana szansa (The Monuments o f History, an Unexploited Chance, “Ochrona Zabytkow” 1999, no. 4) M. Konopka recalled the decree issued by the President of the Republic of Poland, establishing regions of special value, known as monuments of history. In his polemic, J. Pruszyński proclaims that the idea of monuments of history is legally unjustified since it reintroduces the harmful element of a classification of historical monuments in a situation when all are of equal rank. In the opinion of the polemist it is much more important for the Minister of Culture and National Heritage to obtain tax reductions for owners of monuments and greater funds for conservation. M. Konopka claims that monuments of history are a form of a choice which, in view of the absence of adequate means, is applied anyhow by the register of monuments and in different treatments o f assorted types of monuments according to their material and manner of execution. The Presidential decree should be implemented by means of an executive ruling issued by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, which has never been presented. The debate thus pertains to the question whether to leave the moribund entry about monuments or to embark upon an attempt at discovering a form of their special treatment, mentioned in the Ministerls ruling.