EN
The article is an attempt to show collecting achievements of Rev. Jan Wiśniewski (1876–1943), who after building an unusual, astonishingly vast and versatile collection of art and national memorabilia, donated it to the Diocesan Museum in Sandomierz. His collecting was rooted in the 19th century, in the spirit of growing patriotic awareness and interests in the history of one’s own country, resulted from the lack of independence. Apart from collecting, Rev. Wiśniewski conducted comprehensive research. As an amateur historian, he edited and published at his own cost 15 volumes of the Monografia dekanatów and Historyczne opisy kościołów. He started his collection in Radom, then continued accumulating items in Borkowice where he became a parish priest. It was there, in the parsonage, that he arranged the Museum of National Memorabilia. His exhibits were often displayed as loans outside his museum. As confirmed in written sources, Rev. Jan Wiśniewski had many contacts among collectors, antiquarians, art dealers and bibliophiles, some of them of great renown. His collection became a cornerstone of the Diocesan Museum in Sandomierz, which seems to be his intention from the start, as much as saving from demolition the historic elements of churches’ interiors. He was building his collection in order to make it public and pass on to the following generations.