Z dziejów konserwacji zabytków na terenie Wieliczki

• Authors: Gaczoł Andrzej

Title variants

EN

FROM THE HISTORY OF MONUMENT CONSERVATION IN WIELICZKA

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

The 700th anniversary of granting civic rights to Wieliczka inspired a closer look at the history of protection and conservation of Wieliczka historical monuments. Conservation traditions in Wieliczka go back to the late 19th century, when St Sebastian's church, built in the 16th c. of larch wood, was renovated. The church was the only object, apart from the famous Salt Mine, which for centuries had been associated by the inhabitants of Wieliczka with the wealth and power of Poland from the times before partitions. The conservation was initiated and nearly completely financed by the citizens, organized in the Committee for the Protection of St Sebastian's Church. Extensive renovation works were supervised by Sławomir Odrzywolski, an architect and conservation specialist. One of the participants was Włodzimierz Tetmajer, a painter and writer, a wall-know representative of the artistic trend called „The Young Poland" (Art Nouveau). Between the world wars the management of the Salt Mine and the Cracow Voivodship Monument Conservation Office undertook a renovation and re-gothicization of the fourteenth-century defensive tower preserved near the Salt Mine Castle complex. The works were planned by an outstanding architect and conservation specialist, Zygmunt Hendel, and supervised by architect Henryk Jasieński. In the years 1 9 4 5 -1 9 8 0 the most important problem in Wieliczka in this field was to save the remains of the central wing of the mediaeval Salt Mine Castle, which for centuries had been the seat of the Mine managers. The so-called ,,House-in-the-Mine" was ruined by explosions of Soviet air bombs in January 1945. The initial plan was to leave the Castle's fragments as a socalled „permanent ruin", but in 1958 the voivodship monument conserver, Dr Hanna Pieńkowska, decided that it should be rebuilt. In 1966 Professor Alfons Długosz, a painter and photographer, the initiator of the Cracow Salt Mines Museum, proposed to adapt the Castle for a museum. Eighteen years after Dr Pieńkowska's decision (after overcoming numerous difficulties which are elaborated on in the article) Cracow conservation Workshop started the work. The reconstruction of the House- -in-the-Mine took 8 years. In 1985 three permanent exposition were opened in the Castle interiors: an archaeological one, a historical one and an exhibition of saltcellars from the Cracow Salt Mine Museum collection. After World War II several projects of a complete revival of the historical centre of Wieliczka were prepared. The arrangement of the „town at the Great Salt" goes back to the 13th c. The original oval arrangement around a market place was replaced in the times of king Casimir the Great (mid 14th c.) by the chessboard plan, which has survived until the present moment. In 1968 Wieliczka was included into the list of 17 most valuable urban complexes in Poland, which the then authorities wanted to reconstruct and bring back to the state of splendour. This action did not cause the expected results. After 1974, due to organizational chaos following the new administrative division of the country, new housing quarters in Wieliczka were built in the way that degraded the historical spatial arrangement. In the centre large and intrusive buildings such as a supermarket, a post office and a restaurant with a big parking place were situated. At the end of 70s a plan of the development of the Cracow urban complex was worked out and accepted. It assumed that Wieliczka would be incorporated into nearby Cracow. In the years 1980-1983 a very detailed study devoted to the history and conservation problems of Wieliczka, commissioned by the Voivodship Monument Conserver, was prepared. Its authors, Z. Beiersdorf and B. Krasnowolski, formulated some generals rules useful in creating new town plans and in the conservation of individual historical objects in Wieliczka. It is worth stressing that there are nearly 300 of such objects in the town. In the years 1 984-1986 architect A. Dobrowolski from the Office of the Development of Cracow, also commissioned by the Voivodship Monument Conserved, prepared a plan of conservation and adaptation of the Old Town in Wieliczka. The plan was based on historical studies and preserved most of the town's culturalł values. It also specified the criteria of its realization in the changing conditions of Polish social life and economy. The author of the article points out that the complicated process of full conservation of a historical urban complex requires long and costly work. It should be preceded by reconstructing the significance of the town as a synonym of a community with history-based structure. In the case of Wieliczka it means reconstructing the consciousness of a community living in a town with 700 years of history, a town which, thanks to the magnificent Salt Mine - included into UNESCO's first List of World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1978 - attracts numerous visitors from Poland and from abroad.

Keywords

PL

Wieliczka; wielickie zabytki; Dom pośród Żupy; rewaloryzacja; układ urbanistyczny; Zamek Żupny; konserwacja zabytków Wieliczki

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1992
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 341-353

Dates

published

1992

Contributors

author

Gaczoł Andrzej

• Wojewódzki Konserwator Zabytków w Krakowie

References

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Identifiers

ISSN

0029-8247