The activity pursued by the Silesian Cultural Heritage Centre could be perceived as an example worthy of emulation by other regions. Numerous books issued by the Centre combine assorted features which render them interesting both for professionals and laymen. The discussed topics, the presentation of the material, and the graphic layout are the prime reasons why the readers are offered valuable publications documenting and promoting cultural heritage of the region of Silesia. Consequently, the books are addressed not only to readers professionally associated with research into testimony of the past, but also to rank and file inhabitants of the region. We may even hazard the opinion that it is precisely the latter who comprise the basic public. The inclusion of introductions and summaries translated into Czech and German expands the potential readership. The article discusses four books recently issued by the Centre: “Żywieckie projekty Karola Pietschki – architekta arcyksięcia Albrechta Fryderyka Habsburga” (Designs by Karol Pietschka – the Architect of Archduke Albert Frederic Habsburg – in Żywiec), an album prepared by Bożena Husar and Dorota Firlej; “Zabytkowa architektura municypalna i przemysłowa Raciborza” (Historical Municipal and Industrial Architecture in Raciborz) by Alicja Gałecka-Paduchowa, a third book by this author about the region of Raciborz; “Nie zachowane kościoły drewniane Górnego Śląska” (Nonexistent Wooden Churches in Upper Silesia) by Piotr Siemko; “Grodziska Górnego Śląska i Zagłębia Dąbrowskiego z lotu ptaka” (The Strongholds of Upper Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin – Aerial Views) by Wojciech Gorgolewski and Eugeniusz Tomczak.
This is the first publication which systematically discusses the material heritage associated with Dutch settlements in terrains which historically belonged to Mazovia. A presentation of 191 Mazovian villages, arranged in alphabetical order and located upon the basis of Dutch law. The descriptions, enhanced with fragments of historical maps, contain information about the residential and farm buildings, and take into account their localisation, current preservation, types of construction, the layout of the interiors and a characteristic of the brick. The catalogue contains data pertaining to churches and cemeteries. The Dutch settlement movement developed from the seventeenth century to the 1940s, and was connected with the overflow land along various rivers, including the Vistula, the Bug and the Wkra. The specific type of farming was adapted to the natural conditions, which, in turn, determined given construction solutions and affected the shaping of the local landscape. The Dutch settlements in Mazovia comprise an exceptional phenomenon, whose merits are enhanced by the fact that they were one of the few to have survived in Poland on such a scale despite the severance of the cultural continuum after the second world war. The catalogue is supplemented by a copious bibliography and maps presenting the range of the phenomenon within the former boundaries of Mazovia.
The album entitled Polska w starej fotografii (Poland in Old Photographs) is a third book in a series portraying various aspects of the past, issued in 2005 by the BOSZ publishing house. Meticulously edited, the album contains photographs from the second half of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of the second world war, found in Polish state archives. The author of the conception of the album is Iza Wojciechowska, who also selected the photographs, with Violetta Urbaniak as the consultant and Władysław Pluta as the author of the graphic layout. The texts were written by Prof. Dr. hab. Janusz Tazbir, Doc. Dr. hab. Daria Nałęcz, director of the State Archives, and Tomasz Jurasz, man of letters and historian. The whole undertaking was supervised by editor Joanna Kułakowska-Lis. The contents of the chapters, entitled: Landscape, People, Countryside, Town, Residences, Faith, Events, Economy and Culture, Education, Sport, are composed of more than 350 photographs with descriptions. The photographs, whose majority had never been published, document material and non-material culture, i. e. places and events which have become part of the past: architecture, landscapes, industrial areas, customs and people. The album features artistic, amateur and reporters’ works, rendering the reader aware of the role played by photography in recording history, and of the immense riches concealed in archival resources. The book is available also in English and German.
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