History

The Diocesan Museum in Płock was founded in 1903, in the last year of the short service of bishop Jerzy Józef Szembek. Antoni Julian Nowowiejski, later to become the Ordinary of Płock and since 1999 the Blessed of the Roman Catholic church, was a continuator of this mission and the main founder of the institution. The establishment of this institution was related to the rearrangement of the cathedral taking place at that time. Its author, Stefan Szyller, was also appointed as a designer of the new museum building that would be linked in terms of composition and style with the silhouette of the neighbouring church.

Canon Tomasz Kowalewski, the first director of the museum, worked at creating and organising of the institution and donated own collections and artefacts from archaeological excavations granted to him by Prof. Franciszek Tarczyński. Objects removed from cult were also found among the first exhibits that were transferred from the cathedral.

As a result of the inventorying carried out in the diocese, a growing number of objects started pouring into the museum from 1926 onwards. The extending collection caused the housing conditions to become insufficient. In the years 1929-1930 the feature was reconstructed under the supervision of its director of then, Rev. Aleksander Dmochowski. In consequence, the exhibition space of the institution was extended. The author of modifications was Franciszek Morawski, an architect active mainly in Greater Poland. He developed a design that provided for the raising the building by one storey and widening it by an additional wing from the north. It was also decided to give up the gable roofs in favour of a flat roof hidden behind an attic, in order to obtain an additional exhibition room on the first floor.

Records concerning the fate of the building during World War II are incoherent. The fact is that after 1945 the collection was damaged to a great extent and the director of the museum, Rev. Lech Grabowski was responsible for the refurbishment of the institution.

Since 2008 the treasury of the Diocesan Museum has been located in a nearby building of the former Benedictine abbey.

Description

The Diocesan Museum is located on the Tumskie Hill, north of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary cathedral basilica. It is a Romanesque Revival, two-storey building, built on an irregular floor plan, with a shape roughly similar to that of an elongated rectangle. External façades are non-plastered, irregular, with a pronounced cornice separating the lower part from the tall attic, partitioned with brick lesenes into vertical stripes. The front façade features an avant-corps housing the main entrance framed by buttresses. The window and door openings have an irregular arrangement, a rectangular shape and terminate in a full arch. On external façades, in specially created niches and in a wall linking the museum with the bishops’ court, an exhibition was placed of Romanesque and Renaissance detailing found during the restoration of the cathedral in the early 20th century.

The museum has collected multiple various works of art. One of the most representative historic objects of the Polish Late Romanesque art is a chalice with a patena funded by Duke Konrad Mazowiecki around 1240.

The popularly known works of art also include a herm reliquary of St Sigismund, funded by king Casimir III the Great from the second half of the 14th century, crowned with an authentic diadem of the Piast dynasty. In Poland Płock was the first centre of cult of St Sigismund – the patron of Płock, the cathedral parish and the chapter.

One of the most valuable handwritten historic objects stored in the Diocesan Museum is the “Bible of Płock” from the second quarter of the 12th century, with the first description of a miracle that took place on the Polish land.

Curiosities include an original pine wardrobe with a glazed door, where Slutsk sashes are displayed. This display case was designed by Rev. Aleksander Dmochowski and manufactured by the carpenter studio of Józef Archita of Płock.

Sunday/Monday: closed; Tuesday - Friday: 10.30 – 14.00, Saturday: 10.00 – 16.00

Author of the note Bartłomiej Modrzewski  30-06-2017

Bibliography

• Glinka T., Kamiński M., Piasecki M., Przygoda K., Walenciak A., Mazowsze północne. Przewodnik, Warsaw 1998.
• Omilanowska M., Architekt Stefan Szyller. 1857-1933, Warsaw 2008.
• Przewodnik. Płock i okolice, Strumińska K., Płuciennik S. (ed.), Płock [year unknown]
• Skrzydlewska B., Muzeum Diecezjalne w Płocku na tle dziejów muzealnictwa kościelnego, “Muzealnictwo” 49 (2008), pp. 89-101.
• Skrzydlewska B., Muzeum Diecezjalne w Płocku. Historia Budowy obiektu, “Roczniki Humanistyczne” 58-59 (2000-2001), issue 4, pp. 233-249. [edition 2002].