The Archdiocesan Museum is also one of the two museums in Wrocław which keep exhibits and maintain the continuity of collections in their place of origin (the other is the Museum of Natural History).

History

The new building of the library and the diocesan archive was founded by Cardinal Georg von Kopp in 1896. The history of the cathedral chapter library in Wrocław, initially located over the cathedral sacristy, goes back to the 13th century. In 1520, the library was moved to the chapter house at the present 17 Katedralny Square. The designer of the new building — adjoining the chapter house and then functionally connected to it — was the architect Joseph Ebers, a diocesan construction advisor and a bishop’s architect in Wrocław. On 31 July 1895, Cardinal Georg Kopp appointed a historian — Rev. Joseph Jungnitz — a director of the archive and the library. The diocesan museum, established on 1 August 1898, was opened and dedicated on 29 October 1903. The collections were to be housed in a Gothic hall of the capitular library building (both buildings are communicated at the first floor level). Currently, the chapter house, the chapter office building at 16 Katedralny Square, and the building of the library and the diocesan archive are used by the Capitular Library in Wrocław, the Archdiocesan Archive, and the Archdiocesan Museum.

Description

The building of the Capitular Library, the Archdiocesan Archive, and the Archdiocesan Museum — located in the Ostrów Tumski district, to the north of the cathedral, on the east side of the street, built onto the north side of the chapter house — is a building having a partitioned structure, set on an L-shaped floor plan, and covered with multi-pitched roof. It has two wings (the northern section of the north wing has three storeys, the southern section has two storeys, and the south wing has two storeys). The façades, made of brick, have subtle decorations in the form of cornices. The main entrance to the building in the west facade of the north wing is defined by a brick, step-shaped frame, headed by a segmental arch, and decorated with strips of green glazed moulders. The north wing consists of two sections: in the central part of the wing — there are a hall and main staircase, in the three-bay northern part of the wing — there are cloistered apartments. The two-bay southern section of the north wing has a corridor with a cross vault and a large hall used as a library storeroom, the interior of which is covered with segmental vaulting on steel beams (currently on an even level) supported by columns. Inside, there are original openwork bookcases for library collections, made of steel and wood. The south wing, divided into two suites of rooms, has a staircase in its eastern part. At the first floor level, there is a wing communicated with the rooms of the former chapter house.

The historic monument is accessible. Information on the opening hours of the Archdiocesan Museum, the Archdiocesan Archive, and the Capitular Library is available at the museum website: http://www.muzeum.archidiecezja.wroc.pl.

compiled by Bogna Oszczanowska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wroclaw, 12-08-2014.

Bibliography

• Brzezicki S., Nielsen Ch., Grajewski G., Popp D. (red.), Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Warszawa 2006, s. 969.
• Eysymontt R., Ilkosz J., Tomaszewicz A., Urbanik J., Leksykon architektury Wrocławia, Wrocław 2011, nr kat. 297, s. 408-409.
• Harasimowicz J. (red.), Atlas architektury Wrocławia, t. 1: Budowle sakralne. Świeckie budowle publiczne, Wrocław 1997, nr kat. 222, s. 179.
• Jungnitz J., Das Breslauer Diözesenarchiv, Breslau 1908, s. 13-16.
• Nowack A., Führer durch das Erzbischöflische Diözesanmuseum in Breslau, Breslau 1932.
• Pater J., Muzeum Archidiecezjalne, [w:] Łukaszewicz P. (red.), Muzea sztuki w dawnym Wrocławiu, Wrocław 1998, s. 125-136.
• Urban W., Muzeum Archidiecezjalne we Wrocławiu oraz katalog jego zbiorów, Lublin 1973, s. 133-221.