Open-air museums

A special attractions along the tourist routes all over Poland are the outdoor museums of folk architecture. They are collections of original buildings: farmer's cottages, outhouses and stables, windmills and forges, churches and chapels. In some of them whole villages have been reconstructed, including the interiors of the cottages and workshops, re-created down to the tiniest detail.The main virtue of open-air museums is that they're living exhibitions. Life pulses through them all year round. In summer, many of them organise folklore fairs and shows. You can try traditional dishes inside the 17th- and 18th-century inns. You can also see folk artists and craftsmen at work painting pictures on glass, making embroidery, lacework, or splendid pottery, or carving wooden statues of the saints.

The Sierpc Open-Air Museum Photo: www.poland.gov.pl

Open-air museums worth visiting
Wdzydze Kiszewskie - the oldest open-air exhibition in Poland where you can discover the Kashubian folk culture. There are 30 17th -19th-c. wooden folk buildings, fully reconstructed, including cottages with porches, a Dutch windmill, and an absolutely unique chapel dated 1700.
The Greater Polish ethnographic park near Gniezno in the Lednica Natural Landscape Park. This is a reconstruction of a Greater Polish village and a dwór country gentleman's cottage - a set of 50 17th- to 19th-century buildings.
Sierpc and Nowogród - two open-air museums  in Mazovia displaying the colourful folklore of Lowicz and Kurpie. Kurpian houses with decorated roofs and canopies, characteristic storehouses with porches and buildings related to the traditional occupations of the Kurpie - beekeeping and fishing, and a display of fancifully coloured local costumes.
Zubrzyca Górna in the Orawa ethnographic park - beautiful old cottages and farm buildings from the Orawa and Podhale regions.
Sanok - museum of folk architecture - the largest open-air museum in Poland, with the finest examples of Carpathian wooden architecture, including different styles of cottages, huts, and Eastern-rite churches. It is divided into sectors devoted to different ethnographic groups.

The best-known open-air exhibition is the Biskupin archaeological reserve.   The remains of an ancient defensive stronghold built by the Lusatian Culture were discovered the 1930s on a peninsula on Lake Biskupińskie. Surrounded by swamps, it's estimated to have been constructed between 750-400BC, the oldest defensive settlement discovered in Europe. In its time, it was an important place and had a population of around 1200. They engaged in agriculture, animal rearing, and trade - it's not far from the famous Amber Road connecting the Baltic with the Mediterranean. The settlement was probably destroyed during an invasion by Scythians, a nomadic people from Iran. The surrounding swamps kept the wooden structures from disintegrating. Thanks to this, the foundations have remained exactly as they were about 2,400 years ago. The remainder of the settlement was reconstructed thanks to diligent archaeological work. The archaeologists tried to recreate the original architecture and atmosphere as faithfully as possible. The exhibits occupy the entire peninsula. Inside the palisade runs a street surfaced with oak and pine tree trunks, and large wooden cottages with thatched roofs stand in parallel rows. You can go inside and look around the living quarters.

The Biskupin archaeological reserve
Photo: www.poland.gov.pl

Every September, thousands of tourists flock to Biskupin. That's when the archaeological fair takes place, the biggest event of its kind in Poland. You can learn to make clay pots, shoot a bow or crossbow, light a fire, weave a basket, or paddle a dugout. It's also a chance to discover the mysteries of archaeology. Archaeologists will show you how to reconstruct a pot from a few shards and work out its age from a piece of organic material.

In many parts of Poland, you'll see mysterious structures whose origin is still a subject of controversy for the archaeologists. The best known are the stone circles in Pomerania: at Węsiory, Odry, Le�no, Łupawa, and Siemirowice. They have diameters ranging from 13-33 m, and nearby there are kurgan tumuli - tombs covered by a layer of stones. Some archaeologists claim that the circles are from the first century AD, while others suggest they appeared earlier - between 4000 and 1800BC. It's not known who built them: Scandinavian tribes or other peoples much earlier?

Source: www.poland.gov.pl