Museum of the Biłgoraj Land in Biłgoraj

Practical info

What to expect

Biłgoraj is a small town in the far south-east of Poland, roughly 90 kilometres below Lublin, where the Tanew and Łada rivers mark the edge of the Roztocze uplands and the Solska Forest. Its museum collects, studies and shows the heritage of that district. The institution began in a building on Kościuszki street and since 2014 has occupied a refurbished house at ul. Tadeusza Kościuszki 87, adapted to modern museum standards. The core display is the permanent exhibition Nad Tanwią i Ładą, or By the Tanew and the Łada, which traces the history of Biłgoraj and its surroundings from prehistory to the present day; it was created with funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and support from the Biłgoraj district authority. The holdings span archaeology, ethnography, history, militaria, numismatics and art, from stone tools and pottery to relics of the nineteenth-century national uprisings and the Second World War, folk costume, sacred art, craft equipment and the everyday papers of local families.

This is not a single building but four addresses, each with its own calendar. Zagroda Sitarska, the sieve-maker’s farmstead at ul. Nadstawna 32, is a shingle-roofed timber house built in 1810 by a townsman named Andrzej Grabiński, standing with its granary, cart shed, woodshed and flower garden. It is a rare Polish survival of a complete craftsman’s homestead preserved in situ and has been open to visitors since 1976. Sieve-making from horsehair and bast was the trade that made Biłgoraj prosperous and known abroad from the seventeenth century onward. The Mill Complex at ul. Czerwonego Krzyża 37 is a nineteenth-century watermill with a turbine house, granary, cart shed and two weirs on the Biała Łada. The fourth branch, the Museum of Polish Partisans Osuchy 44, commemorates the largest partisan battle fought in the Solska Forest.

The programme is busier than the size of the town suggests: temporary shows and their openings, among them Edward Buczek’s Kiedy las mówi o wojnie and Theatrum Sacrum, a display of sacred art from the collections of the Catholic University of Lublin, annual commemorations of Bloody Sunday and the battle of Osuchy, a review of the district’s folk ritual ensembles, and museum lessons and workshops for schools.

Tips

The main building opens Monday to Thursday from 9:00 to 16:00 and on Friday until 17:00. The weekend rule runs against expectation: Saturday and Sunday opening, from 12:00 to 17:00, applies only between November and April, and from May to October the main building is closed at weekends. In summer the outdoor branches take over, since Zagroda Sitarska and the Mill Complex are open only from May to October.

A full ticket to the main building and to Zagroda Sitarska costs 10 PLN and a concession 8 PLN; the Mill Complex charges 4 PLN and 3 PLN. Admission to every site is free on Tuesdays, and the Polish Large Family Card, in all its versions, gives a fifty per cent discount. Groups are asked to contact the museum office by telephone or e-mail in advance.

Getting there

The museum stands at ul. Tadeusza Kościuszki 87, on one of the main streets of Biłgoraj, about 90 kilometres south of Lublin and some 45 kilometres west of Zamość. The town sits at the gateway to the Solska Forest and the Roztocze hills, where roads from Lublin, Zamość and Rzeszów meet. The other town branches are a short walk or drive away; only Osuchy, a dozen or so kilometres to the south, needs a separate trip.

Nearby museums

Biłgoraj fits naturally into a Roztocze itinerary. The Guciów farmstead museum near Zwierzyniec picks up the same thread of rural craft and natural history, the Zamość museum presents the Renaissance ideal city on the eastern side of the region, and the regional museum in Janów Lubelski tells the story of the Janów forests and their wartime partisans.