St John Sarkander Museum in Skoczów

In the cellar of the house at Rynek 2, right next to Skoczów town hall, John Sarkander was born according to 17th-century accounts. He was a priest tortured to death in Olomouc in 1620 and canonised by John Paul II in 1995. Today the cellar is a chapel, and the ground floor houses a parish museum with mementoes of the saint's cult and religious art from Cieszyn Silesia. During the German occupation, the same chapel was used to store potatoes.

Who was John Sarkander

He was born on 20 December 1576 in Skoczów, the fourth son of the burgher Grzegorz Maciej Sarkander and Helena née Górecka. After his father's death he moved with his mother to Moravia, studied in Olomouc, Prague and Graz, and was ordained in Brno in 1609. He served as parish priest in several Moravian parishes, last of all in Holešov. In 1620, during the Bohemian Revolt, he was arrested and tortured; he refused to break the seal of confession and died in prison in Olomouc on 17 March 1620. He was beatified in 1860, and on 21 May 1995 John Paul II canonised him in Olomouc. The next day the Pope celebrated Mass on Kaplicówka hill in Skoczów.

House, chapel and museum

In his "Chronicle of Żywiec" of 1704, the chronicler Andrzej Komoniecki wrote that Sarkander's family home stood on the market square "right by the town hall". In 1890 Skoczów's Catholics bought the house from Adolf Zaczek, and since then it has belonged to the parish of Saints Peter and Paul. That same year Franciszek Duś set up a chapel in the cellar, and the house, known as the Sarkandrówka, became a centre for Catholic organisations with a reading room and library. From 1932 there were plans for a museum here, the so-called Sarcandrineum.

The occupiers destroyed the Polish library and turned the chapel into a potato store. After the war worship here lapsed, and only in 1959 did the cellar return to its former use. Renovation began in autumn 1993; on 29 June 1994 Bishop Tadeusz Rakoczy blessed the restored chapel and consecrated a new stone altar, and in November 1994 the museum rooms opened.

What to see

• The Chapel of the Nativity in the vaulted stone cellar, where Mass is celebrated on Wednesdays at 18:30.
• Mementoes of the life and cult of Sarkander in Silesia and Moravia.
• Religious art, mainly from Skoczów parish church and St Bartholomew's in Grodziec Śląski: old prints, paintings and sculptures, including a 17th-century confessional, a tabernacle and Jan Wałach's relief "St Teresa above Skoczów" from 1936.
• A temporary exhibition room showing painting, prints, photography or textiles.

Interesting facts

When the rebuilding of the town hall was completed in 1797–1801, the town authorities placed an image of Sarkander, painted in oils on sheet metal, on its front wall. The painting survived the Second World War and the Stalinist years, has been restored many times, and is now displayed in the town hall tower. According to the museum's chronology, Sarkander was born while troops were marching through the town.

Tripto tip

The museum is open Tue–Fri 9:30–16:00 and Sat 9:30–12:00; both individuals and groups are asked to get in touch beforehand (tel. +48 663 782 608, muzeumsarkandra@ox.pl). The museum does not publish admission prices. Allow 30–45 minutes, and note there is a virtual tour on the museum's website. Afterwards, follow the signposted Sarkander Trail, climb Kaplicówka hill and take a look at the town hall next door, built in 1797–1801.