Museums

Agate Museum in Rudno

The private Agate Museum in Rudno opened in July 2020 on the Spalisko hill, about 400 m above sea level, right next to the ruins of Tenczyn castle. The location was dictated by geology: the hill is built of Permian volcanic rocks about 300 million years old, and the solidified lava — a paleobasalt known as melaphyre — makes Rudno one of the most important agate sites in this part of Europe.

Treasures from the fields and the quarry

The museum's owner, collector Witold Koprucha, has been gathering specimens for more than four decades, and only in the immediate surroundings: no further than 700 metres from the building, on nearby farm fields and in the rubble of a disused melaphyre quarry. In the field agates look like unremarkable stones; only cutting reveals their colourful interiors. The museum halls display cut and polished agates, amethysts and quartz, as well as pieces of petrified wood.

A Jurassic sea and the Ice Age

The second part of the exhibition travels back in time: fossils from a Jurassic sea of about 160 million years ago, including ammonites, and bones of Pleistocene animals, among them a bear. These are the "treasures of this land", as the museum's creators call them — all collected in the nearest vicinity.

Workshops and practical details

The museum runs workshops called "Treasures of This Land at Your Fingertips", usually lasting about 2 hours: a guided tour, a film in the screening room, quizzes and then a mineral hunt on a real agate field, followed by cutting and polishing. The building is air-conditioned, wheelchair accessible, and has a multimedia room and a car park. In 2021 the museum co-organised the first International Agate Prospecting Championships for the title of Agate King. After the visit it is worth walking up to the ruins of Tenczyn castle.