Museum of the Silesian Uprisings on St. Anne's Mountain

The Museum of the Silesian Uprisings stands in woodland on the slope between Leśnica and Góra Świętej Anny – the area of the bloodiest fighting of the Third Silesian Uprising in 1921. A branch of the Museum of Opole Silesia, it holds almost 2,500 exhibits, from battle banners to written orders, as well as the multimedia Panorama of the Silesian Uprisings. The building itself is as interesting as the collection: the pre-war Polish House, where Poles living in Germany asserted their identity.

History: from a school in Leśnica to the Polish House

The idea for the museum arose in 1961, during the 40th anniversary of the Third Silesian Uprising, and it opened on 19 July 1964. It was first housed in a 19th-century school in Leśnica which, during the uprising, served for a time as headquarters of the 3rd Katowice Insurgent Regiment named after Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. In 1980 the collection moved to its present home.

The "Polish House", also known as the House under Chełm Peak, was built in the 19th century as an inn. In 1936 it was bought by the Slavic Bank in Berlin and handed over to the Union of Poles in Germany. Until 1939 it hosted congresses of Polish organisations, scout camps and children's holidays, and loudspeakers in the windows greeted passers-by in Polish. At a meeting here in October 1936, members of the Union proclaimed the motto "We were – We are – We will be". During the Second World War the Germans set up a labour camp for Jews in the surrounding forest and placed its headquarters in this very building.

What to see

• The permanent exhibition on the ground floor: mementoes of the insurgents, battle and veterans' banners, and written orders from the Third Uprising.
• Displays on the "Sokół" gymnastic society in Silesia, the takeover of the Polish part of Upper Silesia in 1922, and the Union of Poles and the Polish Scouting Association in Germany.
• The Panorama of the Silesian Uprisings, created in 2006 and brought to life by a fifteen-minute sound-and-light show. A diorama path presenting the monuments and nature around St. Anne's Mountain leads to the rotunda.
• Nature exhibitions upstairs – the natural history department of the Museum of Opole Silesia moved here in 2006.

Tripto tips

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00–16:00; from December to February it is closed on Sundays, and the price list also mentions closure on the last Sunday of the month. A standard ticket costs PLN 8, a reduced one PLN 5, and admission is free on Thursdays (as of October 2026). Allow about an hour including the panorama. Combine the visit with the shrine and calvary on St. Anne's Mountain and with the amphitheatre and Xawery Dunikowski's Monument to the Silesian Insurgents. Groups can also arrange a bonfire or outdoor activities next to the museum.