Museum of the Silesian Home in Ziębice

The town hall in the middle of Ziębice’s market square has housed a museum since 1931, and for half a century it was the only museum in Poland specialising in household equipment. According to the museum, its collection of irons is the largest in Europe. Since 2023 it has been called the Museum of the Silesian Home and shows what everyday life in Lower Silesia looked like – from a middle-class kitchen to a Baroque drawing room.

History: from regional museum to Silesian home

The first exhibition opened in Ziębice in 1931, and until the 1970s the museum was a regional one. In 1973 it became the only museum in the country to specialise in household equipment, a focus it kept until the end of 2022. It is housed in the eclectic town hall built in 1887–1890 on the site of the earlier medieval town hall, from which a Renaissance tower of 1561 survives.

What to see

• The collection of irons spanning four centuries, from the 17th century to electric models: box irons heated with a “soul”, charcoal irons, solid flat irons and electric irons. The “soul” was a heated metal insert slipped inside the iron, which gave its name to the whole type in Polish.
• Old washing machines, mangles and refrigerators, plus brass and copper vessels from the 18th to 20th centuries.
• The world of Joseph Langer (1865–1918), a Silesian painter and conservator born in Ziębice.
• Period rooms: a Baroque drawing room, a Biedermeier parlour, the lady of the house’s bedroom and a middle-class kitchen from around 1900.
• An ethnographic room, Silesian religious sculpture from the 15th–19th centuries, edged weapons and firearms, and items from the history of Ziębice and the former Duchy of Ziębice.

The exhibitions fill ten rooms.

Tripto tip

The museum is open Tuesday to Friday 10:00–15:30. At weekends visits start on the hour: from October to May at 12:00, 13:00, 14:00 and 15:00, and from June to September also at 11:00. It is closed on Mondays. A standard ticket costs PLN 15, reduced PLN 10, and admission is free on Wednesdays. The museum does not take bookings for admission, and only up to 30 people can visit at once, so larger groups are better off coming on a weekday. Allow about an hour. Ziębice lies some 60 km south of Wrocław, and the Cistercian abbey at Henryków is a few kilometres away.