Museum and Centre of Belarusian Culture, Hajnówka

Hajnówka is one of the centres of Poland's Belarusian minority, and its museum came into being in an unusual way: inside a former sawmill hall, built by local people with money collected among Belarusians on several continents. Construction took almost 20 years, from 1984 to 2003. Today the Museum and Centre of Belarusian Culture occupies more than 2,700 m² in the town centre and is the only place in Poland that presents the culture of the Belarusians of Podlasie so fully.

History: a museum built by its community

The idea of a Belarusian museum dates back to the 1950s. A first museum operated in Białowieża from 1966 to 1973, with about a thousand objects; when it closed, its collection went to the Agricultural Museum in Ciechanowiec, among others. In the early 1980s local activists led by Konstanty Mojsienia obtained a disused hall of Hajnówka's wood-processing plant and began converting it.

In 1984 an association was registered, and it still runs the museum as an independent non-governmental organisation. Belarusians in Australia, Britain, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Canada and the United States supported the project, while people across Podlasie donated quern stones, looms, wooden harrows and embroidered towels.

What to see

• "The Belarusian Farmstead", an ethnographic exhibition with multimedia that recreates the cottage, barn and granary of a typical farm.
• "The Belarusian Calendar", a year of village work shown in twelve arcades, following the farming calendar.
• "Crafts in the Belarusian Villages of Podlasie": blacksmithing, wheelwrighting, coopering, carpentry, fishing and weaving.
• Contemporary art exhibitions in two galleries and three halls, including works from the "Belarusian Alphabet of Art" series, running since 2011.

Did you know?

The ethnographic collection numbers more than a thousand 19th- and 20th-century objects, mostly from the Białystok region; several hundred of the most interesting are on display. In summer the museum organises the "I tam żywuć ludzi" ("And people live there") series of village festivals across Podlasie, and its square in Hajnówka often hosts concerts. Every year the museum welcomes well over ten thousand visitors from Poland and abroad.

Tripto tip

The museum is open Monday to Friday 9:00–16:00, and from June to September also on Sundays, 11:00–16:00; the last ticket is sold at 15:00. A standard ticket costs PLN 30, reduced PLN 20. Groups are guided by prior arrangement by phone. Allow 1–1.5 hours. The Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral is about a kilometre away, and Białowieża less than 20 km.