Kołobrzeg City Museum (Braunschweig Palace)

The Kołobrzeg City Museum occupies the elegant Braunschweig Palace on Armii Krajowej Street, steps from St. Mary's Basilica and the town hall. If you want to understand how this Baltic resort came to be – from an early medieval stronghold, through a Hanseatic salt town and Prussian fortress, to a 19th-century spa – this is the place to start. It also hides one of the most unusual interiors in town: a banquet hall with a painted paper ceiling.

A merchant's palace

Kołobrzeg (say “koh-WOB-zhek”) lies on Poland's Baltic coast, about 230 km northeast of Berlin; until 1945 it was the German town of Kolberg. According to the museum, the palace was built in the first two decades of the 19th century by the wealthy merchant Christian F. H. Plüddemann as a dowry for his daughter Alma. She married Heinrich Braunschweig of one of the town's oldest patrician families, documented since 1282 and long tied to the local salt works – hence the name.

The town bought the building as a future museum before World War II. It came through the fighting of March 1945 without major damage, which makes it a rare survivor in a town center that was largely destroyed. Since 1977 it has belonged to the Museum of Polish Arms and serves as the museum's headquarters.

What to see

The permanent exhibition “History of Kołobrzeg” covers the town and its surroundings up to 1945, with a focus on the Middle Ages, the fortress era and the spa. Much of it is based on archaeological finds from the town and from the early medieval stronghold at nearby Budzistowo. There is also a collection of historical weights and measures.

Don't miss the ceiling hall upstairs: a paper ceiling decoration of about 66 m², probably made in 1816–1818, with the Roman goddess Flora at its center. Its conservation was completed in autumn 2026.

In autumn 2026 the museum also shows an exhibition on Kołobrzeg's postwar factories and early medieval boat parts recovered from the Parsęta River in 2018.

Hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

• October 1 – April 30: Monday 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m., Tuesday–Sunday 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
• May–September: daily 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Last admission 30 minutes before closing.
• Tickets: 32 PLN, reduced 22 PLN, family 80 PLN; a three-branch ticket (with the main arms museum and the maritime open-air museum) costs 64/44 PLN. Children under 7 free.

Getting there

The museum is in the compact town center, so you will most likely walk here from anywhere in the old town and continue to the river and the seafront afterwards. Kołobrzeg's train station has connections from Szczecin, Poznań and Warsaw, and the nearest airport is Szczecin-Goleniów, about 100 km away. Labels are mostly in Polish, so ask at the desk what English material is available.

Is it worth visiting?

Yes, especially if you plan to explore the old town: an hour here makes the rebuilt streets outside much easier to read. Combine it with the nearby Lont Tower and the main Museum of Polish Arms on Gierczak Street, all within a short walk.