Kalisz Regional Museum

The Kalisz Regional Museum is one of the oldest regional museums in Poland and the best place to get to know the history of Kalisz and the Prosna basin. In the building at 12 Kościuszki Street you can see, among other things, the denarius of Bolesław the Brave with an arrow – the oldest Polish coin – and the Słuszków hoard. Since a major renovation completed in 2023, the museum has shown five permanent exhibitions.

History: from a newspaper note to a regional museum

The first mention of plans for a museum appeared in 1883 in the daily "Kaliszanin". In 1900 an exhibition of archaeology and art opened in the new town hall, and in 1906 the collections of an antiquities section became the core of the Archaeological Museum. In 1914 the archaeological and regional museums merged into the Museum of the Kalisz Land – sources differ on whether this was in April or on 17 May. The museum survived the destruction of the town centre by Prussian troops during the First World War, and in 1928 it moved into the town hall.

The Second World War meant the almost total loss of the collections. In 1941 the Germans removed most of the objects, which were never found again, and the museum's library was used to fill in the Babinka canal. The first post-war exhibition opened in 1948. Since 1953 the museum has occupied the former governorate treasury building on Kościuszki Street; a new wing opened in 1976, when the museum got its present name, and in 1998 it was entered in the State Register of Museums.

What to see

The main building houses historical, archaeological, ethnographic and art exhibitions plus a room devoted to the graphic artist Tadeusz Kulisiewicz. The collections number tens of thousands of objects from Kalisz and south-eastern Greater Poland. Look out in particular for:

• the Słuszków hoard – the largest collection of cross denarii in the world, including 122 denarii of Sieciech; the legend "ZETECH" around their rim is one of the oldest written records of the Polish language,
• the denarius of Bolesław the Brave with an arrow,
• a Roman sword with the armourer's mark on the blade.

Tripto tips

The museum is open Tuesday to Friday 10:00–18:00 and Saturday and Sunday 11:00–18:00; it is closed on Mondays, and last entry is 30 minutes before closing. A standard ticket costs PLN 20, reduced PLN 12, family PLN 30; admission is free on Tuesdays. The combined ticket for all branches (standard PLN 30) also covers the Archaeological Reserve in Zawodzie and Maria Dąbrowska's Manor in Russów. Note: since 18 September 2026 part of the "History of the Town of Kalisz" exhibition has been closed until further notice. Allow about 1.5–2 hours for the main building; prices and hours were checked in October 2026.