Silesian Press Museum in Pszczyna

In a low house with a shingle roof on Pszczyna's pedestrian street, you can print your own souvenir sheet on a historic press. The Wojciech Korfanty Silesian Press Museum describes itself as the only museum of its kind in Poland that, besides displays on printing technology, lets visitors print on old machines themselves. It lies about 200 metres from the market square, at ulica Piastowska 26.

Anniversary of the first Polish newspaper

The museum opened on 5 July 1985, exactly 140 years after the first Polish-language newspaper in Upper Silesia appeared. It was the "Tygodnik Polski Poświęcony Włościanom" (Polish Weekly for Peasants), published right here in Pszczyna. The initiative came from the Society of Friends of the Pszczyna Region, with financial help from the then mayor, Wiesław Kasiński.

The museum was created by Aleksander Spyra, its long-standing curator, and his wife Krystyna. It is housed in a historic burgher's house from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries that was saved from demolition. The museum bears the name of Wojciech Korfanty, a leader of the Polish movement in Silesia and founder of the most popular Polish newspapers in the region, with the consent of his daughters. Halżka Kozłowska and Maria Ulmann came to Pszczyna for this purpose in 1989.

What to see

• Presses and printing machines, bookbinding equipment and type cases. Part of a printing workshop was donated by the Silesian Museum in Katowice in April 2018.
• A reconstruction of Korfanty's office from his "Polonia" printing house in Katowice, with original furniture, photographs and newspaper copies.
• A collection of newspapers and magazines with patriotic content, documenting the Silesians' road to the Silesian Uprisings, the plebiscite and the return to Poland.
• The oldest exhibit: a breviary from 1688, printed in Antwerp at the famous Plantin press by Balthasar Moretus.
• The smallest press: a "Boston" hand-operated letterpress only 34 cm tall, from around 1900, used to print labels on glass medical ampoules.
• The largest exhibit: a horizontal reproduction camera 4.42 m long, made in Germany in the 1960s.

Upstairs is "Izba u Telemanna" (Telemann's Room), a small chamber music room with historic musical instruments from Silesia. The museum also lends it to musicians for concerts.

Tripto tip

The highlight is printing your own souvenir, so don't leave without one. A visit takes about an hour. The museum has facilities for disabled visitors, including ramps, a toilet and a reserved parking space, and you can pay by cash, card or BLIK. We could not confirm current opening hours and ticket prices from an official source, so call ahead or check locally before you go. From the museum it is a short walk to the market square, the castle and the Zagroda Wsi Pszczyńskiej open-air museum, about 300 metres away.