Regional Museum in Pińczów

The Regional Museum in Pińczów has operated since 1963 in a former Pauline monastery in the town centre at Piłsudskiego Street 2a, next to the church of St John the Evangelist. The monastery itself dates back to 1431–1449 and received its present four-winged shape with a cloister courtyard during a rebuilding in 1630–1642. The exhibitions opened in 1970, and the museum has remained the principal museum of the Ponidzie region ever since; a tourist information centre operates in the same building.

The collections come mainly from the Ponidzie area and document the history of the region from prehistoric times to the present: archaeological finds, manuscripts, paintings, militaria and Judaica. The most valuable part of the collection consists of memorabilia of Adolf Dygasiński, a writer and naturalist associated with these lands. The permanent exhibition fills five rooms, covering the prehistory of Ponidzie, the history of Pińczów, the geology of the area, the fate of the inhabitants during both world wars and the history of the town's Jewish community.

Three branches in town

The museum also runs branches in Pińczów. The Old Synagogue from the 16th century is the best-preserved trace of the town's Jews. The Arian House in Mirow, a Renaissance building from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries reopened after renovation in 2021, recalls the Polish Brethren and their printing works. The third site is the lapidarium of tomb sculpture at the parish cemetery, home to the oldest gravestone monument in the Świętokrzyskie voivodeship, dated 1803. The collection keeps growing: in 2022 the museum received memorabilia of Józef Kwiecień, a soldier killed during the Second World War in the defence of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Practical information

The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9:00–16:00 (Thursdays until 15:00); Mondays are closed. Admission is charged, but on Tuesdays entry is free — the synagogue is excluded from this rule.