Museum of Agriculture in Ciechanowiec

Painted Easter eggs from around the world, steam traction engines, a windmill and dozens of wooden cottages – the Rev. Krzysztof Kluk Museum of Agriculture in Ciechanowiec is one of only two agricultural museums in Poland (the other is in Szreniawa near Poznań). Its collection numbers over 34,000 objects shown in 48 permanent exhibitions, and the open-air museum fills much of a palace-and-park complex on the Nurzec River. Allow half a day for a proper visit.

History: a museum founded by a doctor and a teacher

The museum was founded in 1962 on the initiative of the Society of Friends of Ciechanowiec, led by the physician Dr Paweł Olszewski and the teacher Kazimierz Uszyński. It occupies a mid-19th-century palace and park, the former estate of the Starzeński family, rebuilt after war damage in 1966–1969. Its patron, Rev. Krzysztof Kluk, was an 18th-century naturalist who wrote about plants and rural husbandry. The Warsaw University of Life Sciences acts as the museum's academic patron.

What to see

The Masovian-Podlasie Open-Air Museum brings together 57 historic wooden buildings from the 18th to early 20th centuries, fully furnished: cottages, granaries, a smithy, a forester's lodge, storehouses and a minor nobleman's manor. A water mill houses the Bread Museum, and the granaries hold displays on basket weaving, shoemaking and fishing. The museum is known for its Easter Egg Museum – the only one in Poland – and for its technical collection of over 850 farm machines and tools, including steam traction engines and tractors. In the palace you can see gentry interiors with paintings by Professor Ignacy Pieńkowski.

Did you know?

• The museum also runs outposts: a windmill with a miller's farmstead in Drewnowo, a windmill in Dąbrowa Łazy and a former village school in Winna Chroły.
• Its collection of steam traction engines is the largest museum collection of its kind in Poland.
• Annual events include a Palm Sunday palm competition, St Adalbert's Fair, the Podlasie Bread Festival and a potato-harvest festival by the windmill.

Tripto tip

The grounds are open daily: from 15 April to 30 September, 08:15–18:00 on weekdays and 09:15–19:00 at weekends; from 1 October to 14 April, 08:15–16:00 (weekends from 09:15). A self-guided walking ticket costs PLN 20 (reduced PLN 12), the full guided tour (about 3 hours) PLN 30, and the Express tour (about 1 hour) PLN 25 (as of October 2026). On Mondays entry to the grounds is free, with only selected interiors open. The walking ticket opens only some of the cottages and granaries, so for the full experience take a guided tour – available in English and German if booked by phone in advance. The "Herbal Traditions" exhibition is currently closed for renovation.