Museum of Sport and Tourism in Karpacz

The Museum of Sport and Tourism in Karpacz tells how the Karkonosze (Giant Mountains) became the mountains of hikers, lugers and skiers. Its collection holds something you will not see anywhere else in Poland: a full set of participation medals from the Winter Olympics of 1928–2018. It makes a good stop before or after a hike – especially when the weather is poor.

History: a museum built by the residents

The building was put up by local residents as a community effort, on land donated by the municipality, in 1932–1936 – intended as a regional museum from the start. After the Second World War the exhibition was briefly reopened, but the collections were soon dispersed to other museums and the house was turned into flats. Efforts to revive the museum began in 1971, and in September 1974 a branch of the Warsaw Museum of Sport and Tourism opened here. Since 1 January 2003 it has been an independent cultural institution of the Lower Silesian regional government.

What to see

The permanent exhibition has three sections:

• Origins and growth of tourism in the Karkonosze – the work of miners, smelters, woodcutters, shepherds and herbalists, old prints and travel gear, including the sedan chairs in which tourists were carried up the mountains. A separate part recalls Poles who stayed in the Karkonosze and the Śnieżka guest book.
• Winter sports – from the oldest skis, snowshoes and sledges to bobsleighs. After the war Karpacz became the centre of Polish bobsleigh and luge.
• Nature conservation – plants, animals, geology and climate of the Karkonosze.

The highlight is the Olympic collection: participation medals from the Winter Games 1928–2018, a medal from the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, Olympic torches and the gold medal of sport shooter Renata Mauer-Różańska, Lower Silesia's greatest sportswoman. Temporary exhibitions are shown upstairs.

Curiosities

The pre-war museum had a section on the "laboranten" – Karkonosze herbalists who for some 200 years made remedies for every ailment. Among the exhibits was a human-shaped mandrake root, believed to bring good luck. By the end of 2011 the museum had welcomed 1,358,169 visitors.

Tripto tips

The museum is open Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–17:00 and closed on Mondays. A standard ticket costs PLN 15, reduced PLN 10, and an audio guide PLN 5. Allow about an hour, and plan something else for Mondays. The exhibition is indoors, so it is a good fallback for a rainy day in the Karkonosze.