Museum of Wicker and Hop Growing in Nowy Tomyśl

In the town park of Nowy Tomyśl stands a museum that its operator describes as the only one of its kind in Poland: devoted entirely to wicker and hops. It opened in May 1985 as a branch of the National Museum of Agriculture and Agri-Food Industry in Szreniawa and occupies a late-18th-century Dutch-settler (Olęder) cottage and a barn with a distinctive raised loft. It is the best place to understand how the town earned its reputation for willow and hops.

History: settlers, willow and hops

The marshy land around Nowy Tomyśl has always suited wild willow. Olęder settlers who arrived in the first half of the 18th century began cultivating it, and the plentiful raw material laid the foundations for a basket-weaving craft that survives to this day. Hops came with colonists from Germany and Bohemia, who held privileges to brew beer at home. Systematic cultivation began in the first half of the 19th century, and from 1849 the town hosted hop markets where prices were set. An 1873 municipal publication states that the local plantations were the largest in the whole of Prussia.

What to see

• Late-18th-century Olęder cottage – moved from another part of town and partly reconstructed. The ground floor traces wickerwork from prehistory, through finds from Biskupin, to the present day, including the journey of American willow from North America to Europe.
• The cottage loft – an exhibition on hops: varieties, cultivation and uses in brewing, cosmetics and pharmacy.
• Barn with a raised loft – the upper storey was used to dry hops or store wicker. Upstairs you can see works from the National Wicker Plein-Air Workshops held here since 2001.
• Outdoor display – wicker sculptures, harvesting and processing machines, a salicarium of willow varieties and a small hop garden.

Did you know

The museum teaches the craft as well as showing it. On request it runs demonstrations of weaving, hand and machine peeling, boiling willow rods and bending sticks. Every year in the second half of August it hosts the National Basket-Weaving Competition as part of the Hop and Wicker Fair, and every few years weavers from around the world come here for the World Wicker and Basketry Festival.

Tripto tips

According to the museum website, in the summer season (2 April–31 October) it is open Tue–Sat 9:00–17:00 and Sunday 13:00–18:00; in winter Tue–Fri 9:00–15:00 and Sat–Sun 11:00–15:00; closed on Mondays. A standard ticket costs PLN 15, reduced PLN 10, family PLN 30, and admission is free on Saturdays (except ticketed events). Groups should book by phone. Parking is on ul. Olchowa along the museum fence. Allow about an hour, then stroll through the park, which also has the town zoo. Note: the exhibitions in the cottage loft and on the barn's upper floor are reachable by stairs only.