Museum of the Kuyavia and Dobrzyń Lands in Włocławek

For almost 120 years Włocławek lived off faience – painted plates, jugs and vases became the city's calling card. In the main building of the Museum of the Kuyavia and Dobrzyń Lands you can see 432 pieces from the town's former factories, from chandeliers to a chamber pot, plus a gallery of Polish portraits with works by Malczewski, Wyczółkowski and Mehoffer. Founded in 1908, it is one of the oldest regional museums in Poland, and admission is free on Fridays.

History of the museum

The decision to found the Kuyavian Museum was taken on 2 June 1908 by the Kuyavian branch of the Polish Sightseeing Society, and it opened on 14 March 1909. The first collections came from the Polish Educational Society's school museum and from items deposited by the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Reading Room Society. As early as 1911 an ethnographic exhibition opened, centred on a faithful reconstruction of a Kuyavian cottage. The present building on Słowackiego Street was built in 1925–1930 to a design by city architect Stefan Narębski, largely funded by public donations. During the German occupation the museum was closed and most of its collections were lost; it reopened in 1945. It has had its current name since 1975, and for its centenary in 2009 it received the Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.

What to see in the main building

• "Włocławek Faience 1873–1991" – 432 pieces from every period of production, showing all the decorating techniques: stencilling, ceramic transfers, relief and drip decoration, and hand painting. Alongside everyday objects there are decorative and commemorative pieces, plus panels with archive photos of the factories. The museum's faience department holds some 15,000 objects in total.
• "Gallery of Polish Portraiture", opened in 2009 – portraits from the early 19th to the mid-20th century, arranged chronologically from Neoclassicism to Colourism. Artists include Franciszek Ksawery Lampi, the "Polish Munich School" (Alchimowicz, Czachórski, Axentowicz), Anna Bilińska-Bohdanowicz, Jacek Malczewski, Leon Wyczółkowski, Józef Mehoffer and Wojciech Weiss.

Interesting facts

The gallery gives pride of place to paintings by Feliks Pęczarski, a deaf genre painter who spent the last years of his life in Włocławek. The museum also runs several branches: the Museum of the History of Włocławek in Baroque houses on the Old Market Square (since 1972), the Ethnographic Museum and the Art Collections in former granaries on the Vistula, the Stanisław Noakowski Museum in Nieszawa and the open-air museum in Kłóbka.

Tripto tip

The main building is at ul. Słowackiego 1a. According to the museum website, from 1 April to 31 October it is open on Tuesdays 10:00–18:00, Wednesday to Friday 10:00–16:00, and at weekends 11:00–17:00; from 1 November to 31 March on Tuesdays 10:00–17:00, Wednesday to Friday 10:00–16:00, and at weekends 11:00–16:00. It is closed on Mondays and some public holidays (including 1 and 11 November), and in October 2026 also on Saturdays 10 and 24 October. Last entry is one hour before closing. A standard ticket costs PLN 10, concessions PLN 7, and admission is free on Fridays. Guided tours by museum staff (Tuesday–Thursday, 10:00–14:30) cost extra. Allow 1–1.5 hours for both exhibitions, and if you love ceramics, add the branches by the Vistula.