Museums

Open-Air Museum of the Kielce Region in Tokarnia

At the foot of Chęciny lies Tokarnia — the Ethnographic Park of the Museum of the Kielce Countryside and one of the largest open-air museums of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. Founded in 1976, it arranges dozens of wooden 19th-century buildings into sectors recreating the Kielce region, the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, the Sandomierz Upland and the Nida Basin.

The oldest monuments

The cottage from Szydłów of 1705 is the earliest known example of folk architecture in the Kielce region; today it houses an exhibition of a Jewish tailor's workshop from the 1920s and 1930s, with a mizrah and kiddush cups. The larch church from Rogów, dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation and built in 1763, founded by Michał Wodzicki, has retained its 18th-century Rococo furnishings.

The manor and the small town

In the manor-farm sector stands the manor house from Suchedniów from the early 19th century — a building on a horseshoe plan that served as a post station until the end of the 19th century. In the house from Wąchock of c. 1870, once owned by the Bzinkowski family, an interwar photographic studio has been arranged, and the small-town sector holds the furnishings of a doctor's home. Goats, sheep, hens, rabbits and horses roam the grounds.

Practical information

The open-air museum operates at Tokarnia 303 (Chęciny municipality) and is open all year round; admission is free on Mondays, though without access to the interiors. In season the Świętokrzyski Festival of Flavours, the Bread Festival or the haymaking and Sobótka events take place, and it is worth planning several hours for the visit.