Museum in Bielsko-Biała

Alicja Migdał-Drost

MUSEUM IN BIELSKO-BIAŁA – THE CASTLE

The Museum in Bielsko-Biała is based in the Castle. Its permanent exhibition located on the first floor can be accessed through the 19th century vestibule. The west wing houses a hunter's room and armoury. The next two rooms display three centuries of art history from the 15 th to the 17 th century.Neighbouring with these rooms are a rococo concert hall and a Biedermeier room. The Castle's east wing contains a gallery of the 19 th and 20 th century painting and graphic art. Following rooms located in the north wing display an exhibition devoted to the history of the city and Castle, as well as craftsman traditions of old Bielsko and Biała.

MUSEUM OF TECHNOLOGY AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY

The Museum evidences most of all traditions of wool industry in Bielsko-Biała , by means of collecting machines, equipment and documents related to this field of manufacturing. The exhibits are stored in four rooms. Each of them is commensurate with division of old textile factory – preliminary treatment mill, weaving mill and finishing mill. A separate unit consists of machines for making hats. The display is complemented by exhibition devoted to the history of Bielsko-Biała fire brigade and of municipal water supply system. There is also a little printing office and a so called museum granary, where all the historical household equipments, radio sets, typewriters etc., are being stored The historical   lathe, drilling machines and locksmith tools remind of the traditions of metal processing industry in Bielsko.

 THE WEAVER'S HOUSE

Reconstruction of the interior of a weaver’s house and workshop owned by a guild master underlies the exhibition housed in the Weaver’s House. Its arrangement is an attempt to bring closer the living and working conditions in a house of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A hall splits the house into two major sections – workshop on the left of the entrance and living quarters on the right, with a kitchen and a bedroom.

The Weaver’s House reveals an original example of the former wooden town housing. It is a unique attempt to show craftsman’s work, fully shaped by strong guild’s position.

 JULIAN FALAT'S VILLA

The museum of Julian Fałat in Bystra Śląska is housed in a historical villa of the artist, called “Fałatówka” and its visitors are introduced to the art and some biographical details of the artist. This is the house where the artists lived upon retirement from the position of a rector of the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition presents oil paintings and watercolours: self-portraits, portraits of his family and friends, landscapes from his numerous travels and hunting-related works. The exhibition is enriched with archival material devoted to the life artistic output and social activities for the benefits of society (school certificates, photographs of Fałat with his family and friends, diplomas, honorary mentions, distinctions, letters and mementos related to his travels around the world).