The Museum of the Chelmno Land

The history of the museum in Chelmno begins in the 1950’s. The year 1959 should be called initial – Jerzy Kaldowski, MA, became the conservator of the collections and took it upon himself to shape the appropriate organizational structure of the museum-to-be. Firstly, it developed as a public institution and in 1964 it gained the rank of a museum point. The first stage of the museum development which lasted to 1975 was connected with the city hall and the second – the years 1976-1983 – with the activity in the Gunpowder Tower as temporary offices. In the year of the city’s 750th anniversary the institution found its worthy location in the Chelmno city hall and got its final organizational and formal shape. The museum was officially opened on 28th December 1983, exactly 750 years after the city had been granted with the location right. It is a regional and historical institution and it mainly gathers and shows objects connected with the city and the closest area. Visitors can see the following permanent exhibitions: – ‘The history of Chelmno’ – 6 halls on the first floor, ‘Ludwik Rydygier, a world famous Polish surgeon’, and some temporary exhibitions. The Museum of the Chelmno Land also uses two towers: the Gunpowder Tower and the Maiden Tower. The biggest archaeological section of the museum and a modest ethnographic exposition have been located in the Gunpowder Tower since 1983. The most interesting exhibit is probably a wooden bicycle from the end of the 19th century.