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Another museum concerned > only with the history of Toruń is the History Museum in the Eskens Palace, illustrating the city life under Prussian rule.

 

• Toruń, Rynek Staromiejski 1 (1 Old City Market Square)

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The monumental Old City Town Hall, which houses the District Museum, is one of the biggest and most magnificent buildings of its kind in Europe. It is a monument to Toruń’s glory as the former trade empire of Hansa. The District Museum in Toruń apart from the interiors, displays Gothic art collections (sculpture, painting, the unique collection of magnificent stained glass, etc.), Toruń’s handicraft (including gingerbread baking tins, intarsia), coins minted in Toruń and painting (including a big-sized painting depicting the moment of concluding the Second Peace of Toruń). In the Royal Hall, which had seen the visits of nearly all Polish monarchs since 1454 and the death of one of them – John I Albert, one can find the oldest pictorial guide to the Kings of Poland, and in the Burgher Hall, an excellent portrait gallery of Toruń patriciate of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

 

 

• Toruń, ul. Kopernika 15/17 (15/17 Kopernika Street)

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The Nicolaus Copernicus Museum is the biographical museum of the most eminent Toruń's citizen. It is located in two beautiful Gothic houses: in his family house (No. 17; exhibition devoted only to Copernicus) and adjoined neighbouring patrician house (No. 15; show of the interiors of a typical medieval merchant house). Obviously it is the most popular with tourists museum in Toruń. The excellent supplement is the model of 15th century Torun with sound-and-light programme. Entrance to the museum - in the house No. 15.

 

 

• Toruń, Rynek Staromiejski 35 (35 Old Town Market Square)

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The Star House is one of the most sumptuous and best preserved Baroque patrician houses in Central and Northern Europe. Before the thorough reconstruction into Baroque style, in 1496 it had been owned by Filippo Buonaccorsi (known also as Callimachus) - famous Italian humanist, poet, diplomat and tutor to Polish King Casimir Jagiellonian's sons. The facade (richly decorated with fruit-and-flower stucco ornamentation), the layout and the interiors (richly carved timber stairs, painted timber ceilings etc.) have preserved the characteristic features of Northern European patrician residence typical of 18th century.

 

• Baroque interiors of Toruń patrician house

• 'The World of Orient' - monuments of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese art and art handicraft. The oldest ones are the Chinese and come from the times of Han dynasty (206 BC - 220) with which the first china artefacts are connected.

 

• Toruń, ul. Łazienna 16 (16 Łazienna Street)

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The museum consists of 2 separates departments of the District Museum: the Archaeology and the History.
The seat of the museum is the emposing house of the Renaissance Toruń's patrician family - the Eskens. As in the 19th century the house has been rebuilt nowadays the only superb Rennaisance entrance portal is the remnant of the former decoration. The richly carved sandstone portal is attributed to Willem van den Blocke - a famous Renaissance sculpture.

The permanent exhibitions:
• 'Discovering the Past' - archaeological exposition with 9 parts in which the history of colonization (from the year 10,000 BC to mid 13th century) of the lands of present Kuiavia-Pomerania Region is shown. Not only the numerous and precious archaeological artefacts are here but the exposition contains many models of the way of living in a different ages as well.
Two exhibitions compose the historical part of the Museum. They are:
• 'Toruń 1793-1920 - The town of border' (museum pieces expressing political, social, cultural and economic life of Toruń and region on the times of Prussian occupation),
• 'Militaria from the Middle Ages to 20th century' (collection of European and Oriental weaponry, the most precious are the specimens of medieval swords, 16th - 17th c. musket and pistols with a circular lock).

 

• Toruń, ul. Przedzamcze 3 (3 Przedzamcze Street)

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The area of the castle remnants comprises the main castle ruin with the cellars and Gdanisko Tower preserved.
It was the very first castle of the Teutonic Knights from which the colonization of pagan Prussians and creating Teutonic state started. It was the residence of a Teutonic Commander. It was destroyed in 1454 during the burgher uprising against the Teutonic Knights what in succession caused the 13-years Polish-Teutonic War ended by signing famous Second Toruń Treaty in 1466. It was only 1966 when the ruins was explored and prepared for tourists.

 

• Armoury

• Kitchen

• Dormitorium

• Scriptorium

• Gdanisko tower: Medieval castle model

 

• Toruń, ul. Franciszkanska 11 (11 Franciszkanska Street)

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The Travellers` Museum has its place in an old granary at 11 Franciszkańska Street, which was restored and adapted for the needs of museum. On the back of the house there is a pavilion which was built for the purpose of presenting the photos taken by Polish explorers during their exotic journeys. A donation which was made for the citizens of Toruń by Elżbieta Dzikowska after Tony Halik`s death makes the permanent exhibition of the museum. It is the set of objects from various countries and cultures collected by the couple.

 

 

• Toruń, ul. Wały Sikorskiego 19 (19 Wały Sikorskiego Street)

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Museum of Ethnography in Toruń is one of the three largest and independent ethnographic museums in Poland. It was established in 1958 as a result of becoming independent the ethnography section of the District Museum after the initiative of the foundress - prof. Znamierowska-Pruefferowa.

The items gathered since 1946 include the whole of folk culture (customs, rituals, household appliances and farm architecture) of northern Poland and of whole Poland in the matter of fishery. The Museum also has one of the biggest collection of contemporary folk art and rural crafts.

Museum, and in particular the Ethnographic Park (skansen) with the completely decorated and furnished farmsteads and rural cottages (the oldest of which dates back to 1767) located in the heart of the city, is the primary tourist attraction, which moreover attracts tourists with organized occasional folk events.

 

 

• Toruń, ul. Gagarina 9 (9 Gagarina Street)

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Museum was founded in 1974, although the first attempts were undertaken as soon as in 1945 by famous prof. Jan Prueffer.

The permanent exhibitions:
• Collections (fauna and flora from all over the world, collection of butterflies, exotic insects, scorpions, arachnids, flora of Sahara desert, almost 50 kinds of protected birds, corals' skeletons, collections of African animals of the chase);
• The Earth's History (rocks, minerals, fauna and flora fossils);
• Zoology (exhibits of animals, collection of animal development's anomalies, exotic fish-culture).

 

• Toruń, ul. Turystyczna 132 (132 Turystyczna Street)

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Apart from the Etnographical Park (Museum of Ethnography) this is another open-air museum in Toruń (which in fact is the Museum of Ethnography department). It comprises the specimens of rural architecture of the Chełmno Land and other buildings and instruments associated with the lives and work of fishermen, raftsmen and boatmakers. All the objects exist in their natural location (2nd half of 18th century).

 

 

• Toruń-Grębocin, ul. Szkolna 31 (31 Szkolna Street)

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The Museum of Writing and Printing has been located in a medieval little church founded by the Teutonic Knights at the turn of the 14th century. In the 16th century the church passed into the administration of the Evangelical community. In the 1920s, the church was deprived of its sacral function. In 1930, the church was entered into the register of monuments as a Grade I listed building. After World War II, the church fell into ruin. Only in the 1960s and 1970s, there were attempts to located a communal library in the building of the church. However, the work started at the beginning of the 1980s and it was stopped half in its way. As a result, the monument was seriously vandalized.

 

 

• Toruń, pl. Rapackiego 1 (1 Rapackiego Square)

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University Museum along the lines of similar institutions in the world connects elegant functions of the university with those of science, museum and education. Because of the relatively short history of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, it is not confined solely to document the history and achievements of Toruń Alma Matris, but seeks to be an institution promoting culture and art of national and global scale, as well as for the purpose of teaching.

 

 

• Toruń, ul. Poznańska 191-199 (191-199 Poznańska Street)

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The Battery which was built in 1895 is one of the most interesting objects of the 19th century Fortress Toruń. It is a unique on a European scale - the battery was an experimental model and the only in its sort. Along with the years after World War II the battery (as well as another similar) was becoming more and more neglected and devastated. In order to save the battery a special section of the Toruń Branch of Fortress Friends Society was organized. At the turn of 2008 members of the mentioned section created an independent Toruń Society of Fortifications whose main goal is to save battery and other local facilities.

 

• Toruń, ul. B. Chrobrego 86 (86 B. Chrobrego Street)

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Fort IV named after Stanisław Żółkiewski is one of the largest and most important forts of nineteenth-century Prussian Fortress Toruń. It was built in the years 1878-1884 as the main fort, the third in the series, was the base for the 500-person crew (2 infantry companies) and service department for the number of 14 medium- and 15-22 heavy caliber cannons (total about 800 soldiers and officers), and reached the peak of fortress engineering. In 1894 it received the name Yorck, commemorating the Prussian General Johann David Yorck von Wartenburg. It never participated in combat operations, thus has been preserved in very good condition. In 1920, together with the entire Fortress, was taken over by Polish army in good condition, but without the equipment. In 1926 Fort IV received the present name. From the early 1990s is made available to the public.

 

 

• Toruń, ul. Rabiańska 9 (9 Rabiańska Street)

• More details here

• See also: World of Toruń Gingerbread here

 

Gingerbread Museum came into being in Toruń - city of Copernicus - also famed for its gingerbread. But seeing and tasting is not enough - it is also worthwhile participating in the process of making the aromatic dough. Add some honey, crushed cardamom, cloves and even a pinch of pepper all by yourself... then knead the dough, roll it, put in into a beautifully ornamented form, and while waiting for your own gingerbread to bake in an antique oven, listen to some legends about Toruń...

Museum takes you to a 16th century gingerbread factory. After some short training with the gingerbread master you will recieve a historic gingerbread-making certificate for making gingerbread according to some of the the finest 500 year old recipes.
The Museum is an interactive method of getting to know the history of Toruń and gingerbread-making in an exciting and amusing way, for both children and adults.

 

• Toruń, ul. Wały Sikorskiego 13 (13 Wały Sikorskiego Street)

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The mission of the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń is to develop, propagate and promote contemporary art. The aim is to be a modern and dynamic centre of artistic fervour through establishing a regional art collection, a spectrum of open exhibitions, publishing and educational activities, stimulating support for art and contributing to art market development.

 

• Toruń, ul. Podmurna 93 (93 Podmurna Street)

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Set up in 1990 in Toruń "Pomeranian Archives of Polish Home Army" has grown from the initiatives and activities already undertaken many years earlier by Professor General Elżbieta Zawacka. She was a great person of merit due to her rich history and activity during World War II.

She took part in the defense of Polish city of Lvov (now Ukrainian Lviv) in 1939 against Germans, organized communications within the Polish Command of the Silesian Region ZWZ, then communications with the authorities of the Republic of Poland in the West in the Home Army Headquarters. She was courier, in 1943 the emissary-in-Chief of Staff in London, returned to occupied Poland as "cichociemna" (Polish for 'silent-dark ones' or 'silent and unseen' - a secret unit of the Polish Home Army created to maintain contact with occupied Poland during the war). She has taken part in the Warsaw Uprising 1944. After the war, repressed by communists, spent several years in prison. Later obtained a doctoral degree and habilitation doctorate, she worked at the University of Gdańsk, then the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

 

• 'Military Service of Polish Women 1939-1945'

• 'The traces of Torun's cinspiracy 1939-1945'

 

• Toruń, ul. Św. Józefa 37-49 (37-49 Św. Józefa Street)

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The exhibition is located in the historic interior of the tower pressure of Bielany water station. The tower with the old hall after a major refurbishment of pumps has been adapted to perform the functions of exhibition, educational and cultural institutions.

 

 

• Toruń, ul. J. Sobieskiego 36 (36 J. Sobieskiego Street)

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Museum is run by Toruń's Artillery and Armament Training Centre and by Association of Artillery and Armament.

Members of the Association are - first of all - persons who are interested in military history of Toruń and the surroundings, the history of arms, wars and armed conflicts, military architecture and traditions of the military and schools. Toruń has specific conditions for the functioning of the Association. This is the cradle of Polish artillery. Here, for the first time in the history of Polish military school shooting was conducted, during which skills of gunsmiths from all over the country were improved. The first military training and naval school after regaining independence in 1918 were established in Toruń. Here also was the central artillery school station at all levels.

 

• Biskupin, Biskupin 17 (92 km south-west of Toruń)

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Biskupin is a well-known archaeological museum and reservation in Middle Europe. Excavations on Lake Biskupińskie peninsula were initiated in 1934. It was the first prehistoric site in Poland with a vast scale organized research using modern techniques, methodologies and interdisciplinary activity.
Wooden remains of the fortified settlement from 8th century BC have been found in an excellent state of preservation, because of wetland, wood protecting conditions. Biskupin has been called Polish Pompeii as well.

 

 

 

• Chełmno, Rynek 28 (45 north of Toruń)

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The museum was officially opened on 28th December 1983, exactly 750 years after the city has been granted with the location right. It is a regional and historical institution and it mainly gathers and shows items associated with the city and the closest area.

The building of the historical town hall, in which the museum is located, is thought to be the most precious and beautiful Renaissaince town hall in northern Poland.

 

 

• Golub-Dobrzyń, ul. PTTK 13 (42 km east of Toruń)

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The castle in Golub-Dobrzyń was built in the beginning of the 14th century as a Teutonic defensive fortress. It was many times attacked, destroyed, rebuilt and finally converted in the Renaissance style as a palace of the princess Anna Vasa. Erected on a hill overlooking the town, the castle belongs to the most interesting edifices of Europe.

 

 

• Szafarnia (49 km east of Toruń)

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The festive opening of the Chopin Centre at Szafarnia took place in 1952. It is held in historic Neo-Classical 19th century manor house.

Frederic Chopin arrived to Szafarnia in 1824 and 1825. He spent there a school holidays with his colleague Dominik Dziewanowski. Here he learned the history and patriotism. He took part in the country wedding of the Lewandowskis and admired colorful harvest festival. In Szafarnia he composed the first four mazurkas. In this village Chopin issued a local newspaper "Kuryer Szafarski" ("Szafarnia Courier") along the lines of the "Warsaw Courier". Newspaper divided into domestic and foreign news, in a playful way informed his parents of the finest events that took place in Szafarnia. In accordance with the will of the mother, Frederick sent a letters almost daily from Szafarnia.

 

 

• Wenecja (85 km south-west of Toruń)

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An open-air museum in Wenecja (English: Venice) collects and exhibits steam locomotives, passenger and freight cars, trolleys, railwaymen's tools, signalling equipment, contents of an old waiting room, old maps. One of the oldest locomotive is the German one made by Orenstein & Koppel in Berlin in 1900. The Tx-1116 locomotive made by Henschel & Son (Kassel, 1918) and the Tx4-564 locomotive made by Hanomag (Hannover, 1923) are also very interesting. A real rarity is the Belgian locomotive made by Les Ateliers Metallurgiques Nivelles with the unique wheel arrangement 2-3-1 ("Pacific"), and the only one which has steam brakes. There are also steam locomotives made in the first Polish plant in Chrzanów. 

The exhibition is complemented by railway infrastructure: a historic waiting room, a level crossing attendant box with a gate, tracks with junctions, points, a sweep used for replenishing water in locomotives’ boilers, turn-table enabling changing direction.

The museum is loceted on the trial of tourist rail from Żnin to Biskupin Arhcaeological Museum.

 

• Grudziądz, ul. Wodna 3/5 (65 km north of Toruń)

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Museum in Grudziądz was founded in 1884. Beginning of the collections was a few private object sets provided as a gift for a new public institution. From its early days it has become a many-themed museum. You could see the monuments of archaeology, history, ethnography, art, crafts and numismatics.

 

 

• Brodnica, ul. Św. Jakuba 1 (65 km north-east of Toruń)

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Museum in Brodnica was established in 1973. It collects the artefacts of archaeology, history, ethnography and nature. Museum in Brodnica functions in three historic buildings located in the town centre: in the 14th century Chełmińska (Chełmno) Gate, cellars of the 14th century Teutonic castle ruins and in the Baroque granary.

Museum organizes annual wide famous Historical and Archaeological Festival "Medievalia". Every year it gather hundreds of participants, among them Knight Guilds from all over the country and abroad and several thousand spectators.

 

 

• Lubostroń (71 km west of Toruń)

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The palace was built in the years 1795-1800 by Count Frederick Skórzewski within the area farm Piłatowo, which changed its name to the present in 1800 (the heart of 'beloved secluded spot' (Polish: 'lube ustronie')). The palace's designer was Stanisław Zawadzki - an outstanding architect of the era of Polish King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who based the project after the Italian famous designer of the 16th century, Andrea Palladio.

 

 

• Bydgoszcz, ul. Grodzka 7-11 (47 km west of Toruń)

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The idea to establish a museum in Bydgoszcz was implemented only when the city had been taken over by Polish authorities in 1920. The newly established Municipal Museum did not have abundant collections; these were first of all historical items from the fields of archaeology, history, numismatics and ethnography. After necessary adaptation works, the Municipal Museum named after Leon Wyczółkowski was officially opened on April 11, 1946.

 

 

• Tuchola, ul. Podgórna 3 (86 km north-west of Toruń)

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The museum was opened on 27 September 1980. Initially it was a branch of the District Museum in Bydgoszcz. In 1992 it was transferred under the management of the Tuchola Forest Landscape Park, and since 2001 the museum has been run by the County Office in Tuchola. The museum is housed in a 19th century building, the former granary. It's located at the former 14th and 15th century city walls and moats.