|
7km south from Checiny is the outstanding museum of folk architecture, or skansen (April-Oct Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; Nov-March Mon-Fri 9am-2pm; 6zl) at TOKARNIA . The open-air museum is visible from the road, up on the hillside, though signposting is almost nonexistent: if you're travelling by bus (from Kielce, take buses heading for Jedrzejow via Checiny) ask the driver for the skansen and you'll be dropped close by. In summer a basic cafe operates in the house at the entrance to the area. The main idea of a skansen is to provide a showcase for rural architecture and customs, in many cases all but disappeared now, and on this score the Tokarnia site succeeds admirably. Established in the 1970s, and still adding to its collection of buildings, the skansen is one of the largest and best in the country. Well laid out, with all the buildings grouped according to surrounding regions of Malopolska, this museum provides an enjoyable survey of local architectural traditions. Helpfully, there's a brief guide in each building in English, French and German outlining its traditional use, and, if your Polish is up to it, a devoted contingent of women from local villages there to fill you in on all the details. They're justly proud of their particular building, and in customary rural fashion, in no hurry to see you move on, so be prepared to spend at least a couple of minutes paying each structure the required respect. The thatched and shingle-roofed buildings assembled here encompass the full range of rural life, with an emphasis on traditional farmsteads, from relatively prosperous setups - the more religious pictures on display the wealthier the family - to the dwellings of the poorest subsistence farmers. Great care and attention has been paid to re-creating the interiors as they would have been in the early part of the century and beyond, with many of the houses containing an amazing array of old wooden farm implements, kitchen utensils and tools used in traditional crafts such as ostlery, shingling, brewing, woodcarving, herbal medicinal preparations and candle-making. Additionally, there are a number of other buildings such as a wonderful old windmill, a pharmacy and a fine mid-nineteenth-century dwor of the kind inhabited by relatively well-off szchlachta families from Chopin's generation and beyond up until World War II. The contrast between its size and opulence and the other ruder dwellings on display is striking, reflecting the grinding poverty and endemic inequalities of rural Polish society that were a major factor in the successive waves of emigration to the New World from the latter part of the last century on into the 1930s.
Your Tip for Tokarnia
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Tokarnia - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Tokarnia - visit the main Tokarnia forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Tokarnia webguide section below! Thanks.
|
