Museum of the Oil and Gas Industry in Bóbrka

The Ignacy Łukasiewicz Museum of the Oil and Gas Industry in Bóbrka is no ordinary museum: it is a genuine oil mine, founded in 1854 and still working today. It is regarded as the oldest operating oil mine in the world. It lies in beech woodland near the village of Bóbrka in the Chorkówka commune, about 7 km from Krosno in the Podkarpackie region. The museum grounds cover more than 20 hectares; since 2018 the mine has been a Polish Historic Monument, and the museum is preparing documentation for a UNESCO World Heritage nomination.

There is a detail here that matters to Ukrainian visitors: the symbolic birthday of the oil industry is 31 July 1853, when kerosene lamps were lit publicly for the first time in Lviv, at the hospital in the Lychakiv district. They were the work of the pharmacist Ignacy Łukasiewicz. A year later the landowner Tytus Trzecieski invited him to Bóbrka, where "rock oil" had long been seeping out of the ground in the forest. Together with the village owner Karol Klobassa-Zrencki they began digging the first hand-dug wells. In 1855 the Wojciech pit struck a strong inflow of oil, and in 1856 a distillery opened in nearby Ulaszowice. Łukasiewicz ran the enterprise, introduced new drilling methods and in 1872 erected a stone obelisk in the middle of the mine to commemorate its founding — it still stands there today.

What to see

• 19th-century pits — Franek (around 1860, dug by hand to a depth of 20 m) and Janina (dug by hand to 95 m, later drilled to 156 m and still in production). In them you can see real crude oil, the "black gold".
• The 1872 obelisk and the bust of Ignacy Łukasiewicz.
• The so-called Łukasiewicz House (the 1864 administration building) — a pharmacy exhibition, a collection of kerosene lamps, photographs, a geology display, multimedia and holograms, plus Łukasiewicz's study.
• The wooden smithy of 1856 and the mechanical workshop of 1864 with their old tools.
• Open-air drilling equipment — a reconstruction of an 1862 hand drilling rig, an 1885 Canadian rig with a steam locomobile, a 1923 Bitków-type percussion rig, rotary rigs, pumping jacks, gas meters, a CPN pavilion with vintage fuel pumps and the "1960s mine" sector.

You can explore on your own with no time limit, or with a guide on one of three routes: "In the footsteps of the oil pioneers" (about 1.5 hours), "From digging to drilling" (about 2 hours) and "Three centuries of the Bóbrka mine" (about 3 hours, Tuesday to Friday only, book a week ahead). It works well for families with children: the paths run through the forest and most of the exhibits are outdoors.

Practical information

Address: ul. Kopalniana 35, Bóbrka, 38-458 Chorkówka. The easiest way to get there is by car from Krosno; you can park at the museum. The museum is closed on Mondays. From 1 May to 30 September it is open Tuesday to Friday 8:00–17:00 and Saturday and Sunday 10:00–18:00; in April and October Tuesday to Friday 8:00–16:00 and at weekends 9:00–17:00; in March 8:00–16:00; and from 2 November to the end of February 7:00–15:00. In 2026 it is also closed on 6 January, 4–6 April, 4 June, 1 and 11 November and 24–26 December. Admission is charged: standard ticket 25 zł, reduced 15 zł, family ticket (2 adults and 2 children) 64 zł; children under 7 free. A Polish-speaking guide costs 150–300 zł per group depending on the route, an English-speaking guide (route II) 225 zł; groups of up to 30, booking required. You can also tour the grounds by electric cart with a guide (from 275 zł for 5 people). Information as of October 2026.

Nearby

About 24 km to the south, near the Slovak border, is the Museum of Lemko Culture in Zyndranowa. To the west lies the medieval town of Biecz with its town-hall tower and walls, and further east the open-air museum in Sanok, one of the largest in Poland.

Official website: bobrka.pl

Photos: Kroton, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; Przykuta, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; Honza Groh (Jagro), CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.