Pogórze Village Open-Air Museum in Szymbark

The Professor Roman Reinfuss Pogórze Village Open-Air Museum in Szymbark (Skansen Wsi Pogórzańskiej im. prof. Romana Reinfussa w Szymbarku) is a small open-air museum a few kilometres west of Gorlice, on the gentle hills of the Gorlice Foothills (Pogórze Gorlickie). It is a branch of the Karwacjan and Gładysz Manor Houses Museum in Gorlice (Muzeum „Dwory Karwacjanów i Gładyszów”). The buildings were brought here from villages of the Pogórze – the land between the Biała and Olszynka rivers that borders the old Lemko villages to the south. This was home to the Pogórzanie, a Polish ethnographic group and neighbours of the Lemkos.

The idea of the museum was put forward in 1962 by the regional conservator of monuments, Jerzy Tur, who proposed taking over the remains of the old manor estate in Szymbark, together with its Renaissance fortified manor house (kasztel) that needed restoration. In 1974–1975 the first six buildings were re-erected on the site: a smoke hut from Siary, a cottage from Gródek, a parish barn from Zagórzany, an oil mill from Gródek, a windmill from Kryg and a well from Wójtowa. They were followed by a barn and a cowshed from Stróżna, a forge from Turza and a cottage from Szymbark itself, and after 1987 by a cottage from Moszczenica, another windmill and a granary. Almost all the buildings are genuine, moved from the villages; only the roadside cross and the pottery kiln are reconstructions. The open-air museum officially opened in 1987, has been run by the Gorlice museum since 2007, and in 2010 was named after Professor Roman Reinfuss, the renowned researcher of Carpathian folk culture.

What to see

• Farmsteads and farm buildings – a smoke hut heated without a chimney, thatched cottages, barns, a cowshed, a granary, a well, beehives and old orchards.
• An oil mill, two windmills and a forge – the village "technologies" of the past: you can see how oil was pressed, grain was ground and tools were forged.
• Exhibitions in the cottages: "Everyday and Festive – the Traditional Pogórze Costume" (in the cottage from Gródek) and "Herbs in the Tradition of the Pogórzanie" (in the cottage from Szymbark), while the granary shows work by the folk poet and amateur sculptor Józef Śliwa.
• "Headquarters of the Gorlice Operation 1915" – a historical exhibition in the parish barn, a reminder that in May 1915 it was here that the breakthrough happened which changed the course of the First World War on the Eastern Front.
• Farm machinery – carts, sledges and machines under a separate canopy.

In summer the museum holds folk festivals, craft demonstrations, re-enactments of seasonal and family customs, concerts and temporary exhibitions of folk art.

Practical information

Szymbark lies on road 28 between Gorlice and Grybów; the open-air museum is easy to reach by car or by local bus from Gorlice. Next door stands the Renaissance kasztel – it belongs to the same museum but has been closed to visitors since 1 February 2026 until further notice, so plan for the open-air museum only. The open-air museum is open all year (from Tuesday; longest hours May–September); a standard ticket costs 16 zł and entry is free on Tuesdays – details in the "At a glance" box. Allow about an hour, an hour and a half with the exhibitions. Paths are grass and earth, and the cottages have thresholds. The wide meadow with windmills and beehives is good for a walk with children.

Nearby: trails and peaks

The Trail of Wincenty Pol, a mountain route across the Pogórze towards the Low Beskids, passes 150 m from the museum, and the Gorlice – Jamnica trail starts nearby. Lovers of wooden architecture should drive on to the Wooden Church of Saints Philip and James in Sękowa (UNESCO) and the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Owczary, and in summer to the Klimkówka Reservoir (Lake Klimkówka).

Official website: muzeum.gorlice.pl

Photos: Andrzej Otrębski, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Pjsalata, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; Kroton, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons.