PTTK Regional Museum in Gorlice: Battle of Gorlice 1915 and Łukasiewicz

The Ignacy Łukasiewicz PTTK Regional Museum in Gorlice (Muzeum Regionalne PTTK im. Ignacego Łukasiewicza w Gorlicach) is the main place in town telling the story of the 1915 Battle of Gorlice, one of the greatest battles of the First World War on the Eastern Front. It is run by the Gorlice branch of the Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society (PTTK) and occupies two connected buildings on Wąska Street; the main one is a single-storey townhouse from the 1780s–1790s, the oldest residential building in Gorlice.

The museum's roots go back to 1919, when local enthusiasts organised an exhibition of war relics, and the idea of a permanent display arose after an exhibition in 1935. It officially opened on 22 July 1957; its first manager was Alfred Wacławski, and members of the local PTTK helped restore the building. For the centenary of the First World War, in 2014, the military exhibition was rearranged, and in 2022 – the Year of Ignacy Łukasiewicz and the museum's 65th anniversary – a commemorative mural appeared on the building's wall.

What to see

• "War Relics Exhibition. The Battle of Gorlice 1915" – six rooms on the ground floor and in restored historic cellars. Uniforms, decorations, caricatures and personal belongings of soldiers of three armies – Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian; equipment and weapons from the fighting of late 1914 and early 1915, a model of trench warfare and the equipment of a field dressing station. The highlight is a 2.5 × 5 m relief model showing the positions and movements of units on the first day of the offensive, 2 May 1915. Further rooms cover the building of war cemeteries and photographs of the ruined town, and wax figures of people connected with the region's wartime history stand in the cellars.
• The beginnings of the oil industry and Ignacy Łukasiewicz – Łukasiewicz came to Gorlice in the autumn of 1853, and according to the museum the world's first kerosene street lamp was lit here in 1854. The room holds a collection of oil lamps, models of drilling towers and bits, samples of oil products and an original alembic from Łukasiewicz's pharmacy.
• Ethnography of the Pogórzanie and Lemkos – two rooms on the first floor: a village cottage interior from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with costumes, household items and craft tools, bobbin lace from Bobowa; Lemko costumes and photographs of church interiors with iconostases. The poet Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, born in 1909 in Nowica near Gorlice, is also commemorated.
• History of the town of Gorlice and temporary exhibitions.

Practical information

The museum is right in the centre of Gorlice, a few minutes' walk from the market square; you can leave the car in the town car parks. It is open Tuesday to Friday all year, and at weekends only from April to September; a full ticket costs 13 zł (all details in the "At a glance" box). A visit takes about an hour. Captions in the military rooms are translated into English. Part of the exhibition is in the cellars and on the first floor, reached by stairs. For school pupils and anyone interested in the First World War, it is the best "introduction" to the many war cemeteries of the Low Beskids.

Nearby: trails and peaks

Mountain trails into the Low Beskids start in Gorlice: Gorlice – Jamnica and Folusz – Gorlice. A few kilometres away are the Wooden Church of Saints Philip and James in Sękowa (UNESCO) and the Pogórze Village Open-Air Museum in Szymbark with its exhibition on the Gorlice offensive headquarters. Anyone interested in the history of oil should continue to the Museum of the Oil and Gas Industry in Bóbrka.

Official website: pttkgorlice.pl

Photos: myself (User:Piotrus), CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.