Władysław Orkan Museum in Rabka-Zdrój

The Władysław Orkan Museum (Muzeum im. Władysława Orkana) in the spa town of Rabka-Zdrój is one of the oldest regional museums in the Polish Beskids. It occupies the former parish church of St Mary Magdalene, a wooden church built in 1606 at the expense of the owners of Rabka at the time. The church is built of spruce timbers on a stone foundation in the manner of Gothic wooden churches; it was remodelled several times, so its interior mixes the styles of different periods. The square tower originally stood separately, and its bold post-and-brace structure carries a heavy Baroque dome.

At the beginning of the 20th century the church ceased to be used for services, and on the initiative of the local branch of the Polish Tatra Society a regional museum was set up inside it and formally opened in 1936. Its patron is Władysław Orkan (1875–1930), a writer from nearby Poręba Wielka known as "the bard of the Gorce landscape". Today the collection numbers some 5,000 objects from the lands of the Zagórzanie, an ethnographic group of highlanders between the Gorce and the Beskid Wyspowy. The museum has one of the largest collections in Poland of folk "świątki" — carved wooden figures of saints.

What to see

• The church itself: the organ of 1778, one of the most valuable in Poland, still played at summer concerts; ceiling paintings of St Mary Magdalene and the Coronation of the Virgin; in a side altar a painting of the Virgin and Child, part of a triptych from the first half of the 16th century. Around it are the stone wall of the former churchyard, three old tombstones and centuries-old oaks, limes and ashes.
• The pottery room — as late as the 19th century Rabka was a major pottery centre supplying Podhale, Spiš, Orava, Slovakia and Hungary; the stages of clay working, tools and local potters' wares are on display.
• Shepherding and crafts — the equipment of a shepherds' hut, milk vessels, moulds for sheep's cheese, and the tools of carpenters, joiners, coopers, wheelwrights, blacksmiths and shoemakers.
• The costume room — 19th–20th-century festive dress of the Zagórzanie and pre-war patterns of the embroidered "parzenica" on woollen trousers.
• Folk sculpture — St John of Nepomuk, Florian, Lawrence, the Virgin and the Pensive Christ; among them a Pensive Christ from Maków Podhalański that Pablo Picasso himself admired in Wrocław in 1948.

The museum runs workshops in glass painting, folk toys and pottery, and annual events: an Easter palm competition, the blessing of food baskets on Holy Saturday, the Night of Museums, organ concerts in July–August and a folk craft fair on 22 July.

Practical information

The church stands on Orkana Street in the centre of Rabka-Zdrój, next to the railway station, so it is easy to reach by train or bus from Kraków or Zakopane. The exhibition occupies four rooms in the lower part of the tower; about an hour is enough for the church and the museum. In summer the museum is open daily; in winter it is closed on Mondays. Rabka is a well-known children's spa, and the museum welcomes families: workshops can be booked by phone. The old wooden building has thresholds and steps, so wheelchair users should phone ahead.

Nearby: trails and peaks

The Main Trail of Beskidy, the longest trail in the Polish Beskids, passes right by the church. From Rabka our trails Rabka – Luboń into the Beskid Wyspowy and Raba Wyżna – Rabka also start. Two kilometres from the museum is the Chabówka Railway Open-Air Museum with its steam locomotives.

Official website: muzeum-orkana.pl

Photos: Wiktor Baron | www.baronphotography.eu, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; Galaith, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, Wikimedia Commons; Piotr Widerski, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Jan Majer Palikot, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; Tomasz Górny (Nemo5576), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.