The Maria Konopnicka Museum is housed in an eighteenth century brick manor house and a granary built in 1985-1991 on the foundations of a manorial granary dating back to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Both are set in a 3 hectare (7.4 acre) park. The property was presented to Maria Konopnicka, a poetess of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as a gift from the Polish nation in 1903 to commemorate twenty-five years of her literary activity. Her family continued to manage it until 1956; the museum opened a year later.
The Museum has objects related to literature from the Positivist, Romantic and Young Poland periods, as well as works of art, historical and ethnographic holdings, furniture and accessories. Of particular interest are Maria Konopnicka's manuscripts, published in 1881 under the title FROM THE PAST, her autographs and letters, diplomas and laudatory speeches in her honour, as well as autographs and manuscripts by other nineteenth and twentieth century Polish writers, most notably by Eliza Orzeszkowa and Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski. On display are also documents relating to other inhabitants of the Zarnowiec manor and to Maria Konopnicka's daughters, Laura and Zofia, and a large collection of literary works, studies and stories of Konopnicka's life and work dating to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and from contemporary times. The holdings include also Poland's largest collection of paintings by Maria Dulebianka, a fine painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who stayed at Konopnicka's manor during the years 1903 to 1910, and original illustrations to Konopnicka's works by Jan Marcin Szancer and others. There is also a large collection of medals depicting writers and famous Polish women, and one of Poland's richest collections of stylish ink bottles and desk instruments from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Permanent exhibitions: At the Manor house: Collection of Anniversary Gifts (inside the Pantry, Dark Room and Old Study); Manor House Interiors: The Study, Hall, Dining Room, Cupboard Room, Kitchen, Room and Workshop; At the Granary: Far Away Went My Songs.
The park has exquisite views and plants, including some valuable specimens of old trees. The names of boulevards that Konopnicka used to walk along while living at Zarnowiec are still in use. Some spots are evocative of key events and anniversaries in Konopnicka's life and work, such as the Suwalki Boulder erected in honour of the 150th anniversary of the poetess's birth, a bust - a bronze cast commemorating the 80th anniversary of her arrival at Zarnowiec, and the Medallion, unveiled on the 90th anniversary of Konopnicka's being presented with the Manor.
Muzeum Marii Konopnickiej
Żarnowiec
Region: podkarpackie
Phone: (+48 13) 438 08 35
Phone/Fax: (+48 13) 435 20 13
WWW: www.muzeumzarnowiec.pl
Email: muzeumzarnowiec@interia.pl
