Opening hours: Closed Mondays, 25th December, 1st January, 1st and 11th November; open Tuesday, 9am-5:30pm; Wednesday-Friday, 9am-3:30pm; Saturday, 10am-3:30pm; Sunday, 10am-4:30pm.
The Karpacz Museum was established in 1995, with the collection of toys assembled by Henryk Tomaszewski forming the core of its holdings. A celebrated artist and creator of the famous Wrocław-based Pantomime Theatre, Tomaszewski lived in Karpacz since 1968. His unique collection includes almost all kinds of toys to have been made in various countries of the world over the past 200 years. There are mass-made as well as artistic European and Japanese dolls made from all sorts of materials, such as ceramic clay, celluloid, porcelain, wax, plastic masses, corn leaves, and the like. The exhibits include figures wearing folk costume and traditional Jewish clothes as well as those representing historic characters. The collection covers also nativity scenes, building blocks, cars, furniture, etc.
The collection is presented in an interesting and stimulating way, the design being the work of Kazimierz Wisniak, the well-known Kraków set designer. Wisniak exhibits the dolls and other objects in glass cases mounted on shelves whose walls form a picturesque theatrical setting for genre as well as fairy-tale and fantastic scenes. There is, for instance, a Breton family shown against a backdrop of the sea, a Jewish family having their Sabbath supper, singing angels. The glass cases have the form of houses, making the visitor feel to be walking down the street and 'peeping' in through the windows at what is going on in the bedrooms, kitchens, photographers' ateliers, theatres and the like, all arranged with a great attention to detail. The exhibition does not follow any chronological or geographical order; on the contrary, toys from different parts of the world and different periods are placed side by side, thus forming a miniature world that looks as if it may come alive any minute.
Miejskie Muzeum Zabawek ze Zbiorów Henryka Tomaszewskiego
ul. Karkonoska 5
58-540 Karpacz
Region: woj. dolnośląskie
Phone: (+48 75) 761 85 23
WWW: www.muzeumzabawek.pl
Email: muzeumzabawek@poczta.onet.pl