The Museum of Architecture opened in 1965 in a Late Gothic Bernardine church and monastery dating back to the second half of the fifteenth century. Originally a branch of the Museum of the City of Wroclaw, when it was known as the Museum of Architecture and Reconstruction, it was later became an independent, specialised institution called the Museum of Architecture. Since 1989, it has been included among the "special status" museums. In 2000, the City of Wroclaw's Architectural Archive was incorporated into the museum.
The museum's holdings show the evolution of architecture in general, though with a special focus on Poland, and also illustrate architects' lives and work. Among the exhibits are stone elements of mediaeval and modern architecture, including the famous Jaksa Tympanum from the former Benedictine abbey in Olbin and a Gothic tympanum with a vernicle (sudarium). The museum holds Poland's largest collection of stained glass and glaziery, which is also one of Europe's most valuable collections its kind, including Romanesque stained glass of Ezekiel; fourteenth century Gothic stained glass; Renaissance, Mannerist, Art Nouveau and Art Deco stained glass; masterpieces of architectural details, such as panelling and floor tiles, woodworking tools, fireplaces and stoves, door handles, stove tiles, assortment of signs, grates and other architectural elements; art works depicting historical architecture, including prints, drawings and paintings; blue-prints, sketches and models illustrating the successive steps of the architectural process; designs by Polish and foreign architects, such as a collection of designs by Romual Loegler from the 1980's; various holdings related to Polish and foreign architecture, including documentation on the lives and accomplishments of Polish architects working both in Poland and abroad; manuscripts, letters and other mementoes connected with architects and their designs; holdings of the City of Wroclaw's Architectural Archive, made up of some 1,200 linear metres of documents up to 1945; some 400 linear metres of contemporary, post-1945 records, formerly in possession of the Architectural Police and the Wroclaw Municipal Architectural Committee, including designs by distinguished Wroclaw-based architects such as Max Berg, Hans Poelzig, Adolf Rading, Hans Schauron, Erich Mendelsohn, Otto Rudolf Salvisberg, Richard Plüdemann, Karl Lüdecke, Friedrich Stüler and many others; a collection of photographs of old and new architecture, including historical photographs of Wroclaw and Lower Silesia, glass negatives from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, old postcards and documentation on the destruction of Wroclaw.
Permanent exhibitions: "Relics of Wroclaw's Mediaeval Architecture"; "Architectural Craft from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Century"; "Wroclaw: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow"; "The Art of Geometry: A Gallery of Polish Geometrical and Constructivist Art".
Muzeum Architektury we Wrocławiu
ul. Bernardyńska 5
50-156 Wrocław
Region: dolnośląskie
Phone: (+48 71) 344 82 78, 343 36 75
Fax: (+48 71) 344 65 77
WWW: www.ma.wroc.pl
