Opening hours: Closed Mondays and public holidays; open all other days, 9am-4pm, May-September, 9am-5pm.
The Warmia (Ermeland) Museum is housed in a castle dating from the second half of the fourteenth century. Until 1795 the castle was the residence of Warmian bishops, many of whom contributed to the history of Poland in remarkable ways. For instance, Jan Stefan Wydzga was later to become the Primate and Grand Chancellor of the Crown; Andrzej Stanislaw Zaluski co-founded the famous Zaluski Library; Jan Dantyszek and Ignacy Krasicki were poets; and Mikolaj Kopernik (indeed a canon, not a bishop) was a great astronomer. The Gothic building was unaffected by the turbulent events of the Polish history, namely the eighteenth century partitions, the nineteenth century national uprisings and the twentieth century wars, and, following the 1985 restoration, its splendour can be fully appreciated. Particularly impressive is the inner court surrounded by the four castle wings. Featuring a two-storeyed arcade gallery from ca. 1380, this precious masterpiece has been deemed a world class building. Equally magnificent are the ceremonial rooms of the castle. Adorned with fourteenth through eighteenth century paintings, they include the Grand Refectory, the Chapel, the Cardinal Andrzej Batory Hall, the Castle Cupboard Hall, the Room on the Pillars in the basement, and the cellars. Visitors will also see the remains of the walls that defended the castle in the Middle Ages.
The exhibitions are mounted in twenty-one of the castle rooms and include "The Great Residents of the Lidzbark Castle"; "The Medieval Art of Warmia and Teutonic Prussia"; "The Warmian Painting of the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries"; "The Castle's Militaria" (including seventeenth and eigtheenth century gun barrels); "Old Masonry" (eg. borders of seventeenth and eighteenth century fireplaces); "Russian Icons from the Seventeenth to Twentieth Century"; and "Polish Twentieth Century Painting".
Muzeum Warmińskie
Oddział Muzeum Warmii i Mazur w Olsztynie
pl. Zamkowy 1
11-100 Lidzbark Warmiński
Region: warmińsko-mazurskie
Phone: (+48 89) 767 21 11
WWW: www.muzeum.olsztyn.pl
Email: muzeums@o2.pl
