„Living” History Museums

Porta Posnania ICHOT (Interactive Centre for the History of Cathedral Island)

Multimedia, interactive Polish history exhibitions

Lying at the junction of different cultures, Poland has multicultural traditions and distinctive historical monuments. Many valuable sites and landmarks illustrating Polish history and culture give Poland a competitive edge on the European tourism market.

You can explore Poland’s rich history and cultural heritage at interactive and multimedia museums.

Polish museums are changing as fast as our reality. Today it’s hard to imagine a museum without interactive stations, themed workshops or multimedia. Museums are also major cultural centres offering performances, concerts and other activities.

Such innovative „living” museums include Porta Posnania ICHOT (Interactive Centre for the History of Cathedral Island), the best place to start a tour of Poland and Poznań. In fact, Poznań’s Cathedral Island is where Poland’s history began. Comprising a modernist main building and the Cathedral Sluice, which are connected by a footbridge, ICHOT shows the history and historical sites of Cathedral Island through multimedia. The centre represents an innovative approach to museums, architecture, public spaces and local community life. Porta Posnania isn’t a traditional museum but a dynamic cultural institution blended into the city’s historical fabric. Attracting many visitors, it is a place for creative activity, meetings and relaxation.

(Porta Posnania ICHOT, ul. Gdańska 2, 61-123 Poznań, www.BramaPoznania.pl)

A great lesson in Polish history is offered by the Rynek Underground in Kraków – a multimedia, interactive branch of the Museum of Kraków. It features remarkable archaeological finds and innovative display options: digital reproductions of historical objects, 3D digital reconstructions, touchscreens and holograms. This archaeological park, unique in Europe, shows a cross-section of the great and vibrant medieval Kraków. Its structural and architectural relics, intact in many places, include stone-paved roads with ruts left by carts carrying goods in the times of Ladislaus the Elbow-High, and Kraków’s oldest commercial brick structures with various objects either lost or deliberately left by olden-day visitors. Following Traces of Kraków’s European Identity, the Rynek Underground’s unique permanent multimedia exhibition four metres beneath today’s Main Market Square, gives visitors a taste of “time travel”. You can not only see but also touch history here. The themes are defined by archaeological research carried out in the years 2005-2010.

(Museum of Kraków – Rynek Underground Branch, Rynek Główny 1, 31-042 Kraków, www.podziemiarynku.com)

A fascinating though painful part of Poland’s history is shown at the Warsaw Rising Museum. Combining past with present, a site of memory with an innovative exhibition, it uses multimedia to recreate the atmosphere of Warsaw during the 1944 uprising. Interacting with visitors through images, light and sounds, it helps them understand history. The almost 1,000 exhibits, 1,500 photographs and films are displayed on over 3,000 sq. metres in a former tram power station. This is not a museum for viewing, but for experiencing, for feeling the reality of battle and daily life during the uprising’s 63 days. The museum harmoniously blends painful memories with new technologies. Visitors cannot help but be changed by the horrifying but also amazing history of those events.

(Warsaw Rising Museum, ul. Grzybowska 79, 00-844 Warszawa, www.1944.pl)