Muzeum Kowalstwa w Bieńkowicach

Private museum in the working forge of the Socha family, with blacksmith's tools and demonstrations of traditional smithing; visits by arrangement.

Ask the museum for opening hours

Directions

About the museum

The tradition of the forge in Bieńkowice dates back to 1702, when the forge was founded by Janek Socha, a soldier in the army of John III Sobieski. According to family tradition, he fell in love with a girl from Bieńkowice when the troops were marching to Vienna, and after the war he settled in the village. The present brick forge building was erected in 1840 on the site of an earlier wooden one, and the workshop was run by the Socha family for nine generations. Today the workshop is run by Robert Socha, a master blacksmith since 2004.

In 1998 the family opened the Museum of Blacksmithing, regarded as the largest private museum of this field in Poland. It holds equipment and tools that are no longer used, including a hearth driven by a leather bellows, anvils, vices, blacksmith's tongs, and tools for shoeing horses and making wheel rims.

The museum is housed in the forge workshop on the grounds of the former forge, so visitors can see traditional blacksmithing techniques as well as a small collection of exhibits. Iron horseshoes can be bought as a souvenir. Bieńkowice lies on the river Psina in the commune of Krzyżanowice and is regarded by enthusiasts of blacksmithing as an important place for this craft.

Highlights

Working forge of the Socha family with a tradition dating back to 1702
Private collection of blacksmith's tools and equipment
Demonstrations of traditional smithing techniques
Hearth with a leather bellows and old anvils
Iron horseshoes as a souvenir