Muzeum Kultury Kurpiowskiej w Ostrołęce

About the museum

The museum was established in December 1975 as the Muzeum Okręgowe w Ostrołęce (Ostrołęka District Museum). Its seat became a neoclassical tenement house from the 1820s, originally built for the post office. At first the institution had only the first floor of the building, and it did not have the whole building until 1980. From the start it had a multi-department structure: ethnographic, historical, art and educational, and from 1979 also archaeological.

In the 1980s branches of the museum were set up. In 1991 the Zagroda Kurpiowska (Kurpie Farmstead) in Kadzidło, which still belongs to the museum, was created from the Kurpie Room in Kadzidło. In 1998 the District Museum was renamed the Muzeum Kultury Kurpiowskiej (Museum of Kurpie Culture), and since 1999 its organiser has been the Mazovian Voivodeship self-government. Renovations in 1989–1992 and in 2006 enlarged the exhibition halls, added storerooms and roofed over the courtyard, which is now used for concerts and workshops.

The collections number over 19,000 items. The ethnographic department holds more than 3,300 objects from the Puszcza Zielona and Biała forests, including over 700 paper cut-outs (wycinanki), amber ornaments, costumes, sacred sculptures and wickerwork. The historical and artistic department documents the history of Ostrołęka in the 19th and 20th centuries, the national uprisings, especially the battle of 26 May 1831, and the work of interwar artists. The museum also includes the Pomnik Mauzoleum (Mausoleum Monument) to those who fell in the battle of Ostrołęka and the Zagroda Kurpiowska in Kadzidło.

Highlights

• Collection of more than 700 Kurpie paper cut-outs
• Exhibition “Ostrołęka. 6 x Narew” on the town’s relationship with the river
• Collections of amber ornaments, costumes and sacred sculpture from Kurpie
• Room on the work of soldiers of the November Uprising in the Great Emigration
• Mausoleum Monument to the 1831 battle and the Zagroda Kurpiowska open-air farmstead in Kadzidło

Permanent exhibitions

• Ostrołęka. 6 x Narew – The exhibition in six sections, named after terms from a dice game, shows the town’s links with the River Narew in its history, economy, defence and leisure.
• Ostrołęka i Kurpie. Między wątkiem historii a osnową życia – Archival materials and everyday objects show the lives of the town’s residents and of the Kurpie village, and the relations between them.
• Wycinanka kurpiowska – The room shows the development of the form and function of the paper cut-out, one of the best-known fields of Kurpie art.

Founded

1975

Operated by

Samorząd Województwa Mazowieckiego

Admission & discounts

Free admission: Free admission on Sundays.

Prices apply to the permanent exhibitions. Holders of the Large Family Card (Karta Dużej Rodziny) receive a 50% discount on tickets to the museum, the Mausoleum Monument and the Zagroda Kurpiowska; the discount cannot be combined with other reductions. Holders of the Ostrołęka Senior Card receive a 20% discount on tickets to events.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible
• Elevator
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description

Steps lead to the main entrance, but the alternative entrance from ul. Staromostowa is barrier-free and leads to a lift; there is an intercom with a view of the entrance at the door. On the first floor a hydraulic platform, operated by a member of staff, is available, and at the entrances to the rooms at Bema 9 there are small thresholds. The toilet for people with disabilities is on the ground floor. Visitors with visual impairments can borrow an audio guide with audio description, and one of the rooms has a tactile graphic of a Kurpie paper cut-out. There is no induction loop; a Polish Sign Language (PJM) interpreter can be booked with seven working days’ notice. The Kadzidło open-air museum is not adapted for independent wheelchair use.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Baby changing facilities

The museum organises family events and museum lessons. A changing table is in the toilet on the first floor of the Bema 9 building. A family ticket costs PLN 30.

Getting there & parking

Cars may enter the courtyard only if they belong to people with disabilities.

Amenities & dining

• Coat check

Larger luggage, backpacks, umbrellas and outer clothing must be left in the cloakroom.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent

Available for hire: an education room (PLN 66 per hour) and the covered courtyard (PLN 120 per hour). A photo session on the museum grounds costs PLN 60.

Plan your visit