Muzeum Ziemi Dobrzyńskiej w Rypinie

About the museum

The idea of founding a regional museum in Rypin emerged in the early 1960s. The institution is housed in a building from 1895 that served in turn as the Russian administration, a military hospital during the First World War and the seat of the State Police (Policja Państwowa). In autumn 1939 the German occupation authorities installed the Gestapo and the Selbstschutz there. In the cellars, which after the war became known as the House of Execution (Dom Kaźni), some 2,000 people were murdered: landowners, members of the intelligentsia, priests, peasants and Jews.

The memory of this place became the basis for the founding, on 8 May 1968, of a Regional Chamber of National Memory (Regionalna Izba Pamięci Narodowej) with a martyrology and archaeology exhibition. In 1975 additional rooms on the ground floor were handed over for museum use, and after four years of renovation the Dobrzyń Land Museum (Muzeum Ziemi Dobrzyńskiej) opened on 22 July 1980 as a branch of the museum in Włocławek. Until 2002 the institution carried out extensive exhibition, research and publishing work, after which it was suspended because a thorough renovation was needed.

After modernisation the museum reopened on 14 April 2007. It now shows permanent exhibitions on the medieval stronghold in Starorypin, on schooling in the Dobrzyń Land from the late 19th century to 1970, and the cellars of the House of Execution as a place of commemoration of the victims. The museum also conducts archaeological research, runs museum lessons and organises a knights' camp (biwak rycerski).

Highlights

• Cellars of the House of Execution: exhibition and place of remembrance for the victims of 1939
• Exhibition “Old Rypin in the Shadows of the Past” with finds from excavations and replicas
• Former village classroom from the 1960s and 1970s
• Virtual 3D walk through the former stronghold in Rypin
• Museum lessons and a knights' camp

Permanent exhibitions

• Piwnice Domu Kaźni – Exhibition and place of remembrance devoted to landowners, members of the intelligentsia, clergy, peasants and Jews from Rypin and the surrounding area who were murdered during the Second World War.
• Stary Rypin w mrokach przeszłości – Exhibition with finds from the excavations at Starorypin and replicas of medieval equipment, showing the two phases of the stronghold's life: the early and the late Middle Ages.
• Szkolnictwo na Ziemi Dobrzyńskiej od końca XIX wieku do 1970 roku – Exhibition on the history of schooling, with a reconstructed classroom from the 1960s and 1970s and the home of a village teacher.

Founded

1980

Operated by

Muzeum Ziemi Dobrzyńskiej w Rypinie (samorządowa instytucja kultury)

Admission & discounts

Free admission: Free admission to the permanent exhibitions every Saturday.

Free admission is also granted to the families of people murdered during the Second World War in the Dobrzyń Land (according to the museum's list), and to museum staff on presentation of a museum ID or a Polish Museum Association (Stowarzyszenie Muzealników Polskich) card.

Accessibility

• Partially wheelchair accessible
• Elevator: not available
• Accessible restroom
• Accessible parking
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials: no information
• Audio description: no information

Three steps lead from ul. Warszawska to the entrance. The second entrance from the courtyard has a ramp, but it is usually closed and staff open it on request. Visitors in wheelchairs can reach the exhibitions on the first floor and in the cellars with a stair-climbing device operated by staff (up to 125 kg). Toilets are on every floor, and the ground-floor toilet is accessible to people with disabilities. There is no induction loop and no Braille signage; a Polish sign language interpreter can be booked with three working days' notice. Guide dogs are permitted.

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops

For children and young people the museum runs museum lessons, including interactive sessions on the medieval stronghold, and a knights' camp. When visiting the cellars of the House of Execution, it is worth remembering that this is a place of commemoration.

Getting there & parking

The museum is at ul. Warszawska 20 in Rypin.

Amenities & dining

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

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