Photo: Roland zh · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Polenmuseum

Polish museum in Rapperswil with collection on Polish history and culture; currently closed due to move to the castle courtyard.

Temporarily closed

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PolenmuseumTemporarily closed

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Temporarily closed. The museum is closed to visitors due to renovation work and preparation for the move to the castle courtyard; the exhibition at the castle ended in late August 2026. The archive is closed until November 2 and thereafter only digitally accessible.

About the museum

The Polenmuseum opened on October 23, 1870, founded by Polish émigré Władysław Plater as the first Polish "national" museum. Plater leased Rapperswil Castle from the city for 99 years at a symbolic rent and thus saved it from demolition. The museum was to preserve memories and artworks with Polish connections scattered abroad; donations from Polish exiles caused the exhibition, library with at times over 90,000 volumes, and archive to grow rapidly. In 1927, the collections were transferred to Poland in accordance with Plater's will, following the re-emergence of the Polish state.

In the 1930s, the Museum of Contemporary Poland was established at the castle, which also served during World War II as an educational and cultural center for Polish soldiers interned in Switzerland. When communist authorities wanted to rebuild the house for their purposes, the city terminated the lease, and the collections went to Poland in 1952. In 1954, Swiss and Polish émigrés founded the Association of Friends of the Polish Museum; in June 1975, the new Polish Museum, which continues to this day, opened at the castle.

By end of August 2026, the museum closed its exhibition in its previous form. Starting October 2026, renovation work begins for a new, significantly smaller location at the castle courtyard in the early library rooms. The collections remain the museum's property; the website primarily provides information digitally about the progress.