The Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec invites all history enthusiasts to view the new exhibition “Bolesławiec in a Pre-War Photograph.” The exhibition has been available since Friday, 18 December 2020, on the museum’s website at: muzeum.boleslawiec.pl/wystawy/wystawa-wirtualna.
The presentation includes photographs of pre-war Bolesławiec preserved in three collections: the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec, Haus Schlesien in Königswinter-Heisterbacherrott, and the Görlitzer Ratsarchiv/Stadtarchiv. The first collection entered the holdings of the Bolesławiec museum in 2001 as a deposit from Zdzisław Mirecki, an activist of the Bolesławiec Enthusiasts’ Society and the Lower Silesian Regional Society. The second is an album containing a set of photographs of public buildings and places, presented to Bolesławiec mayor Henry Richter, who held office from 1900 to 1920. In 1959, the collection entered the holdings of the Bundesheimatgruppe Bunzlau zu Siegburg association. In 2019, the association transferred the album, together with all its exhibits, to Haus Schlesien in Königswinter-Heisterbacherrott, from where it was loaned to the Bolesławiec museum as a long-term deposit. The Görlitzer Ratsarchiv/Stadtarchiv, in turn, preserves a collection of photographs from the studio of Robert Scholz (1843–1926), a photographer born in Bolesławiec.
The photographs, created in the second half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century, are iconographic material of extraordinary value to researchers of Bolesławiec’s history. They show public buildings, places of worship, monuments and architectural details in Bolesławiec. Many photographs document the city’s urban transformations during this period, including the demolition of the Pepper Mill (1908), the construction of the indoor swimming pool at the Municipal Baths (1914–1915), and the construction of the concrete bridge over the Bóbr (1919). They also show structures that no longer exist, such as the Lower Gate, demolished in 1867, and the Great Pot by master Joppe, destroyed in 1945. Rare aerial photographs showing the city’s urban layout from 100 years ago are also unique.
The exhibition was prepared and made available as part of the “Gateway to the World of Collections” project, co-financed by the European Union from the resources of the European Regional Development Fund under the INTERREG V-A Czech Republic–Poland 2014–2020 programme. The project, carried out in cooperation with the Museum of the Czech Paradise in Turnov, aims to promote the collections of museums in the Czech–Polish borderland.
A virtual exhibition prepared as part of project no. CZ.11.4.120/0.0/0.0/16_026/0001082, entitled “Gateway to the World of Collections,” co-financed by the European Union from the resources of the European Regional Development Fund under the INTERREG V-A Czech Republic–Poland 2014–2020 Cooperation Programme
