Museum of Cieszyn Silesia
6 Regera street, 43-400 Cieszyn, tel/fax 033 551 29 32-33
http://www.muzeum-cieszyn.ox.pl
The Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn is one of the oldest museums in Europe. It was set up by the rev. Leopold Szersznik (1747 – 1814), the most outstanding representative of The Enlightenment in Cieszyn Silesia who made his museum and library collections accessible to the public in 1802. At the end of the 19th century further museum branches were established in Cieszyn, namely: The Silesian Museum (run by the Ethnographic Association), The Town Museum (financed by the municipal authorities), and The Museum of General Curacy which gathered sacral art items and other objects by order of the church authorities. In 1930 all these were combined into one Municipal Museum and the palace of Count Larisch became its premises. After World War II the Museum in Cieszyn separated the archival and library collections. After a lengthy renovation the Museum presented, in June 2002, a new permanent exhibition to the public entitled “ At the crossroads of histories and cultures.”
The Museum of Cieszyn Silesia has over 70 thousand exhibits that are kept in the following sections: Art, Archaeology, Ethnography, History and Engineering and Photography. Apart from that, it also possesses cartographic and numismatic collections and its library has about 22 thousand books. The Museum of Cieszyn Silesia has branches in Skoczów, Wisła and Górki Wielkie.