Cultural property Cultural property does not have a universal definition, but it is commonly considered to be tangible (physical, material) items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society, as opposed to less tangible cultural expressions. They in ...

protection ( pl, ochrona zabytków) in Poland

Cultural property im Poland

According to Polish law, a cultural property item ( pl, zabytek; its plural form, pl, zabytki, means cultural property) is defined as an "immovable or a movable item, their parts or complexes, which are human creations or their byproducts, serving as a testimony of a past epoch or event, and whose preservation is in the societal interest due to their historical, artistic or scientific value." The designation has sometimes also colloquially been used by

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

and

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

scholars in a meaning incompatible with the legal definition, extended to cover also selected

intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Int ...

item types, in particular language, works of literature and music compositions (other than historical manuscripts, pieces of rare or historical editions, or

historical document Historical documents are original documents that contain important historical information about a person, place, or event and can thus serve as primary sources as important ingredients of the historical methodology. Significant historical documen ...

s, considered cultural property items), but its usage in such meaning has mainly been confined to professional jargon in

and

the arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

, while not being prevalent in everyday language. The increase in public awareness in Poland of

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

after the damage done during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, was largely the work of

Jan Zachwatowicz Jan Zachwatowicz (4 March 1900 – 18 August 1983) was a Polish architect, architectural historian, and restorer. Biography Zachwatowicz was born in Gatchina. He studied Industrial Civil Engineering at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Univers ...

, the Polish signatory of the

Venice Charter ''The Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites'' is a set of guidelines, drawn up in 1964 by a group of conservation professionals in Venice, that provides an international framework for the conservation and resto ...

Classification by type

The cultural property is officially classified into three categories: movable cultural property, immovable cultural property, archaeological cultural property.

Immovable cultural property

Immovable cultural property are categorized as type A items and include the following: * buildings or other individual constructions such as public art or memorials that have significant cultural value. * Group of buildings that constitutes a coherent unit, regardless of individual value, such as a ''cultural landscape'' or ''cityscape''. * Park of cultural importance, including natural monuments such as valuable trees, group of trees (park, forest, lane, etc.) or a boulder.

Movable cultural property

Movable cultural property, such as works of art or technology, as well as library or archival items, are catalogued as type B items; however, the Registry does not include movable items included in a museum inventory, in the national library collections or the national archival

fonds In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poe ...

Archaeological cultural property

Archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

s and artifacts are catalogued as type C items; however, the Registry does not include artifacts included in a museum inventory,.Definition of archeological cultural property
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Classification by form of recognition

Objects are recognized as cultural heritage protected by law in four ways: * if an object is added to the

Registry of Cultural Property Registry of Cultural Property ( pl, Rejestr zabytków) in Poland is a heritage register for Polish cultural property. It is maintained by the 16 voivodeship offices for cultural property protection ( pl, wojewódzkie urzędy ochrony zabytków) hea ...

(''Rejestr zabytków'') * if the heritage assigned a special status of

Historic Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

(''Pomnik historii''); see

List of Historic Monuments (Poland) Historic Monument ( pl, pomnik historii) is one of several categories of objects of cultural heritage in Poland, objects of cultural heritage (in the singular, ''zabytek'') in Poland. To be recognized as a Polish historic monument, an object mu ...

for a complete list * if the object is classified as a

cultural park Culture park ( pl, park kulturowy), in Poland, is a designation in the heritage register for cultural landscape-level objects of cultural heritage in Poland. , the National Heritage Board of Poland listed 38 culture parks. (The list is indecisiv ...

(''Park kulturowy'') * if a local government declares the object in need of protection

Cultural property protection organs

The cultural property protection organs ( pl, organy ochrony zabytków) of the national administration include the 16

voivodeship A voivodeship is the area administered by a voivode (Governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieval ...

offices for cultural property protection ( pl, wojewódzkie urzędy ochrony zabytków) headed by a voivodeship cultural property conservator ( pl, wojewódzki konserwator zabytków) acting on behalf of the

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...

. In addition, selected units of territorial self-government:

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

s, cities with county rights and

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

have used an option to appoint a communal, municipal, city or county cultural property conservator ( pl, gminny, miejski lub powiatowy konserwator zabytków) , with some tasks of the voivodeship conservator usually delegated to such an official under an agreement with the respective

, while the heads of the maritime offices are the first-tier organs in matters concerning maritime cultural property. Other state bodies may also be designated a first-tier organ in specific, justified cases on an ''ad hoc'' basis. The cultural property data is processed at the national level by the

National Institute of Cultural Heritage The National Institute of Cultural Heritage of Poland ( pl, Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa NID) is a Polish governmental institution responsible for documenting cultural property and the intangible cultural heritage, as well as for supporting and ...

( pl, Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa), the latter also operating the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage on behalf of the minister responsible for national

, while all the abovementioned institutions are overseen by the General Cultural Property Conservator ( pl, Generalny Konserwator Zabytków), an office fulfilling the tasks of the second-tier organ, held by a secretary or an undersecretary of state at the ministry responsible for national

and acting on behalf of the minister.

Cultural property im Poland

Classification by type

Immovable cultural property

Movable cultural property

Archaeological cultural property

Classification by form of recognition

Cultural property protection organs

See also

Notes

References

Further reading