The Weaver's House is a unique example of the 18th-century

craftsman Craftsman may refer to: A profession *Artisan, a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative *Master craftsman, an artisan who has achieved such a standard that he may establish his own workshop and take o ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

. Located in

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...

, it is situated in the Old Uptown in a

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

with its characteristic

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

store. The building is a museum branch belonging to the Museum in Bielsko-Biała. The building functioned as a house and a

workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the only ...

until the beginnings of the 20th century. The information about its tenants is incomplete. In the second half of the 18th century it certainly was the Bartke family's and in the 19th century the Bathelts’. From 1873 the owner of the building was Carl Nowak and after his death - Marie, the widow. At the beginning of the 20th century it belonged to the local

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

, Antoni Polończyk After the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the building became a

tenement house A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

until Antoni's son, Wiktor Polończyk, donated it to the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

State in 1974 in order to establish a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

there. When in 1992 the long-lasting renovation works finished, the District Museum in

opened the exhibition to the public.

Museum exhibition

The museum exhibition presents the interiors of the house and the workshop belonging to a

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

master – the highest in rank guild representative. They show what it looked like at the turn of the 19th century, when the importance and greatness of the

handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...

(in terms of the

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth and clothing. Industry process Cotton manufacturing Cotton is the world's most important natural fibre. In the year 2007, th ...

) lessened because of the sudden and rapid introduction of machines. The hallway divides the building into two parts: the workshop on the left and the living area on the right. The workshop is the largest room, containing objects connected with the weaver's work. The most impressive is the large harness loom dating back to the 18th century used for making wool textiles and there are also devices used for warping. A part of this room was devoted for the office work which consisted in handling the guild matters and settling disputes between craftsmen. All documents, guild heirlooms and the iron coffer used as the guild strongbox are stored here. The workshop also served as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...

's bedroom, that is why there is some of his equipment next to the stove. From the workshop the hallway leads to the kitchen - the place of everyday family and social life. This room holds dishes, kitchen utensils and everyday use objects as well as objects connected with

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

. There is a small loom (19th century) and the visitors have a chance to see how it works. Besides you can see a

spinning wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, ...

and a

reel A reel is a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

. Next to the kitchen there is a bedroom and a sort of living room, used only on special occasions, whitewashed, arranged with veneered furniture from the turn of the 19th century. As a supplement to the exhibition on the display there are Jan Wałach's

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s presenting weavers at work.

Bibliography

* Filip, Elżbieta Teresa ''Muzeum w Bielsku-Białej Dom Tkacza'', 1st.Ed, Museum in Bielsko-Biała, Bielsko-Biała 2004 * Kenig, Piotr & Chorąży, Bogusław ''Zarys Dziejów Bielskiego Przemysłu i Przewodnik po Ekspozycji Włókienniczej'', 1st. Ed, Museum in Bielsko-Biała, Bielsko-Biała 2006, .

External links

Muzeum w Bielsku-Białej
{{Coord, 49, 49, 12.4, N, 19, 2, 7.5, E, source:plwiki_region:PL, display=title Buildings and structures in Bielsko-Biała Museums in Silesian Voivodeship Textile museums in Poland Historic house museums in Poland

Museum exhibition

Bibliography

See also

External links