Museum of the Mazovian Countryside in Sierpc

The Museum of the Mazovian Countryside (Muzeum Wsi Mazowieckiej) in Sierpc is composed of an open air ethnographic museum located in a picturesque area, a 19th-century town hall in the town center and its branch, the Museum of a Small Town (Muzeum Małego Miasta) in Bieżuń. The open air museum covers the area of 60.5 hectares and has numerous values as regards landscape and recreation.
The exhibition of the museum consists of ten peasant cottages typical of folk building from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a smithy, a windmill, a chapel from the 17th century and a church from the 18th century. Additionally, you can see here small architecture objects, such as roadside shrines, wells, dovecotes, cellars and apiaries. The other part of the museum serves as a recreational area for the visitors. In a beautiful clearing, there is a shed with 300 seats, a stage and a sheltered place for organizing bonfires. Thanks to this base, the museum is a perfect place for huge outdoor events for both the visitors and those who order such events to be organized here.
The buildings are arranged as if they were to perform their original functions. In the peasant cottages, occasional exhibitions are organized in accordance with annually celebrated events, such as, for example, Easter in Mazovia, Christmas in Mazovia or The Polish year in traditional everyday activities. From April to June, the cottages are decorated with colorful palms, paper crepe flowers, spiders and painted eggs, as if they invited the visitors for Easter breakfast and to play Easter Monday games. From December to February, the village celebrates Christmas. Then, you can find sheaves of crops and Christmas trees decorated with hand-made toys, apples and gingerbreads. The tables set with hay and white tablecloths wait for the hosts with the traditional Christmas meal. And throughout the rest of the year, the cottages present everyday activities, such as bread making and baking, cottage cheese production, herb drying, laundering and ironing of linen, and pickling of cucumbers and cabbage.
The cottages are limed and thatched, surrounded with vegetable patches, orchards, flower gardens and balks with grazing animals which make the village full of life. It is natural scenery for traditional jobs, everyday activities and folk craft that are presented during outdoor events. The latter are organized for the regular visitors and those who order them. The series of these events starts with Palm Sunday in the open air ethnographic museum. The climax of the event is marked by a holy Mass with blessing of palms and a procession. Moreover, the visitors can admire palms made by those participating in the competition entitled A traditional Easter palm and choose the most beautiful ones. From May to the end of September, on every holiday and every Sunday, the museum invites to outdoor events from the cycle entitled Sunday in the open air museum. Then, all the workshops are open, so you can see craftspeople at work (a blacksmith, a hand weaver, an embroiderer, a sculptor), the folk band plays and the fire burns bright. Besides, on the first Sundays of several months (from May to September), we organize the so called Sundays of the month dedicated to particular topics. Cooking in the clearing (on the first Sunday of May) is an outdoor event addressed to the lovers of regional cuisine. It is aimed at popularizing the culinary traditions of Mazovia, it is organized in the clearing and resembles a traditional feast. Children’s Day in the open air ethnographic museum (on the first Sunday of June) is a picnic for children and their parents. The aim of the event is to present the basic activities of children living at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: how they played, learned and worked at home. Honey harvesting (on the first Sunday of July) refers to apiarian traditions of Mazovia. It is a continuation of July honey harvests in apiaries. It makes the visitors familiar with the work of bee-keepers and popularizes the medicinal values of honey. Harvest in the open air ethnographic museum (on the first Sunday of August) is designated to show old activities related to corn harvest and to present traditional ways of preparing food from crops. Potato-lifting in the open air ethnographic museum (on the first Sunday of September) presents autumn works in the field performed in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century: potato-lifting with the use of hoes or with a horse-dragged digger, carding of wool, spinning of wool on a spinning wheel, flax-breaking and cabbage pickling in a wooden barrel. During all Sundays of the month, you can also listen to concerts of folk groups presenting the folklore of various regions of Poland.

Skansen
ul. Narutowicza 64; 09-200 Sierpc
Tel./fax 24 275 28 83, 24 275 58 20
www.mwmskansen.pl; skansen@mwmskansen.pl