Ethnographic Museum

Ethnographic Museum

According to Oxford Dictionary, „Ethnographic” means „the scientific description of peoples and cultures with their customs, habits, and mutual differences”. In the Ethnographic Museum, tourists can know the culture by not only reading the textual description but also seeing domestic setting of Polish community with actual-size exhibits of 18^th Century. As the Ethnographic Museum and The Raclawice Panorama Museum are both the branches of National Museum in Wroclaw, tourists can visit Ethnographic Museum for free if they have a ticket of Panorama Museum. However, Ethnographic Museum does not locate near neither National Museum in Wroclaw nor the Panorama Museum. Tourists should take tram no. 5 or no. 3 at Station „Galeria Dominikańska”, which is the station to go to the Panorama Museum, to Station „pl. Zgody”.You only need to travel a few stations and you arrive at the Ethnographic Museum.

Ethnographic Museum is the Former summer Palace of Wrocław Bishops. It looks like a villa in the middle of the town. There is some iron fence surrounding it. However, with the big, eye-catching banner it is easy to find the building. In many museums in Wroclaw, a lot of doors are closed even during the opening hours. Don't be afraid to open them. Even the staff may not be able to speak very fluent english, they are nice enough to remind you that you should not enter some of the rooms. After you open the main door of Ethnographic Museum there is a door immediate in front of you. Don't be rush to go inside. On your left hand side there is a cloakroom for you to unload your bag (but it is not obligatory); On your right hand side there is „Kasa”. If you have not visited the Panorama Museum or you forget your ticket you should buy it at the „Kasa”. After that you can start your visit in this museum. However, during my last visit, there are three temporary exhibitions in the museum locates on the ground floor and the 2nd floor respectively. Just like all the temporary exhibitions in Wroclaw's museums, there is no English for the exhibits. Sometimes, when there is temporary exhibition takes place, the exhibits of permanent exhibition may be relocated or even removed temporary. Just relax and appreciate evey exhibits you encounter and forget about English for a while.

On the 1st floor there is a permanent exhibition showing the old domestic model in Wroclaw in 18th Century. The whole room is in warm light and with a lot of collections of the tools used in the past. It gives you an illusion that you have entered the 18th Century Poland. Tourists may feel happy about this exhibition room because there is English description! Tourists can not only see tools and domestic setting in old Poland but also understand the culture.

This room were zoned for different display such as household, domestic industries, tools etc. There is a display cupboard showing different moulds for butter and gingerbread.

Before I vist this museum, I thought gingerbread has only one shape, which is the shape appeared in movies „Shrek”. It is quite interesting to see such collections. The only flaw of the exhibition is that there is a piece of glass separating the exhibits and visitors. For me, it may hinder me from watching the exhibits closely.

On the 2nd floor, as mentioned before, there is another temporary exhibition. It is an Indian exhibition culture exhibition. Again, no English, not even for the title of the exhibits. Without a description/title in the language I know, what I can appreciate and remember is only the beautiful Sari shown in the exhibition!

Have fun in a non-English world.

If you visit small museums in Wroclaw during weekdays and daytime, a lot of exhibition rooms may be locked. If the staff notice that there is visitor then they will open the door for you. Sometime they may be nice enough to show you the way to the next exhibition room. They may wait for you to finish visiting the room and then lock the room right after you step out from it. Take your time and be graceful for what they do for you and you will have a good trip of visiting museum!