Zgierz City Museum

Sgierz City Museum occupies a neoclassical building from 1828 at ulica generała Jana Henryka Dąbrowskiego 21, known as the House under the Lions. It collects and displays material relating to Sgierz and the surrounding area, from archaeology to the furnishings of middle-class interiors. It holds around five thousand objects and runs a scholarly library with over five thousand volumes, with particular emphasis on works about Sgierz and the region. One of its permanent exhibitions is located outside the main headquarters.

House under the Lions

The building is one of the more impressive weaver's houses in the city, built of brick rather than wood. The date 1828 appears on the facade. Karol Miller received the plot for construction in 1827, and the house subsequently passed through the hands of successive owners, among them Piotr Kolubakine, inspector of state forests. From the 1840s until 1945 it belonged to the Cyp family, also recorded as Zippel. It served simultaneously as a residence, production space and shop, which was typical for wealthier cloth manufacturers. Characteristic of the building is a projection on the axis of the facade, crowned with a stone attic with stuccowork and figures of lions, from which the popular name derives.

How the museum came about

The institution is a century and a half younger than the building. The building was taken over as German property in 1962, the decision to establish a city museum was made in 1977, and the facility opened to visitors in 1979, after renovation. The collections cover history, archaeology, ethnography, art and numismatics, and the museum's fundamental mission is to gather and protect cultural assets connected with Sgierz and the region.

Permanent exhibitions

The museum runs three permanent exhibitions, two of which are in the House under the Lions. "History of Sgierz", open since June 2018, guides visitors through the city's history from earliest times to the near present, with a multimedia scale model as its main feature. "Kruszówka" displays middle-class interiors from the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, belonging to a Sgierz manufacturing family, comprising a drawing room, dining room, bedroom and kitchen. The third exhibition, "Children's World, toys from years gone by", is located in the wooden buildings of Park Kulturowy Miasto Tkaczy [Cultural Park Weavers' City], a fifteen-minute walk from the main headquarters. In addition, the museum organises temporary exhibitions, such as "Archaeology in Sgierz City Museum" and "Between Dobra and Dalików. The January Uprising 1863-1864".

Visiting

According to museum information, the exhibitions are open Tuesday to Friday from 9 to 16, on Thursdays until 18, and on Sundays from 10 to 16. The museum is closed on Mondays and Saturdays, and entry on Sundays is free. Guided tours are included in the entrance fee. Groups must be booked at least a week in advance, and the maximum group size is twenty-five people. Museum classes take place Tuesday to Friday from 9 to 14. Opening hours may change during temporary exhibition installations and the holiday period, so it is worth confirming them by telephone before visiting.

Practical information

• Address: ulica generała Henryka Dąbrowskiego 21, Sgierz, near the city centre.
• Getting there: by train to Sgierz station, from Łódź by suburban tram to the terminus on plac Kilińskiego, by car with parking on nearby streets.
• How long: around an hour is sufficient for the two permanent exhibitions in the House under the Lions; with the toy exhibition in Miasto Tkaczy add the walk and a similar amount of time.
• What to expect: intimate interiors of a historic house rather than large exhibition halls.
• Nearby: in winter, after visiting you can call in at the ice rink in Sgierz.
• For children: the toy exhibition and the multimedia city model work best.