Język Polski
English
The Protection of Eastern Christian Monuments by Polish Art Historians (1945–1989)
Waldemar Deluga
Abstract
This article presents the history of Eastern Christian heritage in Poland after World War II and of those art historians who tried to stop the destruction of such monuments. In the Stalinist era, only institutions associated with the Catholic Church attempted to halt this process. The Tarnów Diocese has the largest number of Greek Catholic churches preserved in situ, thanks to the efforts of Bishop Jan Stepa and his successor Jerzy Ablewicz, as well as local priests Mieczysław Czekaj and Jan Solak. During the thaw after 1956, the newly established museums of wooden architecture in Sanok (1958) and Nowy Sącz (1965) became important venues. Many art historians conducted inventory research despite the opposition of local authorities, for example, Joanna Szczęk-Roguska, Jerzy Tur, Barbara Tondos and Romuald Biskupski, who left behind vast collections of documentation and important publications. Thanks to them, state collections were established in Łańcut, Sanok, Nowy Sącz, and Przemyśl. Significant contributions were made by Kraków art historians, led by Janina Kłosińska, curator of the National Museum in Kraków. The Catholic University of Lublin, as an independent institution, became a centre for research on Orthodox art, with such scholars as Ryszard Brykowski, Tadeusz Chrzanowski and Barbara Filarska. Professor Chrzanowski, in particular, organized research expeditions and holiday trips for students, who could gain professional knowledge of architecture and movable cultural heritage. He repeatedly emphasised the need for research on the cultural heritage of Ukrainians and Belarusians as a legacy of the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Keywords:
Polish art historians, Eastern Christian art, Communism, protection of monumentsDetails
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.