Antropogenic values of Poland Antropogenic values

Antropogenic values of Poland

Antropogenic values are also called cultural attractions. All of the material results of human life and work and activitity created in the course of history of mankind which are of tourist interest can be defined as antropogenic attractions (Lijewski, Wyrzykowski, Mikułowski 2008) They all belong to sightseeing values. If we compare the definition of antropogenic values with the other descriptions the best example is the categorisation of tourist attractions made by Swarbrooke: • Features within natural environment • Purpose built structures and sites designed for purposes other than attracting visitors • Purpose-built structures and sites designated to attract visitors • Special events

Atropogenic values encompass all built-up objects. Scholars also attach cultural values to that group (Lijewski 1985). • • • - museum and archeological excavations, - etnographic museums - historical buildings - museums of arts and art. galleries - places connected with famous people and biographical museums - military sight-seeings - martyrology places - museums of technology - national handicraft centres - sacral objects - places unique for natinal and international standard - cultural and sport and religious events

Characteristics of antropogenic attractions • Antropogenic values are usually connected with one, characteristic place of existence. • They are mostly tangible objects. • The most popular among built up structures in Poland are historical buildings and architectural structures. • Museums also are one of the most numerous attractions in Poland. However they are divided into various categories of their specialisation. The most important structures (30) were appointed a title Polish History Monuments. 13 were enclosed in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

• Sport and cultural events are the only exception from the concept of the tangibility of antropogenic values since they are short term attractions available just in specific time. For example Winter Olimpic Games are usually held every time in different place and once for 4 years.

Archeological sites • Archeological sites in Poland encompass the results of human activity dated back as far as neolith age untill 13 century. • Periods in human history in Europe Paleolithic (pre c. 8800 BC) Mesolithic (c. 8800 -4900 BC) Neolithic (c. 4900 – 2000 BC) Bronze Age (c. 2000 – 800 BC) Iron Age (c. 800 – 1 BC) Roman (c. AD 1 – 400) Early medieval period (c. AD 400 – 800) Medieval period (800 – c. 1500) Post-medieval period (c. 1500 – c. 1800) Industrial/Modern • Archeological artefacts are either collected in archeological museums to be presented publicly or they are to be visited in so called archeological reserves. These are the places where things have been excaveted from the ground. They are usually reconstructed and shown. The following places are protected as archeological reserves: strongholds, mines, places of religious worships, cemetries

• • Polish caves and caverns are archaeological treasures. The shocking remains of a Palaeolithic cannibal feast have been uncovered in "Maszycka" Cave, the skeletal remains of cave dwelling bears were discovered "Niedzwiedzia" Cave and the oldest boomerang in the world, made from a Mammoth bone, in a grotto in Oblazowa. The tribes that lived in Poland, not just the Slavic ones, have left behind entire villages like Biskupin, Truso, and Ostrow Lednicki, considered the cradle of the Piast dynasty, mines as in Krzemionki Opatowskie, and places of religious worship as in Ślęża, St. Anna's Mount and "Wzgorze Wisielcow". The numerous preserved strongholds are the sites of many archaeological festivals today. Traces of Poland's rich past are especially visible in graveyards. For example, the Yotvingian tribe that once lived in the Suwalki Region buried their dead under stone mounds. Whilst wandering around Poland, the Goths left behind the mysterious stone circles like in Odry and Wesiory as well as the beautiful collection of artefacts discovered in Hrubieszow Valley, which can today be seen in the Municipal Museum in Zamosc. The Vandals left behind wonders from the Roman Empire, gathered in royal tombs discovered in 1937 in Wroclaw.

Biskupin Settlement Biskupin is the most popular and best preserved archeological site in Poland. Biskupin is a fortified lake village built around 700 B. C. by a tribe belonging to the Lusatian culture. This Iron Age village was built on a flat island surrounded by a barricade consisting of a wooden framework filled with earth and sand. The well-known Biskupin excavations are located on a peninsula encircled by lakes and swamps. An educational archaeological fair is held here annually in September and the museum pavilion offers a permanent historical display. In the nearby village of Wenecja is a narrow-gauge railway museum. During the summer, the 19 th century train travels between Znin and Gasawa passing through Biskupin and Wenecja Every year in September, Biskupin is visited by thousands of tourists. During this period, an archaeological festivity is organised there, which is the biggest event of this kind in Poland. One can learn how to make clay dishes, shoot with a bow and a crossbow, kindle fire and weave a basket, as well as swim in a dugout boat. Moreover, there is also a possibility to learn the secrets of the archaeologist's work. The scientists show to reconstruct a dish out of a few broken pieces and how to read the age of a discovery on the basis of a piece of wood.

Religious worships and graves • In various parts of Poland, one can find mysterious buildings, the origin of which is still the subject of archaeologists' dispute in the whole Europe. The most widely known are the stone circles in Pomerania: in Węsiory, Odry, Leśno, Łupawa and Siemirowice. They are usually 13 -33 m long in diameter, and in their vicinity, one can come across numerous burial mounds, covered with a layer of stones. Some researchers claim that the circles date back to the beginnings of the modern ages, while others think that they came into existence earlier - between 4000 and 1800 BC. No one knows, who built them - Scandinavian tribes or maybe some much older populations.

Średzki Treasure • The most significant archaeological finds end up in museums. A gold crown with little eagles, part of the so called Sredzki Treasure, which was stored in the archives of the National Museum in Wroclaw, can be seen exhibited in. Sroda Slaska. But to see one of the most sensational finds discovered on Polish terrain, the Scythian gold Treasure from Witaszkowo, you will have to travel to Berlin!

Folk open-air museums, ethongaphic parks and folk art and handicraft units • Traditional Polish culture is a important part of sightseeing values of Poland. It manifests both in material objects and intangible values. Legends, believes are of interest of scholars. They are intangible. • Buildings both houses and churches and folk art are tourist attractions.

Open-air museums Polish trails are full of open-air folk museums and musem. They exhibit original old buildings: farms, homesteads, wooden cottages, stables, mills, blacksmith's shops and Orthodox churches. Most frequently, one can admire reconstructed villages as well as cottages and workshops interiors presented in detail. The greatest advantage of the open-air museums is the fact that they are not lifeless exhibitions. They are bustling with life all over the year. Festivities and shows entitled "Openair museum - live" ("Żywy Skansen) are organised in many of them. One can taste traditional dishes in 17 th- and 18 th-century inns.

The museologists wish to present the past and the tradition in such a way that one gets an impression as if a housewife has just left the kitchen. Children can sit on a rocking horse and play the same way as the folks did a hundred years ago. The wooden horse will of course be a replica of an old toy because the toy-relic is not to be touched and as a valuable piece it is to be bequeathed to the next generations. What one gets for his use instead is reconstruction made by the local craftsmen and based on the original. It does not mean, however, that the object one gets is fake. By all means, it is as genuine and useful as the relic. Except for the possibility of making another reconstruction in case it is destroyed. Then, others will be able to use it and learn how the people who lived before us did it. What handicrafts are shown in open-air museums and ethongraphic museums? There is a lot of opportunity to see and try how pieces of folk art are created, including paintings on glass, embroidery, laces, great ceramic work - colourful vases and bowls, as well as wooden religious figures.

The first Polish open air museum was created in Wdzydze Kiszewskie in 1906. It was founded by the Gulgowski family who were avid lovers of Kashubian culture. Today it is not only a collection of ancient tools, furnishings and clothing in wooden huts, but also testimony to forgotten customs. Many of the Polish skansens are ‘living’ places where old traditions and customs have been brought back to life. It is enough to have a peek into the Museum of the Slowinska Country in Kluki in Pomorze to see butter still made in churns, how beetroot soup is made, doublet are molded, ropes twisted, and even the peat for heating, which was used by the inhabitants of these Slowinska lands - the Kashubian tribe of people who no longer exist - is dug out. The skansen of the Lemko Culture in Zyndranowa in Podkarpacie is another testimony to a vanishing culture. In Chyza, in a one hundred year old hut, you will find the typical clothing of this ethnic group, objects of everyday use and even Easter eggs decorated with characteristic Lemko motifs. Along with these ethnographic groups, entire regions are coming under protection. And so you can find skansens of the Chelm and Podlasie Lands in Hola, the Museum of the Wielun Land in Wielun or the skansen of the Kielce Lands Country in Tokarnia, with a well preserved organist’s house, granary, manor house with farmsteads and the workshops of the shoemaker and carpenter. Buildings representing five different cultural regions have been brought together in the largest of these Polish skansens – The Museum of Folk Architecture in Sanok. Pastewnik in Przeworsk is a curiosity – it is a skansen and a camping site at the same time. Historical wooden buildings from the area have ben built in the manner of a Galician settlement and they are rented out for a night’s lodging. In the Skansen of Miniatures in Pobiedziska the copies of architectural ‘stars’ of Wielkopolska have been collected. They are identical to the originals, only 20 times smaller. And made of plastic! Skansens are wrongly associated with country folklore only. The bee skansens in Ostrow Wielkopolski and Swarzedz marvelously illustrate the history of bee keeping in Poland the unique Weaver’s House in Bielsko-Biala brings us closer the life of artisanal cloth makers.

5 open-air museums that are worth visiting • Kashubian Ethnographic Park in Wdzydze Kiszewskie - this oldest open-air museum in Poland presents the culture and folklore of Kaszuby. It consists of 30 wooden folk exhibits, dating back to the 17 -19 th centuries, fully equipped - cottages with arcades, a Dutch mill and an absolutely unique little church from 1700, among other things.

• Greater Poland Ethnographic Park near Gniezno, situated in the Lednicki Landscape Park. A reconstruction of a Greater Poland village and a manor house - it consists of 50 buildings dating back to the period between the 17 th and the 19 th century. • Sierpc and Nowogród - these two openair museums, located in Mazovia, present the vivid folklore of Łowicz and Kurpie. Houses typical for Kurpie, with decorated gables and window heads, characteristic granaries with arcades, buildings connected with traditional occupations of Kurpie - bee-keeping and fishery, and the exposition of fabulously colourful Łowicz costumes.

Sanok's ethnographic outdoor museum - the biggest open-air museum in Poland, which presents the most valuable monuments of the wooden architecture of the Sub-Carpathian region - various kinds of cottages (pol. chyże) and Orthodox churches. It is divided into sectors, devoted to particular ethnographic groups.

• Orawski Ethnographic Park in Zubrzyca Górna - beautiful old cottages and agricultural buildings characteristic for Orawa and Podhale.