Unexpected Pająki. Little-Known Forms of Folk Chandeliers from the Lublin Region

Pająki (literally “spiders”) are the hanging folk ornaments of straw, paper and tissue that once decorated village homes in Poland. This display at the Museum of the Chełm Land puts the Lublin region’s rare forms, seldom made today, in the foreground rather than the familiar ones. It runs from 19 September to 31 October 2026 in the museum’s Ethnography and Archaeology building at 56a Lubelska Street. The museum’s words below are translated from its Polish-language page; it publishes no English version.

Museum of the Chełm Land on the exhibition:

Pająki are among the most characteristic, and at the same time extraordinarily varied, forms of folk ritual art. Made of straw, paper, tissue paper and other natural and easily available materials, for generations they decorated the interiors of village homes.

Their role, however, was not limited to decoration. Pająki were credited with symbolic and protective meaning - they were meant to bring the household happiness, and people even tried to read the intentions of those arriving at the house from the way they moved in the air.

The exhibition “Unexpected Pająki” presents the richness of this tradition, paying particular attention to forms that are less well known and less often made today. Alongside the crystal and chandelier pająki popular today, we will meet, among others, spherical and shield-shaped pająki and pająki made of strips of fabric.

What to expect

This is a show of ritual handicraft, not of painting: openwork structures of straw, tissue, paper and fabric that used to hang from the ceiling beams of a farmhouse. According to the local weekly Super Tydzień Chełmski, which cites the museum, the display combines archive objects from a collection built up since the 1990s with work by contemporary makers from the region. Some old forms that no longer survive were reconstructed from archive material by Michał Kowalik.

The museum gives no object or room count. Allow 30-45 minutes for the show itself. Add another half hour for the permanent exhibition “Return to the Past” (“Powrót do przeszłości”) in the same building: its final section recreates a festively decorated farmhouse room hung with pająki and paper cut-outs, which shows these objects in the setting they were made for.

Context

A pająk is a folk ornament hung in the middle of the main room or in the “holy corner” of a Polish farmhouse, known across the country from the second half of the 19th century. It was made of straw, peas, beans, feathers and yarn, with coloured tissue added from around 1900, and a new one was made for each Christmas or Easter. Pająki from other regions, including Kurpie and the Łowicz area, are held by the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw.

In 2024 the skill of making pająki in the Lublin region was entered on Poland’s National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, on an application by the folk artists Małgorzata Majewicz-Krajewska and Tomasz Krajewski, as Radio Lublin reported on 21 January 2025 (in Polish). In their account, pająki all but vanished from village homes in the 1950s. The museum says the Chełm project, funded through the National Heritage Institute programme “Intangible - Pass It On”, sets out to protect the heritage of Lublin-region pająki, document the skill of making them and help pass it from one generation to the next; hence the free workshops alongside the display.

Tickets and time

The exhibition page names no separate price. The museum’s price list in force since 1 May 2026, described as covering “permanent and temporary exhibitions”, applies: one building 20 PLN full price, 15 PLN reduced; a pass to all four buildings is 40 PLN and 30 PLN. Holders of the municipal “Karta Chełmianina” or “Chełmska Karta 3+” card pay 15 PLN and 10 PLN per building, or 25 PLN and 15 PLN for the pass; children under 7 enter free. The same price list also says temporary-exhibition fees are set individually for each project, and the same page speaks of buying “bilet na jedną wystawę (w wybranym budynku)” - a ticket to one exhibition in the building of your choice. So ask at the desk two things: whether this show has its own fee, and whether the ticket also covers the permanent display in the building.

Admission is free every Thursday. Hours are Tuesday to Friday 10:00-16:00 (10 AM to 4 PM), Saturday and Sunday 12:00-16:00, closed Monday, last entry 15:30. The museum gives the run as ending on Saturday 31 October 2026, but its events calendar marks 31 October and 1 November as days when the whole museum is closed. Our reading of those closures, not a statement by the museum, is that the last day you can see the show is Friday 30 October 2026, and the last free Thursday is 29 October. The Saturday closure in force since 5 September 2026 applies only to the building at 4 Świętego Mikołaja Street, not to 56a Lubelska Street.

This is best for anyone who makes pająki or wants to learn, and for families who book the workshop. If you have come to Chełm for contemporary art, start at Galeria 72 at 55 Lubelska Street and treat this display as a side visit. Questions about the show and the workshops: +48 82 564 01 01 ext. 541 or etnografia@mzch.pl .

English on site: the museum’s visitor page gives hours and prices in English, but it states nothing about English labels, an audio guide or English-language tours for this exhibition. The objects carry the show on their own; the context will need Polish or a translation app.

Events

The workshops take place at 56a Lubelska Street and are free. In the museum’s events calendar (in Polish) as of 20 October 2026, the only session open to visitors is the family workshop. The museum lists the sessions on 20 October (14:15-15:15) and 27 October (10:00-11:00 and 12:00-13:00) as workshops for closed groups, so individual visitors cannot book them. The workshop page gives a different time for those days (10:00) and marks them as fully booked.

• 25 October 2026 (Sunday), 13:00-14:00 - free family workshop, aimed especially at families with children; places are limited, book on +48 82 565 26 93 or at etnografia@mzch.pl (event page, in Polish )

What the press says

Two previews in the Chełm press, both informative, neither judging the display. No English-language coverage was found.

Super Tydzień Chełmski (14 September 2026, Monika Łubkowska): a preview based on the museum’s information, and the only item that mentions the 1990s archive objects, the contemporary makers and Michał Kowalik’s reconstructions - article, in Polish .

Nowy Tydzień (14 September 2026, cultural listings): a short preview of the opening, noting that workshops would accompany the show for its whole run - listings, in Polish .

See also

• Museum of the Chełm Land profile - four buildings, hours, prices and the permanent ethnography display at 56a Lubelska Street.
• Rays of the South. Lights of the Borderlands - paintings by Mariusz Woszczyński in the main building at 55 Lubelska Street, until 20 November 2026.
• Teresa Chomik-Kazarian. Four Seasons - the museum’s other autumn temporary show, in the former chapel at 4 Świętego Mikołaja Street, closed on Saturdays.
• Jan Gryboś “In the Rhythm of the Old Village” - folk sculpture in Gorlice, for visitors more interested in folk art than in Chełm itself.

Museum profile: Wiktor Ambroziewicz Museum of the Chełm Land .