Warsaw Cyclists' Society at 140: Museum of Sport and Tourism exhibition

“Rowerem po drogach i bezdrożach Królestwa Polskiego” (By Bicycle on the Roads and Byways of the Kingdom of Poland) is a temporary exhibition at the Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw for the 140th anniversary of the Warszawskie Towarzystwo Cyklistów (the Warsaw Cyclists’ Society, WTC). On show are 19th-century saddles that belonged to members of the society, carbide bicycle lamps, a plaque from the WTC building on Dynasy and the equipment of a military courier from the time of the Battle of Warsaw. The exhibition runs from 14 October 2026; the museum gives no closing date.

The Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw on the exhibition (our translation):

On Wednesday 14 October 2026 at 16:30 we are opening a new temporary exhibition connected with the 140th anniversary of the WTC, entitled “Rowerem po drogach i bezdrożach Królestwa Polskiego” (By Bicycle on the Roads and Byways of the Kingdom of Poland).

On display will be:

• Saddles of members of the Warsaw Cyclists’ Society, second half of the 19th century
• Saddles of members of the Warsaw Cyclists’ Society, second half of the 19th century
• An assemblage of saddles and a bicycle frame element
• Carbide bicycle lamps, second half of the 19th century
• A plaque from the building of the Warsaw Cyclists’ Society on Dynasy, second half of the 19th century
• Elements of the equipment of a military courier of the Warsaw Cyclists’ Society, from the time of the Battle of Warsaw in 1920

You are warmly invited!

What to expect

The museum’s list has six items, but the first two are identical: saddles of WTC members from the second half of the 19th century. In practice there are five kinds of objects: saddles, an assemblage of saddles and a frame element, carbide bicycle lamps, a plaque from the society’s building on Dynasy and elements of the equipment of a WTC military courier from 1920. The list does not name a single complete bicycle.

Beyond this list, the museum gives no number of objects, no curators’ names and no location for the exhibition in the building. Nor has it published any press material on the exhibition on its media page.

According to the museum’s announcement, the opening was to be accompanied by the launch of a book by Dr Anna Śmiechowicz of the University of Łódź, “Warszawskie Towarzystwo Cyklistów w obiektywie Stanisława Bogackiego” (The Warsaw Cyclists’ Society through the Lens of Stanisław Bogacki). The afternoon was to end with Karolina Kocięcka setting off by bicycle from the museum’s building for Paris; she intends to ride the route of her namesake of 126 years ago. The museum is the patron of the trip and promises to report on it kilometre by kilometre.

The museum has already shown a travelling exhibition under the same title. According to an announcement by the Dom Chemika cultural centre in Puławy from 2023, it consisted of 16 panels. The panels followed the diary of a 15-day cycling trip made in 1897 by two WTC members: Stanisław Fertner, then not quite 14, and his father Antoni; the son wrote the diary, and the route led through Grójec, Kielce, Sandomierz, Lublin and Puławy, among other places. The museum does not say whether the current exhibition draws on this diary.

Context

The Warsaw Cyclists’ Society was founded in 1886 on the initiative of Edward Chrapowicki to promote cycling. In its early years it was an elite organisation: according to culture.pl, a candidate had to know two members who would vouch for him on their word of honour. Bolesław Prus became an honorary member in 1894, and three years later Henryk Sienkiewicz joined the society.

From 1891 the WTC leased land on Dynasy, on ul. Oboźna in Warsaw’s Powiśle district by the Vistula escarpment. In 1892 the society’s headquarters, designed by Stefan Szyller, was built there, and a cycling track was laid out below the escarpment. The buildings were demolished in 1937, after the lease was terminated. The plaque from the society’s building on Dynasy is one of the objects in the exhibition.

In August 1920, during the Battle of Warsaw, the society formed a liaison platoon of about sixty cyclists. According to Wikipedia, they delivered about four hundred orders to the front. The elements of the WTC military courier’s equipment shown in the exhibition date from this period.

According to culture.pl, the best-known Polish woman cyclist of that era was Karolina Kocięcka. In September 1900 she set off from Warsaw’s Bielany district for Paris and, according to the museum, reached it in 14 days. This is not the museum’s first exhibition about early cyclists: in 2025 it showed “Dawni Cykliści na Turystycznej Trasie” (Early Cyclists on the Touring Trail) and, together with the Polish Historical Society, published Anna Śmiechowicz’s book about Kocięcka. In 2026 it also recalled Stanisław Królak in the exhibition “Pierwszy król peletonu” (The First King of the Peloton).

Tickets and time

• Where: in the Olympic Centre at ul. Wybrzeże Gdyńskie 4, through the main entrance on the Wybrzeże Gdyńskie side. The museum does not say in which part of the building this exhibition is. The ticket office is on level -1, the permanent exhibition on level 2, and a lift serves every level. Directions are on the museum profile.
• Ticket: the price list does not mention a separate ticket for this exhibition. The rules require a museum admission ticket under the price list before entering the permanent exhibition and temporary displays: standard ticket 35 PLN (about 8 EUR), reduced 25 PLN (about 6 EUR).
• Free day: free admission on Saturdays. The rules extend this to temporary displays too and exclude only exhibitions not organised by the museum, and this exhibition was opened by the museum itself.
• When: the museum is closed on Mondays and on the holidays listed on its opening hours page. Temporary exhibitions are open at the same hours as the permanent exhibition: Tue, Thu-Fri: 9:00-17:00, Wed: 9:00-20:00, Sat-Sun: 10:00-17:00, Mon: closed.
• How long: the museum does not say. The list covers five kinds of objects, so the exhibition itself is a short stop - by our editors’ estimate a quarter of an hour or so rather than an hour. The length of the whole visit will be set by the permanent exhibition, with about 1,000 m² and more than 3,000 exhibits.
• Bags and photos: large bags, backpacks, food and drinks may not be taken into the exhibitions. The rules also list a ban on flash photography.
• Children: the museum sets no minimum age, and minors are admitted only in the care of a parent or guardian.
• Accessibility: there is a wheelchair ramp at the entrance, the corridors and doors are wide and without thresholds, and there is one parking space for disabled visitors in front of the building. There are sofas to rest on in the exhibition.
• Who it’s for: people interested in the history of cycling and old Warsaw who are going to the permanent exhibition anyway. This exhibition is an extra to a visit to the permanent exhibition, on the same ticket.
• Who can skip it: anyone who wants to see old bicycles. The museum’s list names saddles, lamps and a frame element, but not a single complete bicycle. Warsaw-built bicycles by Wahren, Zawadzki and Kamiński, from the collection of the Museum of Sport and Tourism and from private collections, are on show in the exhibition “Bez trzymanki” (No Hands) at the Wola Museum.

See also

• Museum of Sport and Tourism - permanent exhibition - “Dzieje sportu polskiego i olimpizmu” (The History of Polish Sport and Olympism): more than 40 disciplines, cycling among them, and among the athletes presented Stanisław Królak and Ryszard Szurkowski.
• From Cyclists to Footballers - the Magic of Montreal ’76 - the museum’s earlier temporary exhibition from 2026, about the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the achievements of the Polish team. The museum has moved its description to its 2026 archive and no longer lists it among its temporary exhibitions.
• No Hands. How the Bicycle Changes Warsaw - an exhibition at the Wola Museum about the bicycle in Warsaw from the founding of the WTC in 1886 to the present day, with the society’s badges, photographs of Karolina Kocięcka and old Warsaw-built bicycles. For those who will miss complete bicycles in the exhibition at the Museum of Sport.

Museum profile: Museum of Sport and Tourism in Warsaw.