Muzeum Ursynowa

What to expect

The Ursynow Museum is the Regional Collections Department of the Niemcewicz Public Library, operating since 2014 at ul. Barwna 8 – right in the heart of Ursynow’s apartment blocks. It is not a conventional museum but rather a living memory room for the district, run with passion by librarian-local historians.

Two permanent exhibitions tell the story of Ursynow from two distant eras. “The Niemcewicz Study” is a recreation of the writer’s workspace from 1822-1831, when he lived in a manor house in Ursynow (then a farmstead on Warsaw’s southern outskirts). Period furniture, writing implements, and reproductions of paintings, engravings, maps and manuscripts recreate the atmosphere of a nobleman-writer’s study – the same man who wrote “Historical Songs” and “Memoirs of My Times.”

“The Alternatywy 4 Room” is a reconstruction of a typical prefabricated-block apartment from the era when the Ursynow estate was being built (from 1977). Furniture, household appliances and communist-era gadgets are complemented by memorabilia from Stanislaw Bareja’s cult television series, whose characters lived on this very estate. The distance between Niemcewicz’s study and the prefab room is just a few steps – and two centuries.

The collections include Warsaw-related books, editions of Niemcewicz’s works, local periodicals (“Poludnia”, “Pasma”, “Passy”), press clippings, residents’ memoirs and works by Ursynow writers. The museum also digitises archival materials and is building a virtual Museum of Ursynow.

Tips

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 14:00-19:00. Wednesday 11:00-15:00. Friday 10:00-16:00. Closed weekends.
• Free entry – it is a department of the public library.
• A visit takes 20-30 minutes. No reservation required.
• Museum Night (May) – the museum participates, organising walks around the district and presentations.
• Wi-Fi available, computer station with a Niemcewicz presentation, printer/scanner (small fee).
• Manager: Jacek Okulus. Contact: muzeum@ursynoteka.pl.

Getting there

Metro: Ursynow (M1) – 8 minutes walk east along ul. KEN and Barwna. Stokosy (M1) – 10 minutes.

Bus: Lines 179, 192, 504 – Barwna or al. KEN/Surowieckiego stop, 3-5 minutes walk.

By car: Parking on ul. Barwna. Residential estate, spaces usually available.

Nearby museums

Ursynow is a residential district, not a museum cluster, but: SGGW Museum (161 Nowoursynowska Street, 2.5 km south – 200 years of Poland’s oldest agricultural university, VR exhibits, free entry) and the SGGW Museum of Osteology (159 Nowoursynowska – European Bison skeletons with documented genealogies, visits by arrangement). In the south of the district: the park and Natolin Palace (restricted access – seat of the European Centre Natolin).