On the Need for Archaeological Work in West Prussia... Godfryd Ossowski's Legacy in Vistula Pomerania, 150 Years After His Fieldwork Began

From 8 July to 8 October 2026 the Archaeological Museum of Krakow showed a small panel exhibition at ul. Senacka 3 on the archaeologist Gotfryd Ossowski and his fieldwork in Vistula Pomerania.

Archaeological Museum of Krakow on the exhibition (our translation of the museum’s Polish text; the museum published no English description of this show):

We invite you to an exhibition devoted to Gotfryd Ossowski - one of the pioneers of Polish archaeology. The year 2025 marked 150 years since he began his research in Pomerania, which permanently changed the way we see the past of this region.

The exhibition presents a portrait of this outstanding scholar, showing who he was, why his discoveries proved so groundbreaking and what influence they had on the development of Polish archaeology. It is also an opportunity to see Ossowski’s achievements through the eyes of other researchers, and the values that guided him in his research.

What to expect

This was a small panel exhibition, not a major display of the collection. At its core were twelve panels of archive photographs, documents and illustrations. Alongside them the museum showed original finds from its own collection that Ossowski acquired during his research in Pomerania, in Małopolska and in what is now Ukraine. The museum’s page did not say how many finds there were or which ones, and it did not name the room.

The show was put together by Dr Patryk Banasiak of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Heritage Centre in Toruń, with Dr hab. Marzena Woźny of the Krakow museum as academic consultant. Both institutions organised it, with the district museums in Toruń and Bydgoszcz as partners. The Toruń roots showed in the subject too: the exhibition recalled the early years of the Scientific Society in Toruń, founded in 1875, which collected finds and recorded sites in Pomerania from the start.

The title and the poster said Godfryd, the museum’s description said Gotfryd. Both forms of the name appear in the sources, and they refer to the same man.

Context

Gotfryd Ossowski (1835-1897) was born in Kozarynówka in Dnieper Ukraine and between 1875 and 1878 excavated sites of the Pomeranian culture, Kałdus among them, in close partnership with the Scientific Society in Toruń. From 1879 he worked out of Krakow: he explored fifty caves in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland and surveyed the Tatras in 1881-1882. In 1887 he rescued the grave goods of a Scythian princess from the Great Ryżanówka Barrow, which are now in the Krakow museum’s collection. Excavation swallowed his whole fortune; he died in Tomsk in Siberia, where he had gone for a job.

Tickets and time

The price list had no separate ticket for this show. At the Senacka building the museum sold a single ticket, for the permanent exhibition “Prehistory and the Middle Ages of Małopolska”: regular 15 PLN, reduced 10 PLN. The price list did not say whether that ticket included the Ossowski show. As it was the only ticket on sale, it almost certainly did, but that is our reading, not the museum’s statement.

The museum announced its free Tuesday for the permanent exhibitions and did not say whether it also covered this show.

Twenty to thirty minutes were enough for the show itself: twelve panels and the finds that went with them could be seen without hurrying in that time. It gave most to visitors curious about the history of archaeology, about Pomerania or Toruń, and to those visiting “Prehistory and the Middle Ages of Małopolska” anyway. It had little for small children: panels of documents are for reading, and the hands-on stations with replica finds are in the permanent exhibition.

What the press says

Puls Krakowa (9 Jul 2026, Paulina Sitko): the opening report sums up the museum’s material: twelve panels, finds from the digs in Pomerania, Małopolska and Ukraine, the authors and partners. It passes no judgement on the show itself - link (Polish-language source).

Beyond this news item, the searches found no review or other coverage.

See also

• St Adalbert’s Church archaeological reserve - the vaults under the church on the Main Square, run by the same museum and open seasonally from May to October.
• Rynek Underground - Krakow’s archaeology beneath the Main Square, told with display cases, models and screens: the opposite end of the scale from panels of documents.
• Archaeological Museum, Nowa Huta-Branice branch - the permanent exhibition “Archaeologists for Nowa Huta” on seventy years of digs at Wyciąże, Cło, Mogiła and Zesławice. It suits anyone whom Ossowski leaves curious about how archaeologists work, not only about what they find.

After the show

The Ossowski exhibition closed on 8 October 2026, on the date the museum had given. The museum gives no sign that it will travel, and no such announcement was found in the other sources searched. No catalogue of the exhibition was found on the museum’s pages.

The searches found no review: the only coverage is the Puls Krakowa news item of 9 July 2026, the day after the opening, which summed up the museum’s material. The museum has published no attendance figures.

At the Senacka building the museum has announced no further temporary exhibition; the permanent exhibition “Prehistory and the Middle Ages of Małopolska” remains open. The museum’s current temporary exhibition and two related shows in Krakow:

• “Archaeological Wanderings: From Zesławice to Cło” - the temporary exhibition at the Branice branch, which leads through the prehistoric settlements of Nowa Huta and shows original finds from the Dłubnia and Vistula valleys.
• “Roots and Sky. The Polish Chapter in the Collection of the Kyiv National Art Gallery” - Polish painters of the 19th and early 20th centuries from the Kyiv collection, at the Cloth Hall (until 18 October 2026). Another trace of Polish culture in today’s Ukraine, where Ossowski came from.
• “Precious, Most Precious. Works from the Princes Czartoryski Library” - treasures of the library begun in the 18th century by Adam Kazimierz and Izabela Czartoryski, shown at the Princes Czartoryski Museum (until 25 October 2026). For those whom Ossowski’s story drew to the history of collecting and saving heritage.

Museum profile: Archaeological Museum of Krakow .