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

Before he settled in Krakow and started digging in the caves of the Jura, the archaeologist Gotfryd Ossowski spent several seasons surveying Vistula Pomerania with the Scientific Society in Toruń. The Archaeological Museum of Krakow revisits that chapter in a small exhibition at ul. Senacka 3, open from 8 July to 8 October 2026.

Archaeological Museum of Krakow on the exhibition (our translation of the museum’s Polish text; the museum publishes 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 is a small panel exhibition, not a major display of the collection. At its core are twelve panels of archive photographs, documents and illustrations. Alongside them the museum shows 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 does not say how many finds there are or which ones, and it does 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 show in the subject too: the exhibition recalls the early years of the Scientific Society in Toruń, founded in 1875, which collected finds and recorded sites in Pomerania from the start.

Do not be thrown by the spelling. The title and the poster say Godfryd, the museum’s description says 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 (Ryzhanivka, in today’s Ukraine), 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 has no separate ticket for this show. At the Senacka building the museum sells a single ticket, for the permanent exhibition “Prehistory and the Middle Ages of Małopolska”: regular 15 PLN, reduced 10 PLN, family 45 PLN (up to four people, at least one of them a child under 18), and 10 PLN with the Large Family Card (Karta Dużej Rodziny, a Polish scheme for families with three or more children). The price list does not say whether that ticket includes the Ossowski show. As it is the only ticket on sale, it almost certainly does, but that is our reading, not the museum’s statement.

Tuesday admission is free, but the museum says so only for the permanent exhibitions, and the free passes are issued at the ticket desk. If Ossowski is the reason you are coming on a Tuesday, ask at the desk whether the pass covers this room too.

The building is open Tuesday to Saturday 9:00-17:00 (9 AM-5 PM), Sunday 11:00-16:00, and closed on Mondays. Last entry is half an hour before closing. The museum lists no other closures before 8 October. Groups of more than ten must book ahead.

Allow 20-30 minutes for the show itself: twelve panels and the finds that go with them need no more. Add the permanent exhibition, which takes about an hour, and plan on ninety minutes for the whole visit.

Worth it if you are curious about the history of archaeology, about Pomerania or Toruń, or if you are visiting “Prehistory and the Middle Ages of Małopolska” anyway. Skip it with small children: panels of documents are for reading, and the hands-on stations with replica finds are in the permanent exhibition.

English on site: the museum publishes the show’s description in Polish only and does not say whether the panels carry any English text. Expect a Polish-language exhibition.

Events

• 25 September 2026, 18:00-24:00 - Małopolska Researchers’ Night (Małopolska Noc Naukowców) at ul. Senacka 3: the Ossowski show stays open until midnight for self-guided visits, no booking needed - programme, in Polish
• 25 September 2026, 20:30 - lecture by Marzena Woźny, “In Search of the Remotest Past: Gotfryd Ossowski and His Research” (in Polish), 60 minutes, all ages, 45 places, free pass from bilety.ma.krakow.pl or the main ticket desk - details, in Polish

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 - and passes no judgement on the show itself - link (Polish-language source).

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

See also

• St Adalbert’s Church archaeological reserve - the vaults under the tiny church on the Main Square, run by the same museum and open seasonally until the end of October, so easy to pair with the Ossowski show in the same week.
• 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 exhibition “Archaeologists for Nowa Huta” on seventy years of digs at Wyciąże, Cło, Mogiła and Zesławice, for anyone whom Ossowski leaves curious about how archaeologists work, not only about what they find.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the Archaeological Museum of Krakow website (in Polish).

Museum profile: Archaeological Museum of Krakow .