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The article presents the museums, their potential and their significance for cultural tourism in Poland. Its aims are achieved through a presentation of registered national museums, ‘monuments of history’, museum buildings and the cultural activities undertaken by these institutions

The area of contemporary Warmia-Masuria Province encompasses the major part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights, founded in the Middle Ages on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. This area is unique because of the preserved cultural heritage. By conquering and inhabiting the Prussian tribes areas monks left behind their legacy. In the article, the author presents cultural heritage of 49 cities of Warmia-Masuria Province from the period of a monastic state. The article is divided into two parts. The first part describes the size and condition of preserved cultural heritage. The second is an overview of selected processes, conditions and problems associated with the use and protection of the Teutonic heritage of Warmia-Masuria Province.

The landscape of Central Poland is marked by multinational, multidenominational and multicultural relations. It is in this area, as in Lower Silesia and the former Eastern Borderlands, that the existence of Poles, Germans, Jews, Czechs, and many other nations coincided. They lived side by side in Łódź, but also in other cities of the current province, without any greater conflicts, creating their own ‘small homelands’, at the same time leaving a unique mark of their presence, which speaks to the people of today with the power of its expression and architectural beauty of its buildings, the reverie of its cemeteries, the solemnity of the places of worship, the calm of its parks and the tumult of its streets. The German element, both Protestant and Catholic was the most expansive one, especially in the newly-formed industrial cities. The Germans were a well- -organised community with well-functioning institutions and organisations (crafts, social, athletic) and vibrant social institutions (Budziarek 2003, p. 84). Many of them underwent Polonisation and became loyal to their new Polish homeland, for which they suffered painful losses during the occupation, as was the case with the Geyer family. It is also needless to explain how much of a loss, not only for the Central Polish cities, the extermination of the Jewish population was. We have to bear in mind, that it made a huge contribution into the development of industrial cities, first by creating the financial capital, then also the industrial one and, finally, significantly strengthening the largely Polonised intelligentsia. It also left a significant, lasting mark on the cultural landscape of the cities, leaving behind numerous beautiful buildings that they owned or designed. Unfortunately, not many of the diverse objects created by the Jewish minority are left in the contemporary cultural landscape of Central Poland. Factory and residential buildings (tenements, palaces) are the best preserved, while places of worship are the most neglected. After World War II, many of them changed their purpose, some were converted and adapted for new functions, while others fell in disrepair. Representatives of the two other nations, i.e. Poles and Russians, as well as of several smaller nations, whose material contribution was not as significant (but creatively very important!), jointly created the face of the cities of Central Poland. The cities, one might say, that belonged to at least four cultures. Although World War II destroyed this common heritage, the multiethnic and multidenominational traditions of Central Poland, with their lasting monuments of material and spiritual culture, have remained to a bigger or lesser extent, depending on their location. We should keep in mind that those cities were built by people that differed a lot, but were able to communicate and work together regardless of these differences, thus creating a cultural landscape of local centres that was unique among other cities. The degree of architectural and spatial transformation in the region, almost without exception bears the hallmarks of a degradation of a traditional cultural environment. This phenomenon, in addition to the spreading of worthless architectural trends known all over the country, also includes spatial chaos, which is also aggravated by the unsupervised expansion of holiday construction. That is why certain legal forms of protection aimed at counteracting these processes should be strictly observed. The need of observing them is evidenced by the sad data that we partially quoted here. Otherwise, a number of objects attesting to multicultural character of this region will soon be found exclusively in illustrations.

The article presents the museums, their potential and their significance for cultural tourism in Poland. Its aims are achieved through a presentation of registered national museums, ‘monuments of history’, museum buildings and the cultural activities undertaken by these institutions Artykuł dotyczy potencjału muzealnego oraz jego znaczenia dla turystyki kulturowej w Polsce. Zamierzone cele pracy realizowane są poprzez prezentację muzeów rejestrowanych, narodowych, muzeów-pomników historii, siedzib muzealnych i działalności kulturalnej prowadzonej przez te instytucje.

The article concerns former residences in Poland and their contemporary use as museums. The authors present the history of Polish residences, the development of museums in castles, palaces and manor houses, their spatial distribution and the relations between the type of building and that of the museum collection.

Artykuł poświęcony jest polskim placówkom muzealnym i ogólnym tendencjom w ich rozmieszczeniu. Podstawowym zadaniem jest ustalenie, które obszary w Polsce charakteryzują się uprzywilejowaną pozycją w zakresie posiadania placówek muzealnych oraz próba wyjaśnienia zarejestrowanego zjawiska The article is devoted to Polish museums and generał pattems in their distribution. The primary aim is to present the most important regions in Poland as regards museums and to explain this distribution.