Buildings of the Museum in Grudziądz - a walk through the streets

Now we are in the south-western part of the Old Town, in front of a two-storey building with a characteristic baroque front façade. This is the so-called Opatek Palace, i.e. the former monastery gate of the Benedictine Sisters, who in the years 1624-1836 occupied the buildings located between the no longer existing Toruń Gate and the Water Gate. The wicket gate building was built in the years 1749-1750, then the reconstruction of the monastery buildings after the destruction caused by the Swedish Deluge began. Inside the building, in the period of splendor of the order, there was a dormitory for lay ladies, the main entrance to the monastery, a parlour and a passage to the economic courtyard. It also performed representative functions. In the magnificent front façade, the so-called great Tuscan order borrowed from palace construction was used. The façade was divided by the so-called pilasters, i.e. flat pillars slightly protruding from the face of the wall, whose plinths reach the base of the ground floor windows. At the height of the ground floor and the first floor, the most impressive element of the building was placed, i.e. shell niches, inside which there are wooden sculptures of eight figures – the pope, three bishops and four nuns. The identity of these individuals remains so far an unsolved mystery.
After the Benedictine Order left the building in 1834, it housed a teachers' seminary, then a music high school, and now since the nineties it has been one of the buildings of the Rev. Dr. Władysław Łęga Museum in Grudziądz. Since November 2018, it has housed a permanent exhibition devoted to the Cavalry Training Center in Grudziądz in the years 1920-1939.
We stand in front of the stairs leading to the Main Building of the Museum in Grudziądz. It belongs to the complex of buildings of the former Benedictine abbey located in the south-western corner of the Old Town – at the former city walls, between the Water Gate and the no longer existing Toruń Gate.
The foundation of the monastery complex dates back to 1624. The buildings erected at that time were burned in 1659 during the liberation of the city from Swedish hands by the army of the Field Crown Hetman Jerzy Lubomirski. The nuns temporarily moved to their farm in Turznice. After the war, makeshift monastery buildings were built. In the years 1728-1731, the demolition of the old and the construction of a new abbey began. In the years 1818-1836 there was a gradual dissolution of the monastery. Its buildings were intended for school and residential purposes for teachers.
In the interwar period, this building was covered with two granaries from the front side. During the war in 1945, the main building was destroyed. In the years 1950-1954, the buildings were rebuilt for the Museum. During the reconstruction, reference was made to the former external appearance, while the internal layout of the rooms underwent significant transformations due to the change in utility function. The building was solemnly commissioned for exhibition purposes on July 21, 1956.
The Main Building of the Museum currently presents permanent and temporary exhibitions.
A unique and unique element of the Grudziądz Old Town are monumental granaries, which distinguish the panorama of Grudziądz from all other Vistula towns. The first brick granaries were built in Grudziądz in the fourteenth century and constituted a compact sequence based on a steep Vistula embankment, flowing smoothly into the slopes of the Castle Hill. In 1504 there were already fourteen of them, but during the fire of the town in 1659, eight burned down. They were rebuilt until the end of the eighteenth century. From the side of Spichrzowa Street, mostly two-storey, from the side of the Vistula multi-storey ones served as grain warehouses and defense, and after the transformation of several of them in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – also residential. During the siege of the city in 1945, the granaries were significantly damaged and partially burned. They were rebuilt and renovated in the years 1946-1966. The complex of Grudziądz granaries along with the panorama from the side of the Vistula in 2017 by the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland was entered on the list of Monuments of History.
The Museum in Grudziądz owns some of the historic granaries. The first museum granary is located directly at the Water Gate, granary number 9. It is considered one of the oldest city warehouses. It was built already in the Middle Ages, and it was rebuilt in the 3rd quarter of the seventeenth century after the fire of 1659. For centuries it served as a warehouse. The granary from the street side is two-storey, while from the Vistula side it has five floors. The granary was renovated in 1966, and in 1971, it was taken over by the Museum. At that time, additional windows were placed in the attic, which illuminate the studios. In the granary there is currently a permanent exhibition presenting the history of Grudziądz from the Middle Ages to 1939.
We are located in front of the historic granary No. 11-13. The granary from the side of the Vistula has six, and from Spichrzowa Street – two floors. This arrangement results from the location of granaries on a steep Vistula embankment. In this granary there are currently archaeological exhibitions and temporary exhibitions.
The present building dates back to the seventeenth century and has not undergone major transformations over the centuries. During the renovation, attempts were made to preserve the historic interior, so an authentic roof truss, wooden two-span ceilings, supported on a row of columns and characteristic wooden ladder stairs were left. Currently, the building belongs to the Museum, and in its interiors there is a permanent exhibition devoted to Bronisław Malinowski, educational rooms and temporary exhibition rooms.
Since 2022, the combined granaries 33-35 have housed the Museum of Vistula Trade – branch in Grudziądz. From the side of Spichrzowa Street, the seat of the Museum of Vistula Trade occupies two floors, from the side of Błonia Nadwiślańskie there are as many as seven.
In the Museum of Vistula Trade located within the walls of granaries 33-35, an interactive exhibition has been placed on three floors, presenting the history of trade from the perspective of the Vistula River and the city of Grudziądz.
Located in the north-western part of the Old Town, the Castle Hill rises at a height of 56 m above the level of the Vistula mirror. This high hill with a length of 170 meters and a width of about 70 meters, thanks to its natural predispositions, has been a place of human habitation for centuries. The earliest traces of settlement on Castle Hill come from the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Undoubtedly, the continuity of settlement in this area from the VII century to the thirteenth century has been proven, when a gothic Teutonic castle was erected in its second half.
In the years 2013-2014, the relics of the Teutonic castle were revitalized and made available in the form of a permanent ruin for sightseeing. The original entrance from the upper ward to the castle led from the south-west, through a stone bridge located in the gate narrowing, the so-called "neck". This bridge was finished with a timber part allowing it to be lifted above the moat running below.
Currently, we enter the area of the former castle by stairs. Passing through the gate, we find ourselves in front of the relics of the southern wing of the castle. It was the oldest and most important part of it. It was created in the first phase of the stronghold construction. In this wing were the most important rooms of the convent. On the first floor there was a chapel, refectory and auxiliary rooms. The top storey usually housed storage rooms. Then we follow the path running on our right, along the formerly existing eastern wall of the castle, heading for the remains of the so-called trapezoidal cellar located in the corner of the wings of the northern and eastern castle. There were utility rooms here m.in kitchen, brewery, bakery.
Next was the lower ward. Heading to the left, towards the tower, we can see the relics of the canal draining waste from the castle kitchen.
The next goal of our walk is the Klimek tower towering over the castle ruins. It was built at the end of the thirteenth century between the north and west wings of the castle, as the so-called bergfried, or tower of final defense. In addition, it had an observation and prison function. The interior of the tower was entered from the walls in the middle of its height, through a drawbridge. The Klimek Tower survived the demolition of the castle made at the behest of the Prussian king Frederick William III, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Originally, the tower was built to a height of 33 m, but in 1807 it was built to a height of 33 m. The French, besieging the Grudziądz fortress, placed a cannon on the top of Klimek, the explosion of which caused the destruction of its finial, shortening it by 1/3 of its height. In this shape, Klimek, about 20 m high, survived until the end of World War II. It was only the German troops fleeing the city that blew up the tower. In 1956, a mound was built on the ruins of Klimek, on top of which an obelisk in the shape of a stylized Slavic god Światowid was placed. From the mound there was an excellent view of the Vistula valley in the direction of Chełmno and Nowy. In 2014, a 20-meter observation tower was rebuilt, modeled on the former Klimek castle tower.