Museum of Far East Art in the Star House - The District Museum in Toruń

The Star House is a unique historic building located in the heart of Toruń, in the Old Town Square. It is a tenement house which was first erected in the Middle Ages and rebuilt several times since its original creation. It contains elements of different eras – from the Gothic walls to a richly decorated Baroque façade – and contain a magnificent spiral wooden stairs decorated with figures of Minerva and a lion, as well as original polychrome mannerist ceilings. All these elements make it one of Poland’s most magnificent and best preserved examples of a patrician house.

The first permanent exhibition of Far Eastern art in Poland was opened in the Star House in 1970. It was created thanks to Tadeusz Wierzejski, a collector and one of the most generous donors of Polish museums after the Second World War. His collection, which he gifted to the museum, was the source of the most valuable objects presented at the World of Orient exhibition. It includes many wonderful examples of Japanese and Chinese handicraft – ancient Chinese bronze objects, some more than three thousand years old, unique pieces of Far Eastern porcelain, representing various styles of ornamentation, jade, agate and soapstone sculptures and vessels, as well as original stone bas-reliefs from an Indian Jain temple.

The visitors to the Star House will be able to admire another unique attraction – an oriental garden located in the building’s courtyard and designed for over 200 m2 of space. An alley, paved with cobblestones and adorned with small lamps, runs through the garden, among exotic plants, boulders and stone slabs. A keen eye will notice not only examples of common pine, fine-flowered pine, and Sabine juniper, but also azaleas, bamboos, palm clone and thyme. There is also a wooden pavilion in the garden which since 2009 has been the site of tea ceremonies, educational classes and oriental-themed children’s birthday parties.

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