The Museum for Intercultural Dialogue - Former Palace of Cracow Bishop

Along with a library and space for a future café, the Museum for Intercultural Dialogue is located in the House under Three Coats of Arms, or strictly speaking a complex of three tenement houses: the Tomkiewicz House built in the second half of the 18th century and two adjacent buildings, which gained their present shape as a result of reconstruction works in the 1940s.

The House itself played an important role in the history of the National Museum in Kielce. In 1945, the damaged Świętokrzyskie Museum restarted its operations in the building known as “Pod filarami” (Under the arcades) at what was then No. 3-4-5 Partyzantów Square. This is where the first post-war temporary exhibition was held in 1946 and a permanent exhibition was established the following year. Until 1971, when the National Museum took ownership of the Palace of the Kraków Bishops, the House served as its main seat. It housed the Regional Public Library until 2007. Currently, the building contains the museum library along with laboratories and other facilities used by the departments of Archaeology, Natural History and Folk Art. It was extended in 2012 to include the Museum for Intercultural Dialogue.

Visitors stepping over the threshold of the tenement house can find all the information they need to start their tour in the spacious lobby with a reception desk. Further into the building, on the ground floor, there is a library which stores nearly 50,000 books and offers free access to part of the collection. The upper floor houses the Museum for Cultural Dialogue with a cinema and conference room equipped with modern projection equipment, sound system and simultaneous interpreting system, as well as an educational room. The heart of the Museum for Cultural Dialogue is its exhibition rooms and exhibition corridor with a total floor space of nearly 160 sq. m. The Black Room houses the permanent exhibition and the White Room is used for temporary exhibitions. The former, dark and arranged as a maze, introduces visitors to the concept of intercultural dialogue and familiarizes them with other cultures, for example Roma, Jewish, Armenian and Muslim. The contrasting White Room is dedicated to the ongoing, multifaceted dialogue between nations, religions and ethnic groups, but also different styles in art and architecture.

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