Museum of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University
ul. Dewajtis 5
01-815 Warsaw
Tel. (22) 561 88 00
promocja@uksw.edu.pl
www.muzeumuksw.edu.pl
Free admission (please book in advance by contacting the Communication and Promotion Office (Biuro Komunikacji
i Promocji).
The museum was opened in August 2020 – on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the conversion of the Academy of Catholic Theology into a university teaching a wide range of subjects. The story told by the museum begins much earlier, when the Academy of Catholic Theology was established, in 1954. The history of the museum was complicated and problematical, especially in the early days of its existence, due to the dual (both state and religious) status of the academy. However, the past twenty years have seen this ‛young’ university fulfil ambitions and plans which, for more than half a century, were hampered by the political system. The documents and memorabilia amassed in the museum show its unprecedented development, from its modest beginnings in the former buildings of the Camaldolese monastery in the Bielany district of Warsaw into a modern university teaching and carrying out research work in a large number of disciplines ranging from the humanities, social sciences to the exact sciences and medicine. The museum exhibits its collections in digital form and in the university chapel, which has been divided to accommodate a hall of tradition
and remembrance for visitors. The chapel is the university’s historical and spiritual centre, and it was the first place where Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński went on his official visit to the academy in December 1961. The connection between the primate and the university is an important theme that runs through both the stationary and digital museums. The museum artefacts include portraits of the rectors of the university, historic vestments and liturgical vessels, the rector’s chair and photographs documenting groundbreaking events and the day-to-day life of the students. The university emblem, embroidered on sea silk cloth, is unique and one of the most valuable exhibits. The collections, a small selection of which are on show in the stationary exhibition, are supplemented by the digital museum, which is accessible
on the website and via a multimedia panel installed in the hall of tradition and remembrance. The digital museum contains historic books from the collection of the university’s Main Library, photographs, documents, valuable recordings of Cardinal Wyszyński’s speeches addressed to the community of the Academy of Catholic Theology. For
those interested, there is information and photographs of the key figures at both the academy and the university – distinguished professors and guests, including a list of people who have been awarded honorary degrees by the university and its predecessor. One curio and unusually valuable memento is the minutes of a meeting of the Senate of the Academy of Catholic Theology from 1955 in which a resolution was adopted to award the Rev. Karol Wojtyła a postdoctoral
degree (habilitation), which he defended in 1954 at the Faculty of Theology at the Jagiellonian University. Only a very small part of the university’s archival collections, which consist of more than 17,000 photographs and hundreds of volumes of documents, is accessible in the digital museum website; more will become available as it is duly processed.
Alicja Wysocka, Małgorzata Jendryczka and staff of the UKSW library
