History of the Museum

History Of The Museum

On January 1, 1961, the newly established Castle Museum became the host of the facility, which is a central institution subordinated directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Warsaw. It is a multi-department museum of the historical and artistic type, the organization of which has been subordinated mainly to the issues of reconstruction, development and proper maintenance of the castle. Parallel to these works, the Museum also conducts research in the field of archeology of Lower Powiśle and the history of art and culture of Royal Prussia, mainly based on its collections. Collecting, securing, scientific elaboration and making works of old and contemporary art available are other important tasks of the Malbork institution.

At the beginning of its activity, the Museum had only those objects from the former castle collections that survived the war and the wave of looters after 1945. In addition to architectural details, there were a few exhibits of medieval sculpture and pseudo-Gothic furniture from the late 19th century. The museum exhibits include such valuable collections as, for example, the collection of medieval architectural elements, which is among the largest in Europe, a collection of artistic amber products, unique on a global scale, an impressive set of old weapons and armaments, or a rich collection of numismatics referring to the historic Malbork mints. The result of the Museum’s involvement in the European cultural life was the International Biennale of Contemporary Exlibris organized from the early 1960s, introducing the castle into the orbit of high-ranking world artistic creativity. Continued to this day, it has become the oldest cyclical artistic event in Poland and the most serious manifestation of this field of graphics in the world. The Museum is widely known thanks to numerous exhibitions of amber masterpieces abroad; in recent years they have been exhibited in leading museums in Germany, Great Britain, Finland, Sweden, the USA and Japan.

Today, the castle is the seat of a living museum center attracting over half a million tourists from all over the world each year. It is a meeting place for people of science and culture, journalists and politicians, it is an outdoor setting for newly created films and frequent concerts.