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JEDRZEJÓW |
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Forty kilometres north of Kraków, JEDRZEJÓW is, in most respects,
another sleepy provincial outpost of Malopolska, a two-bit town used as
a convenient stopping-off point on the main Kraków-Kielce road which
bisects it.
The reason most visitors, mainly Polish, come here is for the Muzeum
Zegarów Slonecznych (Sundial Museum; Tues-Sun: May-Sept 9am-4pm; Oct-April
9am-3pm: compulsory guided tours on the hour every hour, last tour one
hour before closing; 5zl), an eccentric setup housing one of the top
three gnomonic collections in the world (the other two are in Chicago
and Oxford), based on the notable collection of three hundred or so
sundials amassed by local enthusiast Dr Tadeusz Przypkowski and left to
the museum established in his house after his death in 1962.
What sounds like a potentially less than thrilling proposal turns out to
be well worth a visit. Dials of every shape, size and construction are
gathered here, the oldest dating back to the early 1500s. Highlights of
the collection include a group of attractive sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
ivory pocket sundials, a set of Asian instruments and an eccentric piece
from the mid-1700s that comes complete with a small cannon tuned to fire
on the hour at one o'clock every afternoon. The rest of the museum is
taken up with Przypkowski's more rambling collections of stuffy old
furniture, books, art, clocks, watches and old bottles.
The other object of note in town is the impressive Cistercian abbey
about 2km west of the centre along ul. 11 Listopada. One of the group of
Cistercian foundations established in the region in the early 1200s, the
imposing twin-towered Romanesque basilica was remodelled a number of
times over the centuries, the final product being the largely
late-Baroque interior of today, featuring some ornate wall and altar
paintings and lavishly carved choir stalls. Virtually the only feature
reminding you of the church's architectural origins is the distinctive
cross-ribbed vaulting developed by the Cistercians. Very little of the
original monastic buildings survives, the main exception being sections
of the Gothic cloisters, which the resident parish priest will show you
on request. Among the abbey's former residents is Wincenty Kadlubek
(1161-1223), bishop of Kraków and author of the Chronica Polonorum , the
first written chronicle of Polish history. His remains are contained in
a diminutive Baroque coffin housed in a side chapel off the abbey's
southern aisle.
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