Polish museum founded in Switzerland 150 years ago saved from eviction threat

A Polish museum established over 150 years ago in Switzerland has been saved after Poland’s government stepped in to buy it a new home amid the threat of eviction.

The institution was founded in 1870 in Rapperswil Castle by Władysław Plater, a Polish noble who had fought in the 1830 Polish uprising against Russian rule, after which he fled into exile, continuing to support the Polish national cause from abroad.

The institution – established at a time when Poland had been wiped off the map and many Poles lived in exile – became an important bastion for the diaspora. It housed many important items taken from their homeland and also hosted a number of important cultural figures, including novelist Bolesław Prus and poet Maria Konopnicka.

But the museum has been under threat since 2008, amid a campaign by some in Rapperswil who have argued that it draws few visitors and is taking up valuable space in the historic 13th-century castle, which could be put to better use.

In a 2013 referendum, locals voted to evict the museum, reported Gazeta Wyborcza at the time. However, the following year Swiss broadcaster SRF reported that the museum would be allowed to remain.

Then, in 2020, the museum’s director, Anna Buchmann, told Poland’s Rzeczpospolita newspaper that the institution had again been informed it would have to move out of the castle.

On Friday last week, Poland’s culture ministry announced that the government had stepped in to resolve the situation. Poland has purchased a separate property in Rapperswil, the former Hotel Schwanen, which will now house the Polish Museum.

“Many years of Polish-Swiss efforts have found a happy ending,” said culture minister Piotr Gliński at a ceremony on Friday in Rapperswil, alongside Poland’s ambassador to Switzerland, Iwona Kozłowska, and Buchmann.

Gliński noted that the museum’s new home is a very appropriate one, as in the 19th century the hotel was a meeting place for Poles living in Switzerland. The move will also allow the creation of more modern facilities, breathing “new life” into “one of the oldest Polish institutions in Europe”.

“Today, the government of free Poland, for which the creators of this museum fought and dreamed, has provided a seat for the museum and enabled the continuation of this institution,” said Buchmann.

Its new location at the former hotel will also house a new Swiss branch of the Pilecki Institute, a state body set up in 2017 and tasked with commemorating and honouring Poles who were victims of Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism.

Among its main activities will be telling the story of the group of Polish diplomats in Switzerland during World War Two who produced thousands of fake passports intended to help Jews escape German-occupied Europe and the Holocaust.

Main image credit: Roland zh/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 3.0)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.