A museum on Poland’s Baltic coast has become such a popular location for amorous couples that it has appealed for visitors to keep their urges under control.
Fort Gerhard, part of a 19th-century former Prussian fortress in Świnoujście, close to the border with Germany in northwestern Poland, says that several pairs of lovers have been caught in flagrante this summer on its recently upgraded high-quality CCTV system.
“Our guests are kindly requested… how can we put it… no ars amandi [the art of love] in the museum, please!” Fort Gerhard wrote in a Facebook post. “For some time the museum has been equipped with cameras! And if they could talk…”
“We ask our amorous guests for understanding – most of the exhibits in our museum are items ‘born’ many years ago and accustomed to entirely different moral norms – conservative, even orthodox and abstemious,” they added. “Let’s not expose them to discomfort!”
The museum noted that its recordings are checked before being deleted. It suggested that visitors unable to keep their passions in check could head for the plentiful deserted beaches in the vicinity as a more suitable location.
Cases of couples having sex in Fort Gerhard are so common that an intervention was necessary, the director of the museum, Piotr Piwowarczyk, told Gazeta Wyborcza. “In less than a month since the beginning of the holidays we’ve already had three recordings of lovers engaged in trysts.”
“Visitors to the fort have various temperaments, some of them very conservative,” he added. “We don’t want them to be shocked during their visit by stumbling across a couple engaged in lustful antics.”
Asked why the fort is such a popular spot for couples to consummate their passion, Piwowarczyk suggests that its dark corners might give people the illusion of intimacy, not realising that they are being watched.
“Or maybe it’s a chakra?” he joked, referring to tantric traditions. “Perhaps this place releases energy in the area of the body responsible for sex?”
Having sex in a public place is illegal in Poland, Gazeta Wyborcza notes. People guilty of public indecency could face detention, a non-custodial sentence, or a fine of 1,500 zloty (€314).
Main image credit: Ivar55/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
