The Museum of Masuria in Szczytno was founded in 1945 based on surviving collections of the Kreisheimatmuseum Ortelsburg opened in 1925. Originally located in the fourteenth-century Teutonic castle, in 1948 it was transferred to the south and east wing of the Town Hall neighbouring the castle ruins.
The Szczytno Division of the Museum of Warmia and Masuria holds collections currently amounting to thousands of items from the fields of archaeology, history, art, ethnography including folk art, cartography, numismatics and wildlife, as well as a scientific library with antique books documenting the history, cultural heritage and environmental values of the Masuria region.
Among the gathered collections there are artefacts of regional sacred art (18th–19th C.), handicraft, artistic handicraft (15th–19th C.). Of special significance are historical documents and publications associated with the Polish press and the Polish movement in Masuria (19th–20th C.), of which Szczytno was an important centre. Ethnographic collections, the oldest of which come from the late 18th century, include painted Masurian furniture, wardrobes with the owners' notes on the inner side of the door, decorative and utilitarian fabrics, as well as traditional household and farming equipment. These objects constitute priceless traces of Masurian folk culture which, with the beginning of the 20th century, became marginalized.
The Szczytno Division of the Museum of Warmia and Masuria holds collections currently amounting to thousands of items from the fields of archaeology, history, art, ethnography including folk art, cartography, numismatics and wildlife, as well as a scientific library with antique books documenting the history, cultural heritage and environmental values of the Masuria region.
Among the gathered collections there are artefacts of regional sacred art (18th–19th C.), handicraft, artistic handicraft (15th–19th C.). Of special significance are historical documents and publications associated with the Polish press and the Polish movement in Masuria (19th–20th C.), of which Szczytno was an important centre. Ethnographic collections, the oldest of which come from the late 18th century, include painted Masurian furniture, wardrobes with the owners' notes on the inner side of the door, decorative and utilitarian fabrics, as well as traditional household and farming equipment. These objects constitute priceless traces of Masurian folk culture which, with the beginning of the 20th century, became marginalized.
