NATIONAL MUSEUM IN POZNAŃ
The National Museum in Poznań (MNP), rooted in the Enlightenment tradition of encyclopedic museums, holds collections of art from antiquity to the present, cabinet collections of old coins, prints, drawings and posters, collections of musical instruments, militaria, ethnographic relics and other exhibits documenting the history of the city of Poznań and three of Wielkopolska’s stately homes. Most of the exhibits originate from the historical museum collections of institutions established in Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) by Polish and Prussian societies from the mid-19th century up to 1919, comprising primarily of art (including artistic handicraft), ethnographic and natural history collections. After 1945, the structure of the collections underwent gradual changes, broadening the scope of the collections to include contemporary art, posters, as well as other exhibits that today constitute the collections and displays of the Residential Branches of the Museum. The 400,000 historical objects stored and exhibited in eight separate museums comprise collections of the highest artistic stature. Of the five Poznań branches, three are currently open to the public: The Wielkopolska Military Museum – with the oldest pedigree among Polish museums of its kind, and the Museum of Applied Arts and the Museum of Musical Instruments, which are unique among Polish museums. The residential museums in Rogalin, Gołuchów and Śmiełów, with exhibitions mostly related to their history, are all first-class architectural monuments in their own right: the Late Baroque in Rogalin, Historicism in Gołuchów and Classicism in Śmiełów.