Count Józef Maksymilian Ossolinski founded the National Ossolinski Institute in 1817. He chose Lwów (Lviv) (then in the Austrian Partition of Poland) as the seat of the Institute, where he bought the buildings of a church and convent of the Carmelites, which were in ruins (the order was dissolved in 1772). Their renovation and reconstruction was selflessly carried out in 1826 by the engineer (later general) Józef Bem. In 1823, Ossoliński signed an agreement with Prince Henryk Lubomirski - it was decided to establish the Lubomirski Museum within the structures of the Institute. Ossoliński's collection was transferred from Vienna to Lwów (Lviv) a year after his death in 1827, while Lubomirski's collection was transferred from Przeworsk to Lwów (Lviv) in 1869. A year later, in 1870, the Lubomirski Museum was opened to the public. Both collections - the Ossoliński's and the Lubomirski's - were diverse, consisting of library collections, graphics, drawings, paintings, sculptures, arts and crafts, medals and coins, and collections of weapons. In the following years, the collections of the Ossolineum continued to grow thanks to donations, purchases and deposits. In the inter-war period, by law, every issue of every periodical came to the Ossolineum, making the Ossolineum's collection of periodicals one of the most complete in the country. During the war, many people gave their collections to the Ossolineum in the hope that they would survive the turmoil of war.
Thus the Ossolineum was active in Lwów (Lviv) for most of its history, under the Austrian Partition, in independent Poland during the inter-war period and during the Second World War, until 1946. By then Lwów (Lviv) had been incorporated into the Soviet Union following the Yalta Agreement. The Ossolineum was rebuilt in Wroclaw after the war. However, about 70% of the pre-war collections of the Ossolineum remained in Lwów (Lviv).
Just after the end of the Second World War, the stock of Ossolineum collections amounted to:
Library holdings:
Museum collections:
In addition:
Approximately 30% of the Lwów (Lviv) collection was transferred to Wroclaw in 1946-1947 (as a "gift from the Ukrainian nation to the Polish nation"): 217,450 volumes, including 7,068 manuscripts and 41,505 volumes of early printed books.
During the war, in early 1944, the Germans decided to evacuate part of the Ossolineum's collections from Lwów (Lviv). Despite instructions to select the collections most valuable to German culture, the then director, Professor Mieczysław Gębarowicz, decided to pack the most valuable part of the Ossolineum collections in German boxes. These were about 11,000 old prints, drawings, diplomas and manuscripts (including the manuscript of "Pan Tadeusz"). They were later found abandoned near Zlotorya and most of them were transported to Wroclaw in 1947.
What remains of the pre-war Ossolineum collections in Lwów (Lviv) is now mostly housed in several Lwów (Lviv) institutions:
After the war, mainly library holdings found their way to Wrocław. The art and historical memorabilia collections of the Lubomirski Museum remained in Lwów (Lviv). Most of the pre-war Ossolineum collections are in the institutions mentioned above. 22 paintings are in Vilnius, 5 are in Kiev and 1 painting is in Donetsk.
In 1995 the Sejm of the Republic of Poland passed a law restoring the former name and foundation status of the National Ossolinski Institute. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Institute has been seeking to establish cooperation with the above-mentioned institutions in order to contribute to the protection and popularisation of the pre-war Ossolineum collections and the promotion of Polish culture. We carry out joint conservation, digitisation and access work, organise meetings and exhibitions, unveil commemorative plaques, publish scientific studies and albums, and carry out joint projects. We carry out research aimed at an accurate study of the pre-war collections of the Ossolineum.
Above all, we contribute to the protection and popularisation of the pre-war collections of the Ossolineum and to the promotion of Polish culture. First of all, the old collections need to be preserved. That is why we are scanning a part of the Ossolineum collections kept in the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv. By the time the pandemic broke out, we had managed to scan almost 5 million manuscripts, journals and drawings. As a result, our Ukrainian partner is preserving priceless collections and the National Ossolinski Institute is beginning to assemble its historical collections. It has also been possible to fully digitise the recently found (2013) pre-war card catalogue of the Ossolineum. Cooperation on scanning is ongoing, as the pre-war collection is very extensive.
We also strive to ensure the proper conservation of old library items and works of art. We organise internships for Lviv conservators and librarians in Wroclaw. We apply for funds for equipment and materials for the conservation laboratories in Lwów (Lviv) - in particular for the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv and the Borys Voznytskyi National Art Gallery in Lviv, as well as for additional funds to enable us to conserve objects on loan from Lwów (Lviv) in Wroclaw. We popularise the Ossolineum collections and knowledge of them, and develop pre-war collections of manuscripts, periodicals, early printed books and art collections.
We also assist Polish scholars in matters relating to access to the Lviv collections. Interested parties should contact the Ossolineum's Plenipotentiary for International Relations (contact details below).
Poland and Ukraine, as independent states, tried to start a dialogue on their common cultural heritage in the early 1990s. However, these talks proved difficult due to mutual claims of justification, and no agreement was reached. The impasse was broken in 1997 with the establishment of the Polish-Ukrainian Intergovernmental Commission for the Protection and Restitution of Cultural Property Lost and Unlawfully Displaced during the Second World War. During the first meeting (13-16 May 1997 in Lwów (Lviv)), a team of experts on the Ossolineum was appointed. The director of the National Ossolinski Institute, Dr Adolf Juzwenko, and the director of the Vasyl Stefanyk Scientific Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Professor Myroslav Romaniuk, became co-chairs of the team. The breakthrough came in 2003, when the Ossolineum and the Stefanyk Library signed an agreement to make their respective collections - polonica (Poland related items) in Lwów (Lviv) and ukrainica (Ukraine related items) in Wroclaw - available to each other for copying and processing. In 2004, we began the process of digitising the former Ossolineum collections in Lwów (Lviv), while our Ukrainian partners began digitisation work in Wroclaw.
In December 2006, the Plenipotentiary of the National Ossolinski Institute was appointed in Lwów (Lviv), whose office - by agreement with the Stefanyk Library - was located in the building of the former Baworowski Palace, in the Institute for Library Research on Art Resources. The main task of the Plenipotentiary was to improve cooperation with the Stefanyk Library and with other Lviv institutions to which the art collections of the Lubomirski Museum were transferred after the war: the Borys Voznytskyi National Art Gallery of Lviv, the Lviv Historical Museum, the Museum of Ethnography and Arts and Crafts and the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion. In 2006, Damian Ciarcinski became Plenipotentiary, and in 2008 Stanislav Basarabowicz took over. In 2010, Wiktoria Malicka was appointed Plenipotentiary.
Since 2006 we have been organising Ossolineum meetings in Lwów (Lviv). In 2015, a commemorative plaque in Ukrainian, Polish and English about the history of the Ossolineum was unveiled on the building of the Stefanyk Library. On the initiative of the Ossolineum and with the help of the Cultural Heritage Foundation, the tombstones of Ossolineum directors August Bielowski, Wojciech Kętrzyński and Mieczysław Gębarowicz were renovated as part of the Cultural Heritage Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
In 2019, as part of the long-term Polish-Ukrainian cultural and scientific cooperation, the National Ossolinski Institute and the National Library in Warsaw provided the Ukrainian side with digital copies of the archives of the Shevchenko Scientific Society.
In 2023, thanks to funding from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the digitisation laboratory and server room at the Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv were renovated. These rooms will house the project Common Heritage in Danger. Securing and systematisation of digital copies of the historical collections of the Ossolineum.
Dr. Wiktoria Malicka
+48 71 335 64 82
+48 731 535 444 (mobile)
wiktoria.malicka@ossolineum.pl
Since 2021, the Ossolineum's Plenipotentiary for International Relations, who was the Ossolineum's Plenipotentiary in Lviv from 2010 to 2020.
National Ossolinski Institute
ul. Szewska 37, 50-139 Wrocław, Poland
room 257, next to the entrance to the Main Catalogue of the Ossolineum Library
