Dear Friends,
I want to share with you a great experience. During my stay in Krakow, definitely one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, my wife and I had the privilege to meet Wolviex last Monday. Knowing each other only from this forum, we agreed to meet in front of the Muzeum Narodowe, the National Museum, (kind of a blind date
), where he works. Being welcomed like old friends, we were guided through the exhibition of arms and armour, the Gallery “Armament and Colour in Poland”, which is closed for the public on Mondays. Wolviex provided us with white gloves, took the keys to the showcases and gave us the chance to have a really close look and even handle to many of the articles of virtu.
On display are objects, starting from the medieval times, swords and war axes, beautiful armour and weapons from 16. and 17. century, crossbows and magnificent hussar’s sabres and armours.
After spending more than a hour in the exhibition, we were invited to the “catacombs” of the museum, the archive and pool of objects, which are not displayed in the exhibitions. We spend an other few hours among Persian and Ottoman sabres, daggers, shields and helmets and saw many pieces, Wolviex presented in the forum. Our meeting ended in an excellent Italian Restaurant, it was a wonderful day! Thank you, Michal, for everything!
We enjoyed the National Museum so much, that we decided to come again the next day to see the other departments, old furniture, goldsmithery, glass and costumes, from the middle ages to Art Nuveau.
Additional fine collections of weapons and armours are in the Royal Castle, the Wawel and in the Czartoryski Museum and for all enthusiasts it is a must to visit them as well. I can only recommend to all members of our forum to visit Krakow and to stay minimum 3 days, in order to have a chance to enjoy the cultural richness of this city.
To make you all envious, I include a few pictures of Wolviex and me during the visit of the exhibition. Enjoy!
Regards to all of you,
Norbert