The art o f conservation is activity.
The history o f art is cognition.
Jan Białostock
The author of this motto, an outstanding historian
of art, wrote: “Activity should strive towards the attainment
o f targets, the transformation o f the existing
state o f things, and the realisation o f a state o f things
recognised as more valuable” (my emphasis — K. G.).
At the time, his article produced a lively discussion
among conservators. After all, conservation also denotes
cognition, since in the course of widely comprehended
conservation undertakings we expand our knowledge
about the examined subject regardless whether
the researcher is a historian of art, a historian of architecture,
a conservator or an archeologist. Indubitably,
Jan Białostocki was correct in maintaining that the art
of conservation is an activity, one of whose symptoms
is the documentation of historical monuments.
The ruling which established the Centre for the
Documentation of Historical Monuments (ODZ) begins
with the declaration: “In order to render the inventories
o f historical monuments more efficient for a
rational plan o f their reconstruction and conservation,
the following is ordained: §1. The ‘Centre for the
Documentation o f Historical Documents’, known as
the Centre, has been established on 1 January 1962.
§2. The tasks o f the Centre include conducting a central
register and auxiliary documentation for mobile and
immobile monuments”1. Today, the word “reconstruction”
may give rise to certain reservations, but at the time traces of war-time devastation were still fresh.
The tasks succinctly defined in the ruling issued by
the M inister were enormous. Both their realisation and
the accomplishments of the Centre have been already
presented in “Ochrona Zabytków” upon the occasion
of two jubilees: the tenth and twenty fifth anniversary3.
In the course of forty years, those tasks underwent
certain transformations, predominantly involving their
considerable expansion. The image of the activity p u rsued
by the Centre is composed basically of the achievements
of its departments, whose work is discussed in
more detail in further articles. The text presented
below plays the role of a sui generis introduction.
* *
The term “documentation” in the name of our
institution signifies, according to Słownik Języka Polskiego
(Dictionary of the Polish Language), “a collection
o f documents justifying something, source material,
evidence”. Further on we read: “scientific documentation:
the collection, preparation and dissemination
o f selected information (...) for the purpose o f
practical application”4. What is the purpose of a documentation
collection, namely hundreds of thousands
of index cards gathered in the past and still amassed
by the Centre? Whom does the archive as well as the hundreds of professional publications issued by the
Centre and its specialist library serve? The Centre acts
as a fundamental base for the Minister of Culture —
the General Conservator of Historical M onuments and
voivodeship conservators, especially after the reorganisation
of the services in 1991 and the ensuing liquidation
of voivodeship Bureaus for the Documentation
of Historical Monuments. The documentation created
and coordinated by the Centre comprises a foundation
for identifying national cultural legacy. This is the
material which assists every conservator in formulating
his own opinion while deciding to include a certain
object into the register (or to delete it). This is also the
material which serves a historian embarking on research
into gentry m anor houses or old organs in Polish
churches. The authors of Katalog zabytków sztuki
w Polsce (Catalogue o f Art Monuments in Poland),
issued by the Polish Academy of Sciences, start their
work on each consecutive volume with becoming acquainted
with our files. Just as the cultural landscape
is not an enclosed reservation, documentation is by no
means a closed archival complex but remains supplemented
and brought up to date. Conservation methods
have changed in the course of several past decades as
has the approach to numerous groups of historical
monuments; hence the transformation and expansion
of the Centre’s tasks. The core of the Centre is composed
of three prime research departments: Architecture
and Town Planning, Art and Crafts (formerly —
Mobile Historical Monuments) and Archaeology. Without
them our present-day knowledge about cultural
legacy in Poland simply could not exist. Their presentation
speaks for itself. The Centre contains also several
other essential departments which deserve to be briefly
mentioned.
The Department of Museum Studies gathers, prepares
and renders available knowledge about Polish
museums. Museum registers, information about collections,
as well as scientific, exhibition and publication
activity are systematically brought up to date and
published in the form of a synthetic guide to Polish
museums. The Department also issues the periodical
“Muzealnictwo”, which presents data and historical
and research material associated with museums.
The Department of Archival Material and Scientific
Collections possesses sets of assorted origin, i. a. the
legacies of various researchers, such as the Łopaciński
Folios, the Glinka Folios, and the Ciołek Folios, with
material pertaining to the historical and conservation
aspect of numerous monuments. The Photographic
Collection, which is part of the Department, constitutes
a unique resource of negatives and positive copies,
many of which refer to non-extant monuments. Co-operation with the Department of Publications
initiated the publication of source material found in
museums, libraries and archives, indispensable for research
conducted by historians of art and conservators
— archival catalogues of architectural drawings, plans
and measurements (mainly eighteenth- and nineteenth-
century) or projects by architects celebrated in
the past and esteemed up to this day. Researchers attach
great importance to those volumes, without which
their work would be greatly hampered. At the time of
their publication during the 1970s and 1980s, the
scientific and editorial assets of the catalogues placed
them at a level equal to that of analogous West European
works. Already at that time, we were on par with
the leading representatives of Europe.
The ministerial ruling which established the Centre
included an entry about specialist publications. For
forty years, the Department of Publications systematically
issues several periodicals and series. The scale of
this undertaking is illustrated by the three volumes of
a bibliography entitled: Wydawnictwa Ośrodka Dokumentacji
Zabytków w Warszawie (Publications o f the
Centre for the Documentation o f Historical Monuments
in Warsaw) — (for the years 1962-1965, 19661984
and 1984-1994) containing more than 6 400
bibliographical items! Not only the number of the
publications is impressive. The overall accomplishments
of the Department include several series and up
to twenty books simply indispensable for the workshop
of the historian of art and the conservator. More than
a hundred volumes of the renowned Library of Museum
Studies and the Protection of Historical Monuments
(BMiOZ) appeared in series A, В and C, embracing
diverse topics — from a compendium of legal
regulations concerning the protection of cultural legacy
and material from conservation conferences, to a
series of terminological dictionaries, for example, on
goldsmithery, fabrics and defensive architecture, or
“Informator Archeologiczny”. The output includes also
publications about the technological aspects of the
conservation of monuments of painting, stone, metal,
leather, paper and fabrics — a venture unique not only
on a domestic scale.
At present, the Library, which accompanies the Centre
from its very beginning, i. e. from 1962, is composed
of more than 60 000 volumes of books and
periodicals. In time, the profile of the collections,
originally more valuable for an historian of art and a
researcher interested in museum studies, evolved to wards
specialisation. Today, the Centre is the only
Polish institution with a book collection on the inventories
and documentation of historical monuments as
well as a wide gamut of conservation problems, both theoretical and practical. Acquisitions and international
exchange enabled the Library, which constantly co -o p erates
with 80 Polish and foreign institutions, to possess
many foreign specialist periodicals. Auction purchases
make it possible to supplement the collections
with valuable historical publications required for conservation
work and studies. A database of the book
collection is being created in Mikro CDS ISIS since 1993,
and includes a particularly valuable base of articles
from about sixty Polish periodicals.
The conservation activity pursued by the Centre
encompasses the organisation of various conferences
and courses intent on training workers of Conservation
Offices and Bureaus for the Documentation of
Historical Monuments about the proper execution and
conducting of registers. Other tasks include numerous
conservation opinions prepared by the Team of Experts
on Architecture, Town Planning and the Cultural
Landscape (part of ODZ since 1993) for the General
Conservator of Historical Monuments and voivodeship
conservators.
A separate chapter in the history of the Centre was
the establishment in 1991-1992 of twelve regional
departments — Regional Centres for Studies and the
Protection of the Cultural Environment — in accordance
with a new ODZ statute confirmed by the Ministry
of Culture and Art in 1990. Their creation was one of
the prime elements of the reorganisation of conservation
services conducted at the time. The foundation of
those branches, located in the historical regions of the
country, preceded the administrative division of Poland,
carried out in 1998; today, they exist in almost
all voivodeships. The appearance of the Regional Centres
was envisaged as a sui generis compensation for
the liquidation of the Bureaus for the Documentation
of Historical Monuments; at the same time, the Centres
were entrusted with much more ambitious tasks.
The examination of the cultural environment was to
be conducted on a higher level and render knowledge
more systematic; with time, it was to generate a complete
synthesis of knowledge about the Polish cultural
landscape. Regional Centres co-operate with conservation
offices and the local government or self-government
administration, i. a. while preparing conservation
directives and opinions as well as studies concerning
cultural heritage, thus filling the gap which
emerged after the closure of the Bureaus for the Documentation
of Historical Monuments and the dissolution
of numerous outposts of the State Enterprise
Ateliers for the Conservation of Historical Monuments
(PP PKZ). The Centres inherited copious and valuable
archives of the documentation, studies and research
conducted by the Enterprise, which, for all practical
purposes, ceased existing at the beginning of the 1990s;
today, they are the lawful guardians of the collections.
The activity of the Centre for the Documentation
of Historical Monuments would be impossible without
close co-operation with voivodeship conservators of
historical monuments, best acquainted with current
requirements and engaged in adapting the programme
of the documentation of cultural legacy to local conditions.
For years, the Centre assisted (and should
continue doing so!) in co-creating and coordinating
research and documentation programmes which, to a
considerable degree, it also finances. These efforts
made it possible to produce well-prepared registers of,
for example, historical rural architecture or musical
instruments, and furthered the progress achieved by
the Archeological Photograph of Poland. The Centre
also helped to train the personnel of voivodeship Bureaus
for the Documentation of Historical Monuments
— today non-existent — for the preparation of frequently
challenging documentation. For this purpose,
the Centre organised scientific conferences and training
courses as well as excursions intended for students
and employees of conservation services. It is worth
remembering that the State Service for the Protection
of Historical Monuments, created in 1991, was staffed
by the employees of the dissolved Bureaus, who today
comprise the basic core of conservation services.
The preparation and realisation of various tasks
could not have been accomplished w ithout the collaboration
of scholars and academic environments. The
Centre initiated and organised numerous interdisciplinary
scientific sessions devoted to research methods,
and in particular to conservation requirements. Such
co-operation involved also PP PKZ. The outcome of
those sessions included, as a rule, publications issued
in the above mentioned Library of Museum Studies
and the Protection of Historical Monuments.
For the past four decades ODZ experienced considerable
transformations. It began as the employer of
eight staff members working in the Primate’s Palace in
Senatorska Street. In 1970, a house in 35 Brzozowa
Street was specially reconstructed for its purposes;
today, it remains a symbol of our institution, strongly
enrooted in the consciousness of Polish conservators.
Rapidly growing documentation tasks and the increased
efforts of the Centre were the reason why already at
the end of the 1970s the existing offices proved to be
cramped. At the end of the 1980s they were used by
almost thirty persons, and the conditions in which the
latter were compelled to work appear to be inconceivable.
For many years, Director Prof. Wojciech Kalinowski
endeavoured to obtain more spacious facilities.
A solution of sorts was the adaptation in 1979 of a
devastated railway station of the Warsaw-Vienna line
in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. The building, which already
during the nineteenth century no longer fulfilled its
original function, was to act as a storehouse for the
more rarely used collections, a suggestion which appeared
to be controversial considering the work p e rformed
by the institution. The repair of the railway
station proved to be extremely time-consuming. In February 1991, Marek Konopka, the new Director of
ODZ, finally transferred the majority of the Departments
to a new seat in 6 Ujazdowskie Avenue, thanks
to the support of Izabella Cywińska, the Minister of
Culture and Art, and Tadeusz Zielniewicz, the General
Conservator of Historical Monuments. The Departments
of Museum Studies and Publications remained
in Mazowiecka Street. Subsequently, the repaired railway
station in Grodzisk Mazowiecki became a refuge
for the enormous archive of several Warsaw departments
of PP PKZ, frequently used by researchers from
the whole country.
The rank of the Centre stems from tasks extremely
aptly defined at its very outset; their realisation, however,
is entrusted to consecutive directors. The creator
of the institution was Professor Dr. Kazimierz Malinowski
(ODZ Director in 1962-1966), the then Director
of the Board of Museums and the Protection of
Historical Monuments in the Ministry of Culture and
Art and the co-author of the statute about the protection
of cultural property (1962). Prof. Malinowski,
whose person has been undeservedly forgotten by Polish
conservators, outlined the structure and tasks of
Centre, and the framework constructed by him constituted
the basis of documentation in Polish conservation.
He was also the initiator and organiser of
pioneering conferences on the technological aspects of
the conservation of art works, and contributed to a
rapprochement between three academic conservation
centres: Kraków, Warsaw and Toruń. Subsequently, for
several years, Prof. Malinowski’s programme was continued
by Director Maria Charytańska, who also devised
its new version (head of ODZ in 1966-1974).
This period witnessed the inauguration of photographic
aerial documentation of old towns and the amassment
of a collection of monographic studies dealing with
Polish cities. Furthermore, the Centre embarked upon
a computer version of the collections of the Department
of Mobile Historical Monuments. The achievements
of Director Charytańska included the reconstruction
of the house in Brzozowa Street for the main
seat of the institution. Prof. Dr. Wojciech Kalinowski,
engineer and architect (ODZ Director in 1975-1989)
symbolised further intensive development: the initiation
of the fundamental programme of registering
architectural monuments, expanded by including
buildings from the second half of the nineteenth century
and the twentieth century, and the introduction
of a new, more extensive index card. The Department
of Mobile Monuments initiated specialist documentation
of church organs, musical instruments and
goldsmithery; at the same time, it continued the pioneering
programme of creating a computer database
for the index card collection. The Department of Archaeology
was established in 1978. In 1990-1995, the
post of Director was held by Marek Konopka, followed
by Dr. Robert Kunkel, an architect (to the
beginning of 2001) and Michał Urbanowski (since
2001). It is simply impossible to mention here all the
initiatives and activities of the particular directors. The
attainments of the Centre would have been impossible
without the co-operation of its employees, who comprise
a small but significant group of people co-creating
the Centre’s overall image. Throughout the past
decades the staff included authorities who remain universally
recognised up to this very day.
Forty years of the Centre for the Documentation of
Historical Monuments have yielded an enormous output,
which we shall present in greater detail in a further
part of this publication. I started my text by citing
Prof. Jan Bialostocki’s view about „activity aiming at
the realisation o f a state o f things recognised as more
valuable” (ars auro gemmisque prior)-, in our case, such
activity denotes the expansion of knowledge about cultural
legacy in Poland. I believe that today it would be
possible to convince Prof. Białostocki that conservation
also denotes cognition, to a considerable degree
achieved owing to the documentation of historical
monuments.
* * *
Originally, the publication marking the jubilee of
the Centre for the Documentation of Historical Monuments
was to be presented in a different form. In the
spring of last year, we planned to issue a special commemorative
book to celebrate the fortieth anniversary
of the Centre. Nonetheless, the economic situation
made it impossible to finance such a publication, and
a synthetic history of the four decades of our institution
could not appear. This means that an “unofficial”
history of the Centre and its workers, brimming with
anecdotes and descriptions of the once popular scientific
excursions had to be omitted; we were left with
a presentation of the accomplishments of particular
departments which, as in the case of previous jubilees,
shall be discussed in “Ochrona Zabytków”.
In the course of the last twelve years, our country
has experienced great historical changes which exerted
an impact also on the condition of the Centre for the
Documentation of Historical Monuments. Political
and social events — be they better or worse — almost
always directly affect our institution. Today, conservators
are witnessing the influx of a generation whose
members do not always ascribe the same significance
to historical monuments and cultural legacy as we did
some ten or twenty five years ago. Paradoxically, liberation
from a totalitarian system did not bring about
transformations of the protection of cultural legacy as
prominent as those for which we longed prior to 1989.
This is the reason why it is necessary to recount our
achievements, both the ones dating from the difficult
years of the past, and those originating from present-
day reality.
Karol Guttmejer
Director of the Team for Regional Studies of Warsaw and Mazowia
