A multimedia museum about the relationship between people and fire, in a flame-shaped building opened in 2014, in a town repeatedly destroyed by fires.
The Fire Museum (Muzeum Ognia) in Żory is a multimedia exhibition about the relationship between people and fire, housed in a building shaped like a flame. It was opened on 3 December 2014, and the subject is no accident: the town burned more than 30 times in its history. According to the museum's website, a visit takes about an hour.
The buildings of Żory were tightly packed, so the town often burned. According to the museum, between 1522 and 1882 it caught fire more than 30 times. In 1661 a fire consumed the buildings within an hour, and only the malthouse, a few houses and the prison were left untouched. In 1702 fire destroyed the market square and the Church of St Philip and St James, and after this disaster the custom of observing the Fire Feast (Święto Ogniowe) took hold, when the residents ask for protection from fire.
In 1807 almost the whole of Żory burned down: 150 houses and public buildings, the wooden Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the synagogue and an inn. In 1945, when the town found itself on the front line, about 80 percent of its buildings burned. Until 1939 the Fire Feast was a church and state holiday, free from work and school, and today it is a holiday of the whole Żory community.
The building was designed by Barbara and Oskar Grąbczewski. According to the museum's website, the architects saw in the outline of the plot and the buildings the shape of a creeping flame. The façade is made of copper, whose colour resembles fire. Thanks to a special protective treatment the walls do not develop a patina and keep their original colour. Concrete, stone and glass were also used in the design. Construction lasted from 2009 to 2014, and the building was built with funds from the Regional Operational Programme of the Silesian Voivodeship.
The exhibition is on the ground floor and in the basement, and is divided into five thematic zones: Taming the Element, Through Antiquity and the Middle Ages, It's Burning, The Realm of Spirituality, and The Sage's Lens and Eye (Mędrca szkiełko i oko). It tells of the history of humanity's relationship with fire, its destructive force, methods of fighting fires, the influence of fire on spirituality and culture, and its physical properties.
Visitors will see, among other things, a reconstruction of a prehistoric cave, a wall of fire and a fiery jukebox, and will carry out experiments: they light a virtual Olympic flame, put out a fire and check the temperature of their own body. The visit is preceded by a screening of the film Śladami ognia (In the Footsteps of Fire), directed by Andrzej Celiński. By the building stands a figurine of Żorek with a torch, part of the town's Żorki Trail.
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