Stara Fabryka

Stara Fabryka (the Old Factory) is a branch of the Historical Museum in Bielsko-Biała devoted to the history of the city's industry. It is housed in the former textile factory of the Büttner brothers at plac Żwirki i Wigury 8. The museum was founded in 1979 as the Museum of Textile Technology and has had its present name since 2013. The site lies on the Industrial Monuments Route of the Silesian Voivodeship.

The Büttner factory

The Karl Büttner's Söhne factory was founded in 1887 by the brothers Karl Theodor and Gustav Adolf Büttner, continuing a business that their father had run on this site since 1868. The museum building was constructed in two stages: the northern part, a new weaving shed, was built in 1900, and in 1906-1907 it was extended to the south. In the late 1930s the firm employed 150 people and produced broadcloth, shoddy cloth and worsted.

The Büttner family left Bielsko in 1945, the factory was nationalised and later became part of the “Bewelana” Wool Industry Works. The museum moved in here in 1983. It is a two-storey building with an attic, a plastered façade and modest brick detail. On the blind north wall is the mural “m-city 744” by Mariusz Waras from Industriada 2014, and next to it a mural from 2013 commemorating Bielsko's trams.

What to see inside

The permanent exhibition has two parts. “From textiles to the small Fiat” shows the history of Bielsko-Biała's industry in the 19th and 20th centuries: documents, advertisements, portraits of factory owners, a reproduction of a 1904 city plan with the factories marked, a locksmith's workshop with a historic lathe and a restored Fiat 126p from 1977.

The second part, “The willow, the self-actor, the shearing machine... Old textile technology”, is a collection of machines in four rooms corresponding to the stages of making woollen fabrics: the spinning room, the weaving preparation department, the weaving shed, and the finishing room with the dye house. The oldest exhibit is a loom from the late 18th century, and a separate collection consists of machines for making felt hats. The attic, opened in 2010, is used for temporary exhibitions.

Nearby

In the immediate neighbourhood, about 100 metres away, stands St Nicholas's Cathedral.

About 300 metres further on is the Castle of the Sułkowski Princes, another branch of the same museum.

Practical information

• Address: plac Franciszka Żwirki i Stanisława Wigury 8, Bielsko-Biała (Żywieckie Przedmieście).
• The museum is a cultural institution of the Silesian Voivodeship Self-Government.
• Check opening hours, tickets and temporary exhibitions at muzeum.bielsko.pl before your visit.