Cultural property Cultural property, also known as cultural patrimony, comprises the physical items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society, as opposed to less tangible cultural expressions. They include such items as cultural landscapes, histo ...

protection () in Poland

Cultural property in Poland

According to Polish law, a cultural property item (; its plural form, , means cultural property) is defined as an "immovable or a movable item, their parts or complexes, which are human creations or their byproducts, serving as a testimony of a past epoch or event, and whose preservation is in the societal interest due to their historical, artistic or scientific value." The designation has sometimes also colloquially been used by

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

and

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

scholars in a meaning incompatible with the legal definition, extended to cover also selected

intangible cultural heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. In ...

item types, in particular language, works of literature and music compositions (other than historical manuscripts, pieces of rare or historical editions, or

historical document Historical documents are original documents that contain important historical information about a person, place, or event and can thus serve as primary sources as important ingredients of the historical methodology. Significant historical docume ...

s, considered cultural property items), but its usage in such meaning has mainly been confined to professional jargon in

and

the arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive range of m ...

, while not being prevalent in everyday language. The increase in public awareness in Poland of

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by socie ...

after the damage done during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, was largely the work of Jan Zachwatowicz, the Polish signatory of the

Venice Charter ''The Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites'' is a set of guidelines, drawn up in 1964 by a group of conservation professionals in Venice, that provides an international framework for the conservation and res ...

Classification by type

The cultural property is officially classified into three categories: movable cultural property, immovable cultural property, archaeological cultural property.

Immovable cultural property

Immovable cultural property are categorized as type A items and include the following: * buildings or other individual constructions such as public art or memorials that have significant cultural value. * Group of buildings that constitutes a coherent unit, regardless of individual value, such as a ''cultural landscape'' or ''cityscape''. * Park of cultural importance, including natural monuments such as valuable trees, group of trees (park, forest, lane, etc.) or a boulder.

Movable cultural property

Movable cultural property, such as works of art or technology, as well as library or archival items, are catalogued as type B items; however, the Registry does not include movable items included in a museum inventory, in the national library collections or the national archival

fonds In archival science, a fonds (plural also ''fonds'') is a group of documents that share the same origin and have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be ...

Archaeological cultural property

Archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

s and artifacts are catalogued as type C items; however, the Registry does not include artifacts included in a museum inventory,.Definition of archeological cultural property
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Classification by form of recognition

Objects are recognized as cultural heritage protected by law in four ways: * if an object is added to the

Registry of Cultural Property Registry of Cultural Property may refer to: * Registry of Cultural Property (Lithuania) * Registry of Cultural Property (Poland) *Philippine Registry of Cultural Property The Philippine Registry of Cultural Property, abbreviated as PRECUP (), i ...

(''Rejestr zabytków'') * if the heritage assigned a special status of

Historic Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

(''Pomnik historii''); see

List of Historic Monuments (Poland) Historic Monument (, ) is one of several categories of objects of cultural heritage (in the singular, '' zabytek'') in Poland. To be recognized as a Polish historic monument, an object must be declared such by the President of Poland. The term ...

for a complete list * if the object is classified as a

cultural park A heritage centre, center, or museum, is a public facility – typically a museum, monument, visitor centre, or park – that is primarily dedicated to the presentation of historical and cultural information about a place and its people, and oft ...

(''Park kulturowy'') * if a local government declares the object in need of protection

Cultural property protection organs

The cultural property protection organs () of the national administration include the 16

voivodeship A voivodeship ( ) or voivodate is the area administered by a voivode (governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in ...

offices for cultural property protection () headed by a voivodeship cultural property conservator () acting on behalf of the

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

. In addition, selected units of territorial self-government:

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

s, cities with county rights and

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

have used an option to appoint a communal, municipal, city or county cultural property conservator () , with some tasks of the voivodeship conservator usually delegated to such an official under an agreement with the respective

, while the heads of the maritime offices are the first-tier organs in matters concerning maritime cultural property. Other state bodies may also be designated a first-tier organ in specific, justified cases on an ''ad hoc'' basis. The cultural property data is processed at the national level by the

National Institute of Cultural Heritage The National Institute of Cultural Heritage of Poland () is a Polish governmental institution responsible for documenting cultural property and the intangible cultural heritage, as well as for supporting and coordinating their protection.

(), the latter also operating the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage on behalf of the minister responsible for national

, while all the abovementioned institutions are overseen by the General Cultural Property Conservator (), an office fulfilling the tasks of the second-tier organ, held by a secretary or an undersecretary of state at the ministry responsible for national

and acting on behalf of the minister.

Cultural property in Poland

Classification by type

Immovable cultural property

Movable cultural property

Archaeological cultural property

Classification by form of recognition

Cultural property protection organs

See also

Notes

References

Further reading