To continue passionately working with cultural heritage, we must occasionally leave the laboratory and computer models behind and go ‘into the field’ to be inspired by the objects we care for. Moreover, new group members need the chance to learn about the history of the group, past research topics and observe real challenges in building environments in order to discover a wide horizon of possibilities in the field of cultural heritage research.
For these reasons, we organized a trip to Lower Silesia, where prof. dr hab. Roman Kozłowski, a longtime leader and founder of our group, completed his first heritage science project, “ENVIART – Artificial marble of the Baroque era: environmental influences, destruction, protection”, as a part of the 4th Framework Program of the European Union from 1996-1998.
We followed in the footsteps of two Baroque period artists – Michael Willmann, the author of monumental paintings created under the patronage of the Cistercian Order, and Ignacio Provisore, an outstanding stucco artist.
The route of our trip included: The National Museum in Wrocław to see the exhibition “Willmann. Opus magnum”, Książ Castle, the Cistercian Abbey in Krzeszów together with the Mausoleum of the Silesian Piasts which was the focus of research and conservation efforts in the ENVIART project, and finally the Cistercian Abbey in Lubiąż.
Travel time was a great opportunity to discuss strategy and operations for the group’s current research projects – GRIEG-Craquelure, CollectionCare and SyMBoL. We feel motivated and even more integrated as colleagues from a variety of scientific backgrounds with a shared goal to preserve humanity’s great creations!
