Bystrzyca Kłodzka: Faces of the Town

The “Bystrzyca Kłodzka: Faces of the Town” exhibition draws on the Regional Department’s collections. Its subject is the town itself: its monuments and its past as preserved in images and documents. Oil paintings and watercolours are accompanied by sculptures, old photographs, periodicals and illustrated panels. These objects show history from different perspectives, from an artist’s view to a record of public life.

A particularly important object is the medieval town register, containing entries from 1398 to 1497. Its earliest records therefore date to the late 14th century.

The book records decisions by the local municipal authorities. It is a document of the town’s administration, not a later chronicle written for visitors. It extends the museum’s subject to the urban community long before industrial match production. Alongside photographs and paintings, it offers a different kind of evidence: written decisions rather than views of streets and buildings. The entries reveal how local government worked: the roles of the town council and judicial bench were not rigidly separated. The reeve and mayor sometimes exchanged responsibilities, and the mayor could change several times in a year. The document preserves details of government that a town panorama cannot show.