The Icon Collection

More than a thousand icons from the 15th to 20th centuries form a collection tied to the Ukrainian religious heritage of south-eastern Poland. Furnishings were brought here from churches left without care following the forced displacement of the Ukrainian population in 1945 and 1947.

In 1960, a regional repository for movable heritage was established in Łańcut. It later became the museum's Department of Church Art. Museum workers safeguarded paintings, books and craftwork, moving them first to makeshift storage and later to adapted premises. The region suffered enormous losses: over several postwar decades, around 330 of the 650 churches in the part of the historic Przemyśl diocese within Poland were destroyed.

Alongside them, the museum preserves religious craftwork and around 300 volumes printed in Cyrillic. Acquisitions continue to expand the collection, and the objects receive conservation care. This is a collection rescued from many churches, not the complete surviving furnishings of a single church.