Are you looking for an interesting place for a day trip in the Mazowieckie province? How about going to the open-air museum in Sierpc? Museum of the Mazovian Countryside in Sierpc has three locations: The open-air museum in Sierpc, the exhibitions in the Sierpc Town Hall and the Museum of Small Town in Bieżuń. In this post we will describe the first and largest part, the Open Air Museum in Sierpc.

We visited the open-air museum in autumn. It was already quite chilly, but we managed to catch the last days of autumn weather. This is exactly the kind of open-air museums we like – bathed in orange and brown colors, wrapped in sunshine, slowly falling into winter sleep. There were very few people in the open-air museum area…. Walking around, we passed the same groups over and over again, and only a greater concentration of visitors was in the restaurant.

The Mazovian Village Museum shows objects, buildings and village life and work from the turn of the 20th century. Here you can see traditional homesteads, wooden cottages, but also manor houses or elements of small architecture. Anyway, it should be added here that this place was chosen by many film crews, and scenes for such productions as With Fire and Sword, Pan Tadeusz and Squadron were shot here.

How do you visit the open-air museum and what exactly can you see here? We invite you to continue reading :)

Tour of the open-air museum in Sierpc

There are two entrances to the open-air museum: one in the southern part, from Narutowicza Street, and the other in the northern part, by road No. 10 leading from Sierpc to Lipno. Actually, it doesn’t matter which entrance you use, although we think it’s a little closer to the main open-air museum pens from the former. We just entered with this one, and from here we will start our tour of the facility.

After buying a ticket at the ticket office and passing through the gate, one does not yet enter the open-air museum at all. Here there is a garden and a hotel, and the entrance to the museum is about 200 meters away. At the entrance there are large information boards with a map – we recommend taking a photo to plan your route of passage.

After checking your tickets and entering the museum, a brick building on the left immediately catches your attention, inside which you can see an exhibition of carriages and folk sculptures. The path straight ahead leads to the church, but before heading to it, it’s worth turning right and entering the manor house from Bojanow. It is open to the public, and inside await prepared rooms with old equipment and objects of daily use. They are so interestingly arranged that you get the impression that just a moment ago someone was sitting at a table playing cards, someone else was sitting at a desk, and in the kitchen someone had barely finished preparing the preserves.

After seeing the mansion and adjacent park, you can head toward the aforementioned church. Next to it is a wooden bell tower – both objects are from Drążdżew.

The next part is already a typical village. There are homesteads on one side of the road, and farmland on the other side. And this is no coincidence – such a layout reflects the spatial layout of a row village. In the homesteads you can see old huts (some you can go inside), tools, vehicles, barns, there are shrines, cellars, wells…. We especially liked the home gardens, which looked beautiful even in autumn. Of the other facilities, it is worth mentioning the school, the oil mill or the blacksmith shop.

The village can be walked around, but on its edge it is worth going away from the main road to see the Homestead of Rêbów, the windmill of Zalesie and especially another manor house – that of Uniszki Zawadzkie. This one is also open to visitors.

Before visiting, it’s a good idea to check if there are any additional activities or workshops going on that day, and in the summer you can see how the harvest is done.

Open-air museum for children

Is it a suitable place for children? We think that always open-air museum is a good option for children ;) Aside from the educational aspect, it is simply time in the fresh air, and on top of that you can meet animals here: goats, geese or chickens. In addition, for children you can buy a pencil book for 6 zloty to explore the open-air museum.

As in other open-air museums, getting around with a stroller can be difficult – there is no poured asphalt or sidewalks here, and stones and high thresholds lead to the huts. But let this not discourage parents with smaller children…. even walking and viewing the huts only from the outside will be a nice time.

Practical information

Catering

We already mentioned the restaurant in the introduction, so it’s time to write more. On the grounds of the open-air museum, one of the cottages houses the Pohulanka inn. It offers a selection of traditional dishes ranging from pajda with lard to soups to pierogies. The selection may not be very large, but the food is tasty and, importantly, regional.

Prices – how much does a ticket to the open-air museum in Sierpc cost?

Prices vary depending on the season. Below you will find standard ticket prices.

• Normal ticket – 25 zł (8 zł)
• Discounted ticket – 16 zł (4 zł)

There is a 20% discount for Large Family Card holders, and children under the age of 7 enter for free.

On Mondays, the museum can be visited for free, but the interiors are not made available then.

An audio guide is available for rent at the box office.

Opening hours of the open-air museum in Sierpc

Opening hours depend on the month, and the only day when it is always open the same is Monday – from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

On other days, the hours are as follows:

• Holiday months (July and August) – 10:00-18:00
• April, May, June, September – Tuesday-Friday 9:00am-5:00pm, Saturday, Sunday: 10:00-18:00
• October – Tuesday-Friday 8:00am-4:00pm, Saturday, Sunday: 9:00-17:00
• November through March – 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Getting to the open-air museum in Sierpc

The open-air museum in Sierpc is located in the Mazovia Province, between Warsaw and Toruń/Bydgoszcz. From Warsaw it is less than 130 km and the trip by car will take less than two hours, and from Bydgoszcz it is 150 km and you need about 2h 15 min to get there.

The entrance to the open-air museum is from two sides: from Narutowicza Street or from National Road No. 10, and there are free parking lots at both two locations.

Exact address:
Museum of the Mazovian Countryside in Sierpc
Street. Gabriela Narutowicza 64
09-200 Sierpc

Where to stay overnight near the open-air museum in Sierpc?

Close to the open-air museum is the Hotel Skansen Conference & Spa, which we were tempted to stay at and regret ;) The hotel has good reviews, but in our opinion it is very expensive, and this price is not followed by high quality. The room was dirty, there was a fungus in the bathroom, and the staff, offering to replace our room, showed us another room that was just as dirty. So no, this facility is not recommended.

Others we have found in the area with very good reviews are:

• House by the woods
  Address: Teodorowo 19D, 87-603 Wielgie
  Prices: from 2000-2500 zloty for an eight-bedroom house for three nights (minimum stay is three nights)
  Link: https://r4b.link/booking-dom-przy-lesie
• Rest House under the Walnut Tree
  Address: Chudzewo 16, 87-610 Dobrzyń nad Wisłą
  Prices: from 1800 PLN for a 12-bed villa (breakfast included)
  Link: https://r4b.link/booking-pod-orzechem

Our opinion about the open-air museum in Sierpc

It is an interesting open-air museum, organized, the individual chambers are interestingly arranged, and an additional attraction is the opportunity to visit two manor houses.

Here we spent several hours slowly walking among the homesteads, had a pretty tasty meal at the inn, and saw many interesting buildings.