(Not) forgotten: Gdańsk collection of medieval, textile liturgical paraments

Before the Second World War, a unique collection of medieval liturgical textiles from the pre-Reformation period was exhibited in the Gdańsk City Museum and the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The monuments, after being provisionally secured during the hostilities, were finally removed in 1944 and hidden in evangelical churches on the border of Thuringia and Franconia.

After the war, they were divided according to the logic of the post-war political order. Part located in the western zones went, among others, to Lübeck, where it remains to this day, and the parapets found on the Soviet side after a dozen years were handed over to Poland by the East German authorities (GDR). In 1962 they returned to Gdansk.

The meeting aims to discuss the circumstances, places and people associated with the fate of the Gdańsk collection of medieval liturgical textiles from the pre-Reformation period in the second half of the 20th century.

Conducted by Prof. Edmund Kizik (Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

Co-financed from the funds of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund — a state special purpose fund, within the framework of the Polish War Losses Research programme.