Museum of the Central Industrial Region

Factories manufacturing rubber, steel, chemicals, cars, guns, and aeroplanes emerged rapidly, along with roads, railways, and a huge power supply infrastructure. In addition to these, the Central Industrial District also received a perfect town, Stalowa Wola, intended for the workers of the Southern Plant. It is in Stalowa Wola, the heart of the COP, that a museum was created to present the legacy of the greatest economic undertaking of the Second Polish Republic.    

If you find the location of Stalowa Wola on a map from the 1920s, you can see that it is in the centre of Poland. The COP factories were built at the same distance from the borders with the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, because a threat was seen from both sides. Apart from that, this area was selected as a location for COP because of certain social problems. Galicia at that time was overpopulated. Besides, at the start of the 1900s, majority of the farms in this area were very small so, even though they produced food, people living in rural areas did not have enough to eat.

Seeing that the Germans and Russians were building their military power and acquiring new war technologies, the Polish authorities understood that if our country did not invest in a modern economy, it would not withstand confrontation on the case of a conflict. They also concluded that industrial development would make it possible to solve other problems such as unemployment, poverty and labour strikes. This is why the decision was made to build the COP and produce here the most advanced top-secret weapons. The Kielce region was designated as an area for production of raw materials, the Lublin region was to ensure food supplies, and the Sandomierz region was designated to hold various industrial operations. The special zone was located in the fork of the Vistula and the San rivers which constituted a natural geographical barrier, like the Carpathian Mountains to the south. It was within this ‘triangle of security’ that some strategic factories were to be located.  

An idea needs people and the COP found wonderful allies in the specialists with great knowledge and expertise. Learning about their endeavours is one of the most inspiring lessons you can experience in Stalowa Wola. The museum exposition does not only talk about the factories which appeared in the Podkarpackie region during the interbellum, but also extensively explores the accomplishments of the Polish engineers, explains how patents and inventions were put into practice, and shows that, in those days, building a strong economy and prosperity was a synonym of patriotism.  

The COP Museum was established in the former workshops of the ‘school of schools’, as the General Władysław Sikorski School Complex No. 1 in Stalowa Wola was sometimes referred to, because it continued the traditions of vocational education initiated before WWII at the time of construction of the Southern Plant - today the Stalowa Wola Steelworks. The concept of the museum in a way combines the worlds of children and adults. The expositions have been designed in such a way that discoveries can be made by both those who already know a lot about COP and those who are new to the history of Polish inventions. Children are intrigued by the moving panels in the walls, and they enjoy watching a film through a periscope, or taking a train journey or putting on a special outfit in which a steelworker could get close to the huge kiln where steel was melted. In the children's town, young visitors can take on a role of builder, electrician or fireman. Adults touring the exposition are invariably amazed seeing all the patents that Ignacy Mościcki left to the Polish nation. They admire the Vis pistols and a revolutionary periscope, both designed by Polish engineers. They also eagerly create the layout of the front page of the Kurier Codzienny daily, with the latest news of the rapidly progressing construction of COP.  

The museum showed how inventions improved living conditions and led to technological progress. ‘That’s one small step for a man, but one giant leap for mankind,’ said Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the Moon. Thousands of small steps had been taken before he got there. So on the timeline of inventions, long before the monocrystals that made the smartphone, we find salt, which in 6,000 BC people started using to preserve meat, and that made their long-distance expeditions and world exploration easier. Then there is the wheel, the abacus, cement and Lukasiewicz's kerosene lamp - one of many Polish contributions to the history of progress. Sitting among the test tubes in the museum laboratory, where chemistry workshops are organised, you can try to figure out your own way to make life easier. Students often think of a smart homeworking robot. You can print out a patent for this discovery!

Ignacy Mościcki and Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, both greatly involved in the development of COP in the1930s, are watching the young explorers from their portraits on the walls. Both were chemists and both contributed to the opening of the state-owned Nitrogen Compound Manufacturing Plant in Tarnów-Mościska (today Grupa Azoty), one of the most advanced factories in Europe in the 1930s. Much earlier, in the late 1800s before Poland regained independence, Mościcki left the country as he was threatened by the Russian police for his involvement in an unsuccessful bomb attack on the Russian political elites in Warsaw. In Great Britain he initially performed odd jobs and his mother would send him money for the essential needs. Later, he was employed at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and that is where he would start making inventions. Overall he acquired 40 patents, and his inventions included high-voltage capacitators, which were first built on the Eiffel Tower. He always believed that talented individuals should receive opportunities to grow and ‘people should be given a fishing rod rather than a fish’. That idea was always an important principle in his work after he returned to Poland, and when he accepted the position of the President of the Republic of Poland, giving an example of patriotism based on intellect and competence. ‘Competence, gentlemen. Competence and professionalism’, that was a credo frequently repeated by Deputy Prime Minister Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski. In his youth a dreamer who skipped classes at school, as an adult he was a bold visionary who greatly contributed to the growth of Polish economy, for instance by initiating the construction of the seaport and the city of Gdynia as well as the Central Industrial District.

According to the four year plan the investment project was to be completed between 1936 and 1940. The daily Kurier Codzienny regularly wrote about the progress in the construction of the COP. Today, its editorial office is one of the attractions in the museum. You can for a while work as a copy designer laying out the front page, or as a typesetter laboriously arranging fonts before the newspaper is printed. Important! The phone rings sometimes. If you pick it up you will hear the news. The recording, which sounds like an old radio, will take you back to that time of enthusiasm.   

There are many such microcosms in this museum. You will take a train ride and look through the windows to see workers at the construction site. Children can put together a jigsaw puzzle to build railway tracks, and adults will be amazed to see the Polish National Railways’ punctuality certificate - a journey from one city to another could not be delayed by more than 5 minutes! A trip by the Luxtorpeda train from Kraków to Zakopane took 2 hours 18 minutes - a record still unbeaten today. Stretched out on the back seat of the car, you will hear a story of trylinka paving blocks, invented during the construction of the wear-resistant roads to Stalowa Wola. On display proudly stands the Fiat 508 - the first car from the Polish production line. It is said that the managing director of the Italian Fiat wanted to use a model assembled in Poland, because he trusted Polish engineers so much. You can also see here Mikrus, a small car developed by Polish engineers from Mielec and Rzeszów after WWII; this is one of the many examples showing that the legacy of COP has been continued by the subsequent generations.

More fascinating discoveries wait on the other side of each wall. You will be amazed while looking at the Vis pistols designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc and Jan Skrzypiński, and in the past manufactured in Radom, or hearing the propellers of PLZ.37 Łoś bomber from Mielec. You will marvel looking at the scale model of Stalowa Wola, which was built in 26 months and 26 days. People from all over Poland were drawn here not only by the well-paid jobs at the Southern Plant, but also by the additional amenities, such as apartments with electricity, new schools and a stadium. The new town was clean, attractive and well-organised. You can see what the town looked like when you take a walk along a recreated street, you can peek into the hairdresser’s and the photographer’s or into a school classroom. On the wall in the director's apartment you can see a reproduction of a painting by Tamara Łempicka, donated to the COP Museum by the famous painter's great-granddaughter. In the picture Tamara is driving a green Bugatti; a beautiful Polish woman ready to conquer the world. This is a perfect epilogue to the story of COP in the museum that evokes dreams.