The Castle Museum in Oświęcim has embarked on a project to preserve, protect, and display the unique wooden mikvah discovered in the town in 2023.
As we posted at the time, the mikvah, believed to be a unique example of a wooden mikvah in Europe, was discovered during construction of a parking lot and may date back hundreds of years.
Oświęcim is best known today as the town in southern Poland outside of which the Nazis built the Auschwitz death camp. But Jewish presence in Oświęcim dates back to the 16th century and by the early 20th century Jews made up more than half of the local population.
In a statement on its web site, the Castle Museum said the preservation and exhibition planning is being carried out as part of a municipal heritage conservation project called “Preserving Jewish Cultural Heritage in Oświęcim – Preservation and Exhibition of the Historic Wooden Mikvah.”
It said the concept for the exhibition building, landscaping, and a preliminary concept for the permanent exhibition were developed in 2024 by the Nizio Design International studio and has been approved by the Małopolska Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments.
The exhibition will form part of a growing commemorative framework in Oświęcim. It is to be located opposite the site where the destroyed Great Synagogue stood before WW2. This is now a Memorial Park that opened in 2019 as a project of the Auschwitz Jewish Center, a prayer and educational center established in 2000. The AJC includes the town’s sole surviving synagogue and a museum dedicated to local Jewish history. Oświęcim also has a Jewish cemetery.
The concept “envisions the construction of a rectangular exhibition facility with a usable area of approximately 500 square meters.,” the museum said. “The building’s architectural form echoes the stone slabs of the Memorial Park, while its single-story section facing the park will blend harmoniously with the greenery and surrounding area.”
It said it had signed a contract in December with a company to develop the construction design. The process should take place over the coming year.
“The wooden mikveh from Oświęcim is not just a historical monument – it is a silent, yet incredibly telling witness to history,” the museum said.
Its preservation and opening to the public constitute an important step in restoring the memory of the city’s multicultural heritage and fostering dialogue between the past and the present. Failing to take protective measures could lead to the irreversible loss of the historic substance, and thus to a violation of legal obligations and standards for the protection of cultural heritage. In the case of Oświęcim, this obligation takes on particular significance. The city bears a unique historical burden, and the preserved relics of Jewish life – such as the wooden mikveh – are a rare and extremely valuable testimony.
Read the statement on the museum’s web site