Venue
The conference will take place at the Jan Kochanowski University (UJK) in Kielce at a campus of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, located on the Swietokrzyska 15 street (building G, Lecture Hall B).
The conference venue is about 3 km from the center of Kielce and can be easily reached by public transport.
The Jan Kochanowski University (UJK) in Kielce is the only university of Holly Cross (Świętokrzyskie) region, and one of Poland’s twenty universities. The UJK offers education in 34 fields of study in a variety of disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, arts, medical sciences, natural sciences and exact sciences. It has about 16,000 students and 150 PhD students.
Kielce is located in Central Poland in the heart of the Holy Cross Mountains, just between Warsaw (Warszawa) and Cracow (Kraków), the present and former Polish capitals.
Main atractions of the Holy Cross Mountains (http://swietokrzyskie.travel/en/):
HOLY CROSS MONASTERY (http://www.swietykrzyz.pl/)
Holy Cross MONASTERY (Święty Krzyż), which is a 1000-year-old sanctuary of Holy Cross, serves as a monastery for the Oblate missionaries. Tourists and pilgrims can visit a neoclassical church (18th c.) as well as the Oleśnicki family chapel with a reliquary containing a fragment of Holy Cross and a burial crypt. The Oblate Missionary Museum and the exhibitions of the Świętokrzyski National Park are certainly worth visiting there.
PARADISE CAVE (http://jaskiniaraj.pl/en/):
Paradise Cave is the most beautiful cave in Poland. Visitors cover a route of about 180 meters, which leads trough many spectacular rock galleries, chambers and rooms featuring wonders of inanimate nature such as stalactites, stalagmites, columns, draperies and pisolites. A museum display was set up at the entrance to the cave. It features a campsite of a Neanderthal family with remnants of prehistoric animals.
CASTLE RUINS IN CHĘCINY (http://zamekcheciny.pl/):
The development of Chęciny was primarily determined by the deposit of ores of precious metals: lead, silver and copper. The picturesque panorama of the town today is dominated by the ruins of the Gothic castle, built around 1300 on a mountain, called Zamkowa. In the ruins of the castle one can meet the spirit of a former inhabitant of the castle – Queen Bona, or enjoy one of the many knightly tournaments organized here. In this historic town recommendable are also early Bernardine monastery, a church and Franciscan monastery founded by King Casimir the Great in 1368 and the parish church erected in the middle of the 14th century.
NATIONAL MUSEUM – CRACOVIAN BISHOPS’ PALACE (http://mnki.pl/en)
The main premises of the National Museum in Kielce is a palace that used to be a residence of Cracow bishops. The palace complex comes from the turn of the 17th century and is situated on the so called Castle Hill, in the centre of Kielce. The palace is a unique work of architecture and style of the Vasa dynasty’s time. The main building was erected in the years 1637-1644. The design of the Kielce palace is attributed to Thomas Poncino of Lugano, who also worked in Cracow, Lowicz, Warsaw and Jasna Gora. The palace complex consists of the palace main building (17th c.), wings on both sides of the yard (18th c.) and so-called Italian garden surrounded with walls. The upper floor rooms have original interior decorations. At present the ground floor is used for permanent and temporary exhibitions.
MUSEUM OF THE KIELCE VILLAGE – ETHNOGRAPHIC PARK IN TOKARNIA
(http://mwk.com.pl)
The Ethnographic Park constitutes the main part of the exhibition featured by the Open-Air Museum of the Kielce village in Tokarnia. On the area of 160 acres picturesquely nestled in the bend of the Czarna Nida River many buildings representing the regional timber architecture (18th-19th cc.) were gathered. The structures include farmsteads, little town buildings, manors, farm outbuildings, rural workshops and sacral constructions. The 19th century interiors of rural houses and workshops, pharmacy, shop and tailor’s atelier, and school from the inter-war period are displayed. The museum staff organizes repeated folklore events.
