The Lavender Living Museum

Here in our museum lavender will have a chance to appear in various artistic forms, and our guests will find enough space to sit and relax, sometimes participate in lavender tasks (for example, in tying bouquets of fresh lavender), taste a lavender infusion, learn something about lavender, and examine our permanent display: photos with descriptions documenting the establishment of the plantation, how we look after lavender, what we make from it and what climatic phenomena can affect its development.

The Living Museum was the idea of ​​the late Jacek Olędzki from the University of Warsaw, a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, who once taught us to think ethnographically. The aim was to create a museum that is active and creative. It is an unusual museum: you can gain practical knowledge and skills here. Yes, there is also a traditional display, but rather it serves as a backdrop. It is important that the exhibits live an active life as when they were still in normal use. And most importantly – that a special type of Meeting takes place involving age-old types of activities, in an age-old type of interior, in a place that is somewhat of another time. This leads to a new kind of value, a new area of learning.

Years ago, people in the countryside would meet at haymaking time, when harvesting, ploughing or when sitting plucking fowl. They worked together, joked together, ate together, rested together. When anyone met with a violent misfortune, a whole crowd ran to their aid. It was one of the factors thanks to which a strong local community was built. Now we have different times, different customs and different kinds of communities. We decided to create a museum because we want an experimental return to the former sense of community. We offer you a light version community experience, with fragrant lavender, conversations, at work and while resting. Everyone will spend as much time during the day as they need to feel the atmosphere of the old days, which we will try to recall. People have been living in too much haste lately, they have a lot of matters needing their attention every day, and every day they do things they did yesterday and will do tomorrow. We don’t know what the answer is, but we would like to give you a moment of a conscious, warm presence and a slightly different environment than the one you are involved in on a daily basis.