Information about the facility:
The Polish Museum in Rapperswil, the oldest Polish museum abroad and the largest Polish cultural centre in Switzerland, has a rich archive of documents, most of them unique. The collection consists of letters, photographs, prints, and press cuttings of the Polish aristocracy - the Sapieha family - which depict the life of the Polish landed gentry from the period of the Second Republic, the Nazi occupation and post-war emigration. These are documents that came to the Polish Museum in Rapperswil thanks to Prince Aleksander Sapieha (1888-1976). They concern the Sapieha family and the families related to them: Potocki, Lubomirski and Sanguszko families. The archival materials are not known or available in Poland.

Completed works:

2019
The archive was put in order: documents were marked (pagination), prepared for digitisation, scans were made. The archive was secured in the following way: the gaps were placed in acid-free folders and then in security boxes bearing the information Sapieha Family Archive. An inventory of the collection was prepared (pdf), which also includes a popularisation study introducing the history of the Sapieha family.

2020
In 2021, renovation of the Rapperswil Castle, the seat of the Polish Museum, began. It will be necessary to move the collections and collections to storage or temporary premises. It was very important to have a complete inventory of the collections.

The aim of the task was to make a minimum of 4,400 entries (added objects) into the database. The second objective of the task was to digitise the ensemble of the 'Association of Polish Engineers and Technicians in Switzerland', which was active between 1946 and 1982. The association was founded, above all, by former Poles interned during the Second World War in Switzerland, who acquired their secondary and higher technical education there.

The year 2020 marked the 80th anniversary of the internment of Polish soldiers in Switzerland, so the group's work shows, among other things, the contribution of Polish engineers to the material culture of Switzerland.

Funding: Programme of the Polonika Institute "Polish cultural heritage abroad - volunteering " (2019)

Programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Protection of cultural heritage abroad" (2020)

More about the project: https://polonika.pl/programy/programy-grantowe/programy-grantowe-instytutu/331555778

https://polonika.pl/programy/programy-grantowe/programy-grantowe-mkidn/inwentaryzacja-i-digitalizacja-zbiorow-w-muzeum

• Fundacja na rzecz Dziedzictwa Narodowego imienia Józefa Piłsudskiego, realizacja w roku 2019 i 2020.