At the main entrance to the Bochnia’s Museum one can see a statue of Stanisław Fischer, the sponsor, founder, first curator and patron of the museum, professor of lower secondary school and chronicler of the area of Bochnia. The sculpture was funded in 1997 by Bochnia’s local government.
He is seen holding a book (“History”) in his right hand and a hat in his left. The 1.93 meter-high statue was cast in bronze and is placed on a meter-high sandstone plinth bearing an informative plaque. The creator was Professor Czesław Dźwigaj.
STANISŁAW FISCHER was born on 27th January 1879 in Wieliczka. After graduating from Polish studies at the Jagiellonian University he devoted himself to pedagogical work in Galician lower secondary schools – first in Wadowice and then in Bochnia. From 1909 to 1934 he taught Polish, Latin, introductory Philosophy, Logic, History and Psychology, among other subjects, at Bochnia’s lower secondary school. At that time his fascination with history became evident, especially with local (Bochnia county) issues. Research activities in History, Archaeology, Ethnography and Art History were equally important to him as the collecting of local artifacts which led to the crowning work of his life, the Bochnia Museum, opened in 1959. The collection which he presented to the newly created museum institution, consisted of large numbers of salt mine plans, old Polish parchment documents, old salt mining books, guild memorabilia, military items, archaeological objects, sculpture and paintings, old prints and manuscripts. He explored the salt mine on numerous trips with his notebook and sketch book. He reached fascinating places that in most cases are inaccessible nowadays, and he preserved them in a series of drawings and oil paintings. Stanisław Fischer died on 27th April 1967 in Bochnia. He left around a dozen volumes of extracts from reference documents in manuscripts, which were kept together with most of the Museum’s legacy, and a great number of scientific and popular scientific publications regarding the history of the region and Bochnia’s salt mine.
On 23rd September 2003 Professor Stanisław Fisher was posthumously awarded the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal granted by the YAD VASHEM Institute. The medal was received by the professor’s family from the hands of the Ambassador of Israel in Poland.
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