The exhibition titled ‘Nowy Targ at the Turn of the 20th Century. A City That no Longer Exists’ presents town crafts from centuries ago as well as paintings by an outstanding 19th-century painter from Nowy Targ, Michał Rekucki. The exhibition also refers to the famous Podhalańskie Fairs, to the Jewish community living in the city until the 1940s and to the Fire Brigade that had operated in Nowy Targ.

Ceramics – the exhibition presents traditional ceramics produced in the Podhale region at the turn of the 20th century: bowls, jugs, double bowls for carrying food to the fields (e.g., sour milk and potatoes), Easter cake baking pans, wine bottles (in which wine was transported through Nowy Targ on the route from Hungary to Silesia). Clay products were usually decorated with floral motifs and glazed with a shiny glaze. There are also products (dishes and figurines) made by Nowy Targ potters: Zofia Czubernat and Jan Reczkowski. Jan Reczkowski had been reconstructing the old Podhale ceramics on the basis of literature and excavations. The potter’s wheel used by the artist during the last years of his life is also on display. Pottery is a craft that has disappeared from Nowy Targ.

Furriery – this craft has a long history; guild privileges were granted to Nowy Targ furriers in 1624. The number of furriers grew steadily thanks to favourable conditions such as the development of sheep farming and the organisation of fairs to which large numbers of sheep and goats were driven. It was the most numerous guild in the 19th century (79 furriers were active in the city). Entire families used to pursue this craft, and the traditions are still alive. The tools on display, e.g., the furriers' knife, the ‘szkaf’, and the spatula were used for stretching and cleaning hides. Hides were dressed with barley and rye flour and dyed brown with oak bark. Coats were frequently not dyed but rather retained the natural colour of the hides. An undyed sheepskin coat and an embroidered ‘serdak’ appliqued with red leather are on display.

Weaving – clothing was made from linen or sheep's wool. Flax was grown and tools were used to make linen fabric from the flax.– a bundle of flax was pulled through the iron teeth of a flax comb, called a ‘rafa’, to separate the flax heads from the stalks.  A swingle was used for swingling, or breaking up the wood-like parts of stalks. Combs and brushes were used for combing flax and woollen fibres, and spinning wheels and spindles were used for spinning flax and woollen fibres. At long last, a loom was used to weave the linen.. A carding string called a ‘smyk’, used for scraping and cleaning wool to remove grease, is another interesting exhibit.

Cooperage and wood carving are in decline in the Podhale region. In 1613, there was a collective guild in Nowy Targ that also included membrane makers who later became glassmakers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, swordsmiths and carpenters. You can see a cooper’s workshop, i.e., a ‘kobylica’ or a long bench with a vice called ‘dziadek’ where a craftsman used to cut staves out of planks to make types of vessels such as the butter churn that is on display as well as a container for the storage of the ‘bryndza’ cheese, a ‘gileta’, a ‘kołomaźnica’, kneading bowls, troughs, vessels used for the crushing of cereals for groats, moulds for ‘oscypek’ cheeses and spoon racks (beautifully decorated by highland carvers).

Shoemaking was the oldest guild craft in Nowy Targ. The guild received privileges in 1575 on the basis of the statutory regulations of the Nowy Sącz guild. In the 19th century, Nowy Targ shoemakers made cheap shoes for the inhabitants of nearby villages. The exhibition displays an interior of a small shoemaker’s workshop from the turn of the 20th century: a stool, shoemaker’s table, tools, lasts on which shoes were shaped and manual machines for sewing uppers, lining shoe soles with the simultaneous waxing of threads; there are also finished products such as Spiš shoes, boots and children's sandals.

Hat-making – Nowy Targ was a large centre producing hats for mountaineers, Nowy Targ townsfolk and Jews. Here is a hat maker’s workshop with wooden moulds, especially a large oval mould onto which a rectangular sheet of felt was wound. When rinsed with hot water, the felt adhered to the mould; this was when it was cut along the middle and the resulting two parts were further shaped on appropriate moulds. The dried felt acquired the desired shape. Various tools were used in the process, for example irons, usually made of cast iron, which were heated on a special cast-iron stove.

Carpentry was and is the mountaineers’ specialty. Basic carpenter’s tools can be seen at the exhibition: saws, scribes, clamps, threaders, a set of planers (the oldest one, richly decorated, dates back to 1825); there is also woodwork such as chests for storing clothes, a shelf, stools, and a decorative candlestick that used to hang in Nowy Targ’s St. George chapel. A lathe for turning wooden objects is also on display.

Blacksmithing is one of the oldest folk crafts. There were many smithies in Podhale. The exhibition displays the equipment of a smithy: cylindrical bellows used to light fires in the hearth and a 19th-century manual lathe from Bańska Niżna. Various smithery products are displayed: scythes, sickles, ploughs, door locks, padlocks, strainers, a fireman's hook from 1881, poaching tools, ‘ostka’ and ‘oklepce’ tools (e.g., for bear hunting), a guillotine for cutting tobacco and a sugar crusher.