Zbiory fotograficzne Muzeum Krakowa jako zródło ikonograficzne do badań nad historia kolei w Krakowie

Abstract

THE PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEUM OF KRAKÓW AS AN ICONOGRAPHIC SOURCE FOR THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF THE RAILWAYS IN KRAKÓW

The subject of this paper is the presentation of the iconography of Kraków’s railways in the photographs from the holdings of the Museum of Kraków. Similar to buildings and people, historical photography plays an important role in documenting the transformations undergone by the railways. The appropriate interpretation of a photograph’s content depends on the individual specicity of the representation. It also requires certain knowledge and the ability to make use of other sources and specialist literature. Out of the Museum’s photographic collections a total number of 433 photographs were selected and grouped into sets, according to the historical topography of Kraków’s railway junction. Within the abovementioned selection we can also single out several dozen photographs of exceptional research quality, many of them produced by Kraków’s eminent photographers. e time-frame of the collection spans from 1862 to 2004. 50 of the photographs portray the iron roads in Kraków’s cityscape: the cross-city axis (the Kraków Główny – Kraków Płaszów line), the encircling (or circumvallating) line which ceased to exist over a century ago, an o shoot of the Galician Transversal Railway Oswiecim – Podgórze, the Kraków – Kocmyrzów line, and even the narrow-gauge lines. 262 of the photographs capture selected railway stations, of which the largest number concerns the Kraków Główny station. In the photographs we will nd some very well-known facilities, such as the main station building, as well as warehouses that are already non-existent, or relics of the locomotive shed. Other railway stations represented in the photographs include Płaszów, Dworzec Towarowy [the Goods Station], Wisła, Bieżanów, Grzegórzki, Podgórze, Bonarka, and Prokocim. 51 of the photographs represent railway engineering facilities. The largest set among these pertains to Debnicki Bridge which maintained its original, 19th-century structure until 1945. In the photographs we will also nd the railway bridge crossing the River Vistula, the  yover in the Grzegórzki district (including pictures taken during its construction in 1862), and the  yovers crossing over Lubicz and Kopernika Streets. 70 photographs portray industrial railways; most of them come from the area of Vladimir Lenin Steelworks and were taken during the plant’s construction and everyday work, some document the railways at the Prefabet and Solvay plants (both non-existent by now), others were taken at the construction site of Krakowska Fabryka Kabli [Kraków Cable Factory], and a number of other locations.