Stan badań nad dokumentacją zabytków powiatu bielskiego
State of research on the documentation of monuments in Bielsk County

Summary/Abstract: This paper constitutes a critical analysis of a two-volume publication: Katalog zabytków sztuki. Województwo podlaskie (białostockie). Powiat bielski [A Catalogue of Artistic Monuments. Podlaskie (Białystok) Voivodeship. Bielsk County], published in a series “A Catalogue of Artistic Monuments in Poland” by the Institute of Art at the Polish Academy of Sciences. The author of this article presents the contents of the Catalogue and evaluates its usefulness for further, detailed research on regional history. He draws attention to a high substantive level of the reviewed work which was based on rich source material acquired by means of queries conducted in the Polish archives (e.g., State Archives in Białystok), foreign ones (Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg), and other cultural institutions (e.g. Voivodship Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments in Białystok). The Catalogue also uses data from numerous scientific monographs, articles, and elaborations containing over 300 references. One of its assets, apart from the scientific content, is high editorial quality. The Catalogue presents rich illustrative material provided with detailed descriptions in the form of historical outlines of seventy-two settlements with the characteristics of included monuments, depicted in 1,427 colourful photographs. The author expands information on some of the monuments described in the Catalogue using archive materials stored in the National Archives in Białystok. These are e.g.: 20th-century photographs showing the town hall in Bielsk Podlaski and archival files on the technical condition of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Mt. Carmel in Bielsk Podlaski after the First World War. The potential reader of the discussed review article is offered a synthesis of the Catalogue’s contents. It also highlights its scientific usefulness for art historians and regionalists.

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