Why Limestone?

The Grace Stone Lime Kiln is a unique technical monument with a worldwide pedigree: the famous Earl of Rumford developed the innovative permanent firing system used at the facility, which was a kind of milestone in the age of industrialization, an era of crucial importance for today’s reality. Rumford’s technologically identical lime kilns near Berlin were part of the EXPO 2000 world exhibition from its center in Hanover. In addition, the Stara Morava Lime Kiln stands out from the multitude of only a few such kilns in Europe with its recent and very special history, which dates back to 1977/1978 when the Stara Morava Lime Kiln gained a second and unique life thanks to the initiative, invention and full of relentless dedication of several decades of work by the outstanding visual artist Prof. Jacek M. Rybczynski together with Barbara E. Rybczynski.

Prof. Jacek M. Rybczynski

1978 was to turn out to be a watershed year in all respects for the ruin of Wapiennik, when its further fate seemed a foregone conclusion. By coincidence, Prof. Jacek M. Rybczynski, an art.graphic designer and pedagogue of the Poznan State Higher School of Fine Arts, appeared one autumn day in 1977 at the end or beginning of the country on the plan of the customary garbage dump and the Old Moravian ruin. In retrospect, it is difficult to say with certainty whether the decision on the frantic undertaking to save the object was made spontaneously and immediately, or only after weeks of analysis, knowing Prof. Rybczynski, however, one may be inclined to say that it was a matter of minutes at most, when he threw himself with full determination to the disorderly and frightening ruin in the vicinity to help, giving the object both figuratively and literally the next years of his life until 2016.

Art connects, art builds

In the early 1960s, Professor Jacek M. Rybczynski and his wife Barbara Erna, also a visual artist, held artistic debates in their family home in Puszczykowo, near Poznan, which were well-known in the artistic circles, where, despite the borders imposed by the political system, or perhaps also because of them, artists from Poland and near and far abroad met in front of a crackling fireplace, listening to the music of Jean Baez and Bulat Okudzhava. The Limestone Graceful Stone, by its activities and its whole essence, is deeply inscribed in the reflections arising from those very Puszczykow art evenings, that art is the material from which the world is built, whether we perceive it or not, and the role of the artist, the man of culture and art, is to build and make the world better for all of us, for the whole of humanity, regardless of any borders. As a matter of fact, the project to save the object itself is a perfect illustration of Prof. Jacek M. Rybczynski’s belief that it is our decision whether we succumb to the imposed boundaries or subvert them, however irrational the undertaking may seem.

In 1978, a plan was formed not only to save the building, but also to create an art gallery here, ambitious and vibrant with authentic art.

Japanese garden

The Japanese garden at the Gracious Stone Limestone Plant has been under construction since 1998, its face is constantly changing by design. The art of landscape creation. In Eastern philosophy, the macrocosm reflects the microcosm. The garden is a place for contemplation of the moment and eternity.

Creativity

Limestone Gracious Stone is indeed an oversized work of art. Like a graphic artwork awakened to life.

Actively

For your health

Heritage

Out in nature

Gallery