Conservation of Wooden Built Heritage in Poland—The Current State and Future Challenges

Poland is a country with an extremely rich tradition of wooden building. Due to its location in the heart of Europe, Poland has for centuries combined the influences of the frame construction popular in the west of the continent and log construction widespread in the east. Thanks to this, the wooden structures with unique architectural solutions and aesthetic values have developed here. These include the oldest and largest historic Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic wooden churches in the world, currently inscribed on the UNESCO list. The protection and conservation of wooden architectural heritage in Poland has a long and rich tradition. This can be demonstrated, above all, in the number of preserved historical wooden structures, both in situ and open-air museums created especially for the purpose of saving vernacular heritage. This paper is a concise review of the development of the idea of an open-air museum in Poland and at the same time discusses the conservation and technical solutions for the protection of wooden heritage that have been implemented in recent decades in Poland. Additionally, the paper deals with the issue of maintaining the authenticity of historic wooden structures in the context of the dynamically changing cultural landscape of Poland. Finally, it critically discusses the problems and the challenges that currently face the protection of wooden built heritage in Poland.