Z prac Instytutu Sztuki PAN nad dokumentacją drewnianej architektury sakralnej w Polsce 1962-2002

June 2002 marks the fortieth anniversary of the inauguration of work conducted on the Documentation of Wooden Sacral Architecture in Poland (further as: DDAS) commenced at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences upon the initiative of Prof. Michał Walicki. In the introduction the author recalls the premises of the specialist documentation which was to be composed of two basic files: inventory of particular monuments and iconography as well as numerous auxiliary catalogues relating to extant and n o n -ex tan t monuments, bibliography, as well as archival and bibliographic abstracts. The first stage of the research encompassed the oldest church buildings from the fifteenth and sixteenth century as well as Uniate objects. The results of the research were to be published in Inwentarz Drewnianej Architektury Sakralnej w Polsce (Inventory of Wooden Sacral Architecture in Poland). First on-the-spot investigations were carried out in 1962, and the first inventory entry concerning the church in Skrzyszów (1517), in which the original vault with stencilled painted decoration dating from the time of the erection of the building was discovered, was issued in 1969. The period under discussion encompasses 21 expeditions (lasting from two to seven days) in connection with more than 300 sacral monuments. The Institute collections grew thanks to the addition of over 5 000 photographs and 67 architectural measurements of C atholic and Uniate churches. Four Inwentarz fascicles containing 28 entries — monographic studies of assorted churches — were issued in 1983— 1993. The fifth fascicle, with five entries, is in print. The DDAS archive contains further 39 entries prepared in 1976-1989. In 1982 pertinent research was expanded so as to include wooden church architecture from the nineteenth and twentieth century; in the wake of the political changes of 1990 it encompassed lands within the former cultural range of the Commonwealth of Two Nations — the joint Polish-Lithuanian state from the end of the fourteenth century to 1795. The enclosed footnotes mention some of the publications which appeared thanks to the conducted investigations, with particular attention due to the following books: Drewniana architektura cerkiewna w Polsce, na Słowacji i Rusi Zakarpackiej (Wooden Orthodox and Uniate Church Architecture in Poland, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, 1986); Drewniana architektura cerkiewna na koronnych ziemiach Rzeczypospolitej (Wooden Uniate Church A rchitecture in the Crown Lands of the Commonwealth, by Ryszard Brykowski, 1995) and Drewniane kościoły w Polsce 1918-1939. Tradycja i nowoczesność (Wooden Churches in Poland 1918-1939. Tradition and Modern Times, by Grażyna Ruszczyk).