Model of Jan Wnęk's Wings

The model was created by Zdzisław Szewczyk and Marta Gąsowska in 1956, in the conservation workshop of the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow. It was based on a description prepared by Tadeusz Seweryn, who conducted field research in the 1930s in the Dąbrowskie Powiśle region. It was then that he came across accounts of an extraordinary man, Jan Wnęk, born in 1828 in the village of Kaczówka near Dąbrowa Tarnowska, the son of a peasant, a carpenter, a sculptor, and a constructor. Based on interviews with people who remembered Wnęk, an image emerged of a man engulfed in the passion of flight. In 1866, using wood, canvas, and straps, Jan Wnęk built a glider inspired by the wings of a bird. Attached to this construction, spanning several meters, he performed jumps from the top of the bell tower in Odporyszów. He caused a sensation among the villagers. Allegedly, his feats were even written about in newspapers. Wnęk's longest gliding flights reached up to three kilometers. Unfortunately, on June 10, 1869, during the celebration of Green Holidays, he made his final flight, which ended in a crash. Seriously injured, Wnęk soon passed away. Many aviation historians consider Jan Wnęk to be a pioneering aviator. Unfortunately, no elements of Wnęk's construction have survived, nor have any drawings or other irrefutable evidence of the events from that time. However, a beautiful legend of the exploits of a man known as "Icarus from the Dunajec" has been preserved.