The Museum of Folk Musical Instruments in Szydłowiec was established in 1968 as a branch of the Świętokrzyskie Museum in Kielce. It is considered to be the first independent museum in the world devoted to folk musical instruments.
Since 1976 the museum has been an independent institution, and since 2005 it has been operating as a cultural institution of the Mazovian Voivodeship Self-Government.
In 2015, thanks to funding from the European Union, a new instrumentological permanent esposition ‘Instruments… – see and hear tradition’ was created. The museum opened another permanent exhibition focusing on instrumentology in 2019. The exhibition ‘The Magic of Instruments. The peculiarities of the three-voice invention’, with Poland’s only Sound Experimentarium, has been recognised by experts winning numerous awards, while becoming a space eagerly explored by visitors.
In 2022, the historical and artistic exhibition ‘Szydłowiec Castle. The patronage of former owners’ drawing attention to the location of the exhibitions of the Museum of Folk Musical Instruments in Szydłowiec, the Gothic-Renaissance Castle in Szydłowiec.
Since 2019 – thanks to funding from the Local Government of the Mazovian Voivodeship, the museum has been operating in two locations. The museums exhibitions are placed in the most valuable chambers of the castle, while the new premises – the Science and Administration Centre – are used for documentation, research, publishing, popularisation and administrative activities.