Wielce szanowni Państwo, drodzy Czytelnicy, Autorzy i bezcenni Recenzenci „Ochrony Zabytków”!

We are proud to present you another volume of the semi-annually published by the National Heritage Board of Poland, identified with the number 1/2015. As it was announced in the introduction to the previous fascicle, the first part of this volume is a continuation of the topics connected with the memory of the Great War, the outbreak of which was described in simple words by Jaroslav Hašek: “And somewhere, from the dark depths of centuries, the truth approached Europe that tomorrow would thwart the plans of the present”. In his Sztafeta, the invaluable Melchior Wańkowicz summed up roughly the material losses which affected the territory of Poland directly. Years later, Zofia Starowieyska-Morstinowa, in her memoirs, wonderfully written and published in 1962, reminded Wańkowicz’s calculations which show directly that ”one million eighty-four thousand buildings, 56% of the prewar railway rolling stock, 63% of railway stations, 390 big and 219 small bridges were destroyed, the cultivation of four and a half million hectares of farmland was given up, three million people were displaced, 130 million meters of wood were taken away without any compensation. In Łódź, 1300 kilometers of leather strap belt was torn out of machines, one hundred tons of copper parts was torn out of the most valuable machines, 100,000 motors, engines and machine tools were seized”. Above all, however, millions of innocent people were crippled or killed. Thus, it is not surprising that, in the first part of this volume, we will find threads concerning the rebuilding of the country after the war, as well as immanent funerary threads, which now constitute the common heritage of the hecatomb of at least several nations of the generation of our grandmothers and grandfathers. In the following parts of this volume, we are presenting stricte conservatory and research issues, at the same time not ignoring the topics related to iconography. A unique supplement to the volume is an overview of the book by Professor Bogumiła Rouba entitled Pielęgnacja świątyni i innych zabytków. Książka nie tylko dla księży (Care of the churches and other monuments. A book not only for priests). A good addition to that manual is a very interesting announcement devoted to the equipment for the safe protecting the icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. This volume of “Ochrona Zabytków” began to be prepared in winter. Now, at the beginning of the summer, it is time for wishing you carefree and warm holidays, abounding with good experiences. Yours faithfully Jacek Serafinowicz Editor-in-Chief