Since March 2019, the Wilanów palace has been displaying magnificent Turkish macatas from the Benedictine Monastery in Krzeszów. The Museum of the Palace of King John III in Wilanów received them on deposit from the Monastery.
The macatta is composed of 10 solids. Although they all appear identical, they are actually composed of two slightly different variants (more on this below). The main decorative motif is a slender arcade on winding columns, topped by a multi-leaf arch; between the columns we see mosque lamps and below, alternately, two eight-pointed stars and two bouquet vases each, as well as numerous smaller floral and geometric motifs. The colour scheme of the fabrics is particularly sophisticated - sand-coloured motifs have been composed on a raspberry background, while fine thread additions have been added in shades of pale green and blue - and it is here that the aforementioned differences can best be seen.
For many years, the actual origin and value of the fabrics were not known, although their beauty and high quality were always appreciated. In the Krzeszów monastery, they were used as kneeler covers for the sisters during the ceremony of taking monastic vows and receiving monastic consecration. As recently as 2010, the cloth was still used during the monastic consecration. Two days after the ceremony, an art historian from the Jagiellonian University, Dr Michał Kurzej, visited Krzeszów and for the first time identified the fabric as a fragment of a Turkish tent.