Marek Skubisz (born 1971) is an art historian and museologist living in Wieliczka. Since 2005 he has been deepening his knowledge of ropemaking and promoting it by conducting historical demonstrations at home and abroad. He is particularly interested in the history of the guilds and the activities of ropemakers in Wieliczka and Bochnia, where ropes and other products necessary for the operation of mines were produced. He learned the secrets of the profession from Stefania Górecka (widow of a ropemaker from Cracow) and Boleslaw Kosturkiewicz (ropemaker from Bochnia). He works with traditional ropemaking workshops in Myślenice (Marian Różycki) and Dobczyce (Tadeusz Różycki).
He collects machines, tools, ropemaking products, graphic prints and photographs related to ropemaking.
He leads a group of relatives and friends performing under the name Sznuroroby of Wieliczka. Since 2005, they have participated in dozens of archaeological and historical events at home and abroad.
As the author of the concept, since 2014, together with the City and Municipality of Wieliczka, they have been organizing the annual event “Wieliczka Twists the Rope” at the former Powrozhnik Route on Turowka in Wieliczka.
Twists of rope from Wieliczka, together with residents of the Oleśnickie Powiśle, in 2015 set a Polish record in the category: the longest rope twisted by hand – 117.8 meters. It was beaten in Wieliczka in 2016. – 152,5 m. In Elblag in 2017, a rope of 180.01 m was twisted, and this is the current Polish record.
He was the author of the scenario of the temporary exhibition “In ropes our hope”, realized in the Wieliczka Salt Mine Museum of the Cracow Saltworks, at the underground exhibition in the salt mine (15.04-31.10.2008), and “The mine rope-making workshop” – since 2013 included in the permanent exhibition in the salt mine (in the Modena chamber) in the Wieliczka Salt Mine Museum of the Cracow Saltworks. In the future, he plans to organize a ropemaking exhibition from his collections, and perhaps even a stand-alone museum. In the meantime, he is making them available online, in digital form, as the Virtual Museum of the cordage industry.
Its various activities (demonstrations, exhibitions, website) have one common goal – to promote knowledge of cordage.