Denshway

Village’s strugglestoryinamuseum

Themuseumwasrebuilttowitnessand immortalizethehistoricstoryoftheEgyptian peasants’strugglein DenshwayvillageagainstthethenBritish colonialism.

Themuseumwas designedbythe consultativeengineer Hany el-Meniawitohostallcultural activitiesbesides Denshwayincident.However,itcomprisesallhistoricdocumentsontheevent,aswellasdifferent instrumentsusedin agricultureatthattimesuchasthe waterwheelandthe shadoof.
Besidesan administrativebuilding,themuseumcomprises 5showhallsinwhichall sequencesofthehistoricstruggleare represented, inaddition tonumberof sculptures, paintingsanda diminutivepatternoftheold Denshwayvillagemadebytheengineer Essam Safyy Al-Deinandtheartist Mahmoud Mabrouk.

Thebuildingalso includesarooflesstheatre,culturalcentre,musichall,VIP’shallandanatelieraswell.Themuseum,builtonanareaof 2850 sq.m,costsome LE4million, inaddition tosome LE1.5millionwere allocatedtotheartistic purposes.

Denshwayinbrief

In 1906, DenshwayvillagewasundertheBritish colonialism.TheBritish soldiersusedtomistreat peasants,taketheir possessions,burntheir cropsandkilltheirchildren,womenandoldmenaswell.Such measuresstiruppeoplein Denshway,so,they resistedand revolted,bynoweaponsbuttheir willingnessandfaith.First,theywereabletomaketheBritish soldiersdrawbackbutlater,theywerefacedbydifferent shapesof arbitrarinessandmanywere killed.Ontheotherhand,aBritishsoldierdiedaffectedbysunstrokebuttheBritish colonistswerenot convincedbythereasonofthedeathandaccusedthe peasantsofkillinghim.Thentherewasatrial,averyunfairtrialwhere 4ofthevillage’syouthwere executedwhilemanyotherwereputinjail.

Modelsoftheworks representedatthemuseum

32 painters and sculptors were chosen to feature, by their own thoughts, the historic event on all dimensions. Among the paintings represented are, the two scenes of the trial and the judgment execution, made by the painter Sabry Mansour, the preliminary trial represented by a committee of a foreign judge, the governor, a lawyer and a clerk, before them stand a number of charged people, made by the artist Ahmed Nabil. Also there are paintings of Mohamed Tarawi, who chose two scenes to depict naming them "Head of guards bleeding and "Sergeant Paul", while the painter Ibrahim Hegazi chose the incidents’ beginning to be the topic of his painting.
All painters could successfully express the event and could, by their own touches, colors and shadows make us feel as if they were painted at the same time of the event.

Afterall, DenshwayincidentisaveryspecialEgyptianepicofdignityandsacrifice,however, Denshwaymuseumisanimportantculturaleventtoput DenshwayvillageamongtheEgyptiantouristsites.