Biłgoraj (Bilgoraj)
There are several Ryneks (market squares), none of them following their original function but still quite recognizable. Most of them seem to be used as parks, while the most important has had a new town hall built in the centre, probably in the late 1970's or early 1980's. If you look carefully, at one end of this building, in a kind of basement level, is the town museum and here you can find permanent displays of what the region is really known for - sieves! Believe it or not, Bilgoraj was an important maker of sieves throughout its history until relatively recently. The other industry was basket making, although the main company in the town did not survive the transition from socialism to capitalism despite having a large export market.
Part
of the current market place.
In front of the town hall (Ratusz Miejski) is one of the most ugly monuments: it is made of steel and commemorates the resistance fighters of the second world war. About 50 metres away is something about half as hideous: a granite monument to the Christian faith. Luckily, once you have managed to tear your eyes away from the monuments and the completely naff town hall you will notice the fair 19th century and early 20th century buildings around the edge of the Rynek, and the twin white towers of the Baroque Roman Catholic church through some trees from one corner.
Part
of the main rynek, recently repaved and a traditional style shop now also
used as a bar.
The interior of this church is typical baroque, fairly late with lots of gold and one of the largest altars in the region, reaching up to touch the ceiling. This interior is not greatly special, not unless you really like Baroque interiors, but not to be missed is a kitsch painting on one of the side walls of a World War 2 soldier on his knees, while on a cloud above is Mary with an archangel, the later is pouring water on a burning Bilgoraj and thereby saving it. Some distance away, over the other side of the main rynek and almost lost amongst a maze of small streets is another baroque RC church, but this one being much smaller and with only a single tower. This one was built in 1790-93 as a Greek-Catholic (Uniate) church, which it remained as until 1919 when the Uniate population of the the town had fallen to only 44 and the church was turned over to the Roman Catholics. While the main church is the best looking on the outside, this smaller one beats it easily on the interior. This one is also a very gold bestrewn baroque, far too extravagant on the side altars, but saved by some very interesting ceiling paintings.
There is no longer a synagogue in the town, a fire in 1939 destroyed that part of the town, including Isaac Bashevis Singer's grandfather's house next door. The Germans completed the destruction the following year and then in the 1950's a housing block was raised in there place. No plaque commemorates this, nor is there any information about either in the town museum even though they admit that they receive frequent enquiries.
The
location of the former synagogue
Bilgoraj has a bus company, P.PKS Bilgoraj, with its own station and on one side of this is a very run down market. In competition there are private mini-buses running from a small parking area opposite. P.PKS Bilgoraj obviously take the competition seriously because, very un-PKS-like, they offer a 30% reduction on the return fare for Lublin, Rzeszow and Zamosc. PKS companies, in the traditional Communist period way, usually have return tickets double the price of a single.
An abandoned
cottage just off the main street.
An old
wooden shop or workshop
More
wooden shops, these one are opposite recent blocks of flats with modern
shops.
Like many towns during the Communist period there were several artificially supported local businesses, many of which quickly went under in the early 1990's. Often the over extensive properties are being sold off in small lots to new companies. One company which seems to be surviving is one that sells agricultural implements from small ploughs up to combine harvesters. Both the basket weaving company and the sieve company quickly went under, the former now houses the local tax office and the latter has been chopped up into units, including cemetery stoneware, a fuel station and a presentable motel.
Once
the offices of the basketware company, now a tax office.
Storage
for the old sieve factory
Hidden away among trees down by the river is one of the best wooden granaries we have seen, although it is completely abandoned and is only a matter a of time before it is destroyed. There was once a mill as well, and it was intended that it would form a second skansen (village museum) in Bilgoraj, but it was burnt down.
The mill
granary
A wooden
cottage next to then granary
One place not to be missed is the local skansen, or rural museum. Located behind the smaller church and in completely urban surroundings is a complete small farm, with all the buildings in wood and built in the traditional manner. Not only was this a farm, but it was also a local sieve makers, and its prime purpose today is as a sieve making museum. Not only do they have all the equipment for sieve making, the main house has all the normal fittings of a farmhouse and in the outbuildings they have collected together equipment for a whole range of crafts. It is a true Aladdin's cave, each room stacked with the treasures of rural industry and Bilgoraj should be visited even if it is only to visit this museum. Of course, in the traditional Poland B fashion, no one is at all interested in promoting it, it seems to be merely the toy and ego polisher of a bunch of self congratulatory town councillors. However, the people who actually work for the city council and the museums were very friendly and helpful.
The
main house building at the skansen
The museum's display shows how the frames were made by taking very thin pine planks and rolling them to form a cylinder. The sieve part was generally made of horse tails, combed and woven like normal cloth on a loom, while larger ones used a wicker type material. The horsehair sieve material generally had a check pattern, formed by using different coloured horse tails. They were sold not only in Poland, but also exported all over Europe, including Sweden, England and France.
Sieve making
equipment and materials, one of the skansen displays
While we were in the town we surveyed most of the cemeteries. On Lubelska street and away on the other side of the river is a Roman Catholic cemetery, barely worth the walk to visit it unless you have family buried there, but with soldiers graves and monuments. Opposite this one, and unmarked on local maps is another Christian cemetery, we only stumbled upon it by accident while looking for something else. It is hidden in a wood and while it shows signs of having the perimeter fenced mended some 20 years ago it is impossible to see which sect it is as most of the stones are tumbled and unreadable, very few stones even surviving. It had the look of a Protestant cemetery, but we cannot be sure, and while listed in the town guide as being a cemetery architecture museum in 1977 there is no real information. There was one more Christian cemetery marked, but we did not have time to view it, and we do not know where the Uniate cemetery was located. Perhaps the disused cemetery we found was the Uniate cemetery?
The
entrance to the abandoned cemetery
One
of the few surviving graves in the abandoned cemetery, and even this has
had its metal plaque stolen.
A roadside
shrine near the abandoned cemtery
The Jewish cemetery is on the opposite side of the town from the others and has obviously been refenced, the broken stones gathered and a new monument put up, in the early 1990's. The fenced area is too small to cover the needs for such a large Jewish community, and it does not even cover the total area marked on our map. The cemetery needs the weeds to be kept down a bit more frequently, and it is a pity that the area in front seems to have become a storage area for gravel.
The
Jewish cemetery, as seen from the road.
Memorials
in the Jewish cemetery.
Some
stones have been re-erected, while others lies broken in the grass.
All in all, while Bilgoraj has little magic, we were kept entertained throughout the time we were there, finding enough odd nooks and corners to investigate. With a bit more cash(!) and a more open attitude to visitor's needs it could become a very interesting place to visit. Finally, they could do with finding someone better to do the English translations in their visitors guidebook, for example "Concern for the environment belongs to the priority goals of the local authorities' activities" is a literal translation from Polish, using Polish grammar and not English grammar. There are many better translators and proof readers available, who could give them a much more professional presentation.
Old wooden
cottages
A wooden
cottage on the main street.
This
satelite picture of Bilgoraj shows the grid development of the towm, the
strip type fields, and the edge of the forests which abound in this region.
The wriggly line which goes from center top to the bottom left corner is
the Biała Łada (Biala Lada) river. The line going across the top of the
picture is the railway line.
(C) CNES/SPOT Image 1992-1994
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