Piaski
We visited Piaski on a sunny Sunday in mid-October of 2001. Even on a sunday it was quite noisy along the high strett as large lorries ground there way through to and from Ukraine, shaking the very foundations of all the buildings. Away from the high street things were much quieter and quickly changed from a town into a multitude of farmsteads. The countryside around is relatively flat as it lies at the confluence of 2 rivers, the Gielczew with the Bystrzyca, both flowing sluggishly through flat bottomed and shallow valleys.
Background History of Piaski
Piaski is a small town of about 8,4sq.km and a population of 2800. This town is on the old trade route to Ruthenia (mainly part of present day Ukraine) and was granted city rights in the first half of the 15th century. Some historians suggest that Piaski was formerly known as Pogorzaly Staw, but Jan dlugosz (a famous early Polish chronologer working for the bishop in Krakow) suggests, in 1470, that Piaski was formerly known as Gielczew - which happens also to be the local river name and the name of a small village just to the east.In 1509, King Sigismund I (Zygmunt I)granted the then owner of Piaski, Janusz Swyrczowski the right to hold 2 major fairs in the town, one on the monday following Ascension Day and the other a week before the Purification of the Holy Mary; and also 7 fairs a year on any chosen Thursdays. Piaski's coat of arms derives from the Swyrczowski's family arms of three black trumpets against a red background. In 1531, the wooden church of St. Nicholas (sw. Mikolaj) built in 1325 was replaced by a brick church dedicated to the Elevation of the Holy Cross (Podwyzszenia Krzyza sw.). This was paid for by the then owners of Piaski, Pawel Troszczek and Mikolaj Starorzecki.
Traditional
window shutters
By the second half of the 16th century, Piaski was owned by Jan Orzechowski, the Chelm Chamberlain (Podkormorzy). In his hands there were many improvements to the road system, new bridges were built and dikes dug. His son Stanislaw, the Chelm Cornet and Lublin Chamberlain, brought Protestant Arians to Piaski and built them a chapel. This was during what is refered to as the golden age of Poland, an era noted for its religious tolerance, unlike most other European countries at the time. The Catholic church was taken over in 1563 by what are described as heretics (which, I do not know) and it remained in their hands until it was returned to the Catholic faith in 1603 by a Lublin city court order. In 1629, Piaski was a site chosen for a Calvinist synod.
In 1572, a registry of property ownership was established, which leisted all property transactions, including charity donations. In 1644, the then owner of piaski, Adam Suchodolski, changed his religious denomination from the Arian Church to the Evangelical Reformed Church (Ewangelicko-reformowane) and founded a new church for this faith. This church was consecrated in 1649. The Arians closed down their church and moved to Siedliska in 1645 (I am not sure if this was in the Kamionka gmina of Lubartow powiat, or the one in Lubycza Królewska gmina of Tomaszow Lubelski powiat). In 1783/5 a brick church was built, but it is now in ruins.
The Roman
Catholic church
In 1838, there were 450 people of Polish origin and 1358 of Jewish. By the 1860's, Piaski had a population of 1733 and 112 houses standing in an area of 8 hectares. 23 of the homes were stone, the rest being wooden and including 2 public buildings. Also within the city boundary was 260 hectares of arable land, 100 hectares of woods and 8 of pasture/meadows. The stone used for building was limestone, and today many of these buildings still exist and up until recently it was still the preferred building material.
In 1869, Piaski lost its city status as a result of its citizens involvement in the January Uprising. However, as Piaski was situated on trade routes from Warsaw to Zamosc, Chelm and beyond, it did not immediately suffer financially. Towards the end of the 19th century, there was growing poverty in Piaski and the population had risen to 3328, of which 3156 were non-Catholics.
A brick/stone windmill was built in 1868, it is still in use although
it now uses electric power.
Neo-gothic
iron monument from the mid 19th century, in Piaski cemetary.
Piaski Today
We arivved in Piaski in the morning, just in time to attend a mass at the roman Catholic church. It is quite obvious that this church was much extended in the early 20th century, using windows much of a type one would have expected to see in industrial buildings of the period - many paned and arched at the top - giving an architectural style at odds with its twin neo-baroque square towers. It looks like someone took some of the features of an earlier baroque church and added material available cheaply from a local building material suppliers. Inside it is of a false 3 nave design, with balconies above the outer naves where you can sit during the mass. A mock barrel vaulted ceiling and plain interior is saved to some extent by the use of paint effect architectural features and some not quite first rate ceiling paintings of Jesus, apostles and other saints. The light oak pews and wood panelling quite obviously originated from some mechanised factory, the cash saved obviously being invested in the dark wooden, 30 foot high altar, with its twin pillar and twin statue design. This altar may actually be from the original church as it has some baroque features and is a little at odds with the rest of the church's features. Outside the church is a separate bell tower with various mock neo-classic features, but of no real note.Being located in an agricultural region and on an ancient trade route, one would expect to see all the typical features of a Polish market town. Unfortunately, the busy highway through the town has taken away the feel of a market square, and building of various communist period structures, such as the ugly and dirty-looking Dom Kultura (cultural centre), don't help either. Even though it was a Sunday, unusually for the region there were lots of shops open, and even a simple kind of a cafe. The traffic and the various signs in Cyrrilic indicate the cause - the opportunity for business with people passing through to and from Ukraine and Belarus.
Most of the shops themselves have exteriors that have not changed much in the past 100 years, still the single window and the large shutters for both the door and window. There are quite a few shops selling food and also some more selling vehicle parts. Shoe, clothes, and other kinds of shops only of interest to locals were firmly closed. Most of the buildings along the high street were of brick or limestone, only towards the ends did one run into some wooden buildings. At the eastern end of the high street is the junction where traffic splits between Ukraine and Belarus, just behind the church. Beside the junction is a small building with a small notice announcing it as a meeting place for teetotallers, it was a bit scruffy and did not seem well cared for. Almost opposite the junction, on the south side of the road was an interesting row of 19th century shops, 2 storey and classic Polish country town buildings. Unfortunately I was not able to take a photo of them as the sun was strong and behind them.
Moving into the main part of the town we find the rynek (market square), long laid to grass and dark under the shade of mature trees. At the eastern end is the afore-mentioned Dom Kultury and a couple of wooden kiosks. There is one of the several interesting square wooden advertising pillars here, others are dotted along the length of the high street. Across the very busy road is either the other half of the rynek or what once may have been part of the village graveyard. Like the rynek it is mainly grass and trees, although not quite so dark.
Moving along the high street to the west the mainly 19th century looking buildings are punctuated with interesting looking arches through to the rear of the buildings, and if you go through it looks like some of the yards have barely changed in 50 years. The concrete floor in one of the passages is quite intersting as they have mixed a large quantity of old broken bottles in with the concrete and the bluey old glass is clearly visible, along with a quantity of modern broken glass lying on the surface - a sign that this is the location of one of the local 'drinking clubs'.
Many of the buildings are buttressed, some having had these added quite recently. The land is here is very sandy, and all those heavy trucks are probably doing quite a lot of harm. The small pollarded trees typical of a Polish market town are a bit scabby here, probably the result of pollution from the traffic, so what with the noise, the high street is probably not one of the most desirable places to live.
Behind one set of these buildings, on the north side of the road, there is a large mill, probably for flour, in typical early 20th century brick industrial architecture. Beyond the mill the land slopes down relatively sharply down to the Bystrzyca river valley floor, and here there are a series of 3 large lakes, once quite natural but for a long time having the hand of man in control. It is quite a pleasant stroll around these lakes, although sometimes they drain one or other of them, exposing flat dark mud covered with the tracks of a number of local waterfowl and seagulls.
Further along the high street we come to the cemetary, probably some 500m from the church and probably at the time of creation, outside the town. Many church cemeteries were closed down in the early 19th century for health and a lack of space reasons, the new cemeteries being located outside the town. In growing towns and cities many of these cemeteries have been re-absorbed into the town as the town has expanded around them (Lipowa cemetery in Lublin is a good example of this). Piaski has grown around the cemetary, but not completely as it was located on the north side of the high street, at the top of the slope down into the Bystrzyca river valley and its lakes. The cemetary has long since outgrown its original boundaries and spread down and along the valley sides. Very few of the graves date back to the 19th century, most of them, even in the original part, are less than 40 years old due to the custom of only being able to rent space in the cemetary for a period of 10, 20, 30, or 40 years. If you were famous, or from a wealthy local family then the chances are that your grave would remain, but having new neighbours every few decades. Probably the most noted inhabitant of the cemetary is XXX, known for being the first car enthusiast and owner in the region, but buried under a surprisingly simple grave.
By the time you reach the cemetery, the houses are generally of the single storey type, although most of the surviving are of limestone. Beyond the cemetery there are more late 20th century buildings, some businesses, and a communist period restaurant, the XXX. The restaurant has long passed its peak when, in the 1960's and 70's it was well known in the region for the quality of the food and the then owner being quite respected.
Heading back east, but now through the back streets of Piaski, one passes though a mixture of tradional limestone houses and modern concrete ones. As the ground is relatively flat and there being plenty of room to expand, this is most popular place in the town to build a new house. Being at a little distance from the highway and blocked from it by the 19th century shops and houses, it is also quite quiet. You can be in no doubt as to the agricultural nature of Piaski here, as there are still many small farmsteads here, many of them having sold their closest fields to people to build houses. Concrete and block family houses from the 1970's to the present overlook farmyards, tractors outside houses seeming almost as common as cars.
Rural Poland on a Sunday is not the most lively place in the world to be, taking a photo of one house led an old lady walking along the street to change her mind about where she was going to rush over and inform the owner of what I had done. A couple more pictures and we had half a dozen children and a dog trailing us around, telling each newcomer that we didn't understand Polish and shouting 'Sorry' and 'Good Morning' to us in between times.
The fire station looked a bit inconveniently located, but it had a nice square tower of the local limestone and red brick trimming to set it off. Near the fire staion were some of the only surviving wooden buildings in Piaski, although I do not remember seeing any in good condition. A bit beyond this was the 1960's and 70's tower block quarter, an ever present feature of most towns. Most were of no more than 5 storeys, and the close proximity to 3 or 4 small farmsteads meant that there were chickens scratching around the base of the blocks. From behind these blocks a track winds off between the farmsteads and out into the fields. It wends its way between many fields, and almost down to the Gielczew river before finally bending back to a road, by Kol. Borek, a small hamlet. It was quite a pleasant walk, except the point it passed a small flooded wood that seemed to be Piaski's fly-dumping ground, and afforded good views of the local villages. We had hoped to reach the nearby village of Gardzienica, reputedly worth a visit, but we began to tire and there was a threat from some ominously dark clouds so we went back to Piaski via the road.
Piaski is easy to reach as both private and PKS buses stop there on their way to places like Zamosc, Chelm, and Krasnystaw. Even on a Sunday there were buses every 5 to 10 minutes, although it was dificult for us to find an empty one on the way back as they were full of students returning to Lublin after a weekend home to replenish their food stock, have some free cooked meals and their washing done by doting mothers.
I think there was more to be found in Piaski, we certainly noticed a few interesting buildings in the distance, but there was not sufficient time to do everything we would have liked.
The Main Street
This
is near the church, the building on the left is a place for people with
drink problems.
Piaski
has a long history, and most of it still shows in the buildings. This building
appears to have an inter-war period front, but the alignment of the arch
with the buildings on either side is not continous.
Probably
early 20th century, although I am not sure what the original function of
the building was.
An archway
from the late 1920's. These are a common site in 19th and early 20th century
central European countries, and allow cart access to the rear of apartment
blocks.
At the
western end of the main road the 2 storey buildings inthe centre give way
to a much more rural style, as shown here.
Business Piaski
In 2001 there
were still many 19th century and early 20th century shop fronts. This one
has lost part of its original shutters, but is otherwise a good example.
Many shops, of course, have much more modern fronts these days.
As Piaksi
is on the main route from the Ukraine to Lublin and Warsaw, many local
businesses cater for people passing through, hence the signs in Ukrainian.
There are
several mills in Piaski, some of them still functioning. A mill of this
type is not uncommon in small towns in the region, although sometimes of
wood or brick. Limestone is not an uncommon material for the region immediately
to the east of Lublin.
On the
south side of the town, originally at some small distance to it, is this
former windmill. Once it had sails, but now it is capped.
Farming Piaski
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