Ponikwoda

Ponikwoda, which means 'springs of water', is a district of Lublin that was once a separate village. Lublin has expanded rapidly in the period since 1945 and what were once small villages at some distance from the city have become mere suburbs. Some of these villages served as holiday resorts for some of the local people, and Ponikwoda still retains a flavour of this in its extensive 'dzialki', plots of land rented from the council for gardens. From almost any map that shows Lublin as more than just a blob on highway 17, ponikwoda shows up as an area of mixed green and buildings. These days the estates of blocks of flats and houses are slowly consuming the fields, having already overtaken the heart of the village. There are still pockets of older buildings and even a cemetery left, but the gap between the dzialki in the northern part and the housing creeping up from the south have almost met.
Anyway, here is some of Ponikwoda as it was in 2001.
One of the remnants of pre-war Ponikwoda, the metal staircase is necessary as the house has been divided into 2 flats, one up and one down. Originally, before the staicase there was probably just a balcony.
Extended on a couple of occasions, but off to the right and almost hidden is the original brick built cottage.
Part of one of the many blocks of flats that now constitute the heart of the district, with a view to the north visible. If we walk through the arch...
A small estate of new blocks of flats
and another recent estate. Blocks of flats these days have lost their squareness and have 'proper 'roofs.
A part of the original rural area on the north side of Ponikwoda.
The northern part of Ponikwoda is given over to a large area of dzialki.
The entrance to one of the areas of dzialki.
People with often build these small houses on their plots of land so that they can spend weekends and weeks here away from their flats in the city.
Some are only like large sheds...
..while others are small homes.
Another simple house, with a covered area to sit.
One of the original, unsurfaced lanes.
North of the dzialki are some small farms and..
..also some houses.

Ponikwoda Cemetery
The cemetery in Ponikwoda is almost unknown in the city as it is for Polish Catholics. The Polish Catholic church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the late 19th century when many priests disagreed with the changes introduced with the first general synod. There are not many Polish Catholic's in Lublin, they have only one church and probably only a few hundred parisioners. The church is not in Ponikwoda, but about 1km away in Czechow, another former village and now a district of Lublin.

This is the grave of the first Polish Catholic priest in the Lublin parish. He died in the early 1920's and his grave is typical for the period.
Many Polish Catholics must be very poor as they have no stone graves. The 'stone' grave in the foreground is of the style comon to the 1970's.
Graves from the 1960's to the present.
A common form of grave marker fabricated from steel.

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