Puchaczow, Leczna
In August there is Odpust at the parish church in Puchaczow. This is a time for family re-unions, a mass at the church and then to the fair. The Odpust fair is very traditional in Poland, and there are lots of toys for sale for children.
At the bottom of the page there is a map of this village, and also of Starowies. The pictures and descriptions below are numbered and many of these numbers are shown on the map in BLUE. (the numbers in red are for the 'Starowies' page). Consider this to be like a walk through the village!
1. The village seen from the south, on the banks of the Swinka (little
pig) river, with the church in the centre. The field is a meadow, but the
number of farm animals is reducing as it no longer really pays to keep
them in 1's or 2's on each little farmstead.
2. If we follow the main road into the village from the south, we must
cross the metal and wood footbridge, next to the road bridge, over the
Swinka. To the right we see a pair of wooden cottages with more modern
steel sheet roofs. Once they would have had straw thatch, but steel or
asbestos sheeting is far more durable. The yellow brown colour is quite
traditional for this part of Poland.
3. A pace or two further on we find the mill (mlyn) beside the river.
I am not sure if it is still used as a mill to grind corn, but it is definitely
used as the central collection point for all the milk produced in the village.
during world war 2 the Germans stopped the village from grinding its corn
and so they had to grind their own corn in their own homes.
4. In front of the mill there is a brick shrine (kapliczka), inside
is a saint lit by 2 electric candles. I am afraid I do not know yet which
saint it is.
5. Just opposite the mill is this cottage, this one with sheet asbestos
for roofing. from the blackening around the chimney I would say that
they had had a fire in the chimney. Luckily, perhaps, that the roof was
asbestos because fire is the biggest danger with a wooden house.
6. Past the mill and we have the southern entrance to the village. The
steel sheet roof of the cottage on the right desperately needs repainting.
However, with the drift of young people away from the villages into the
towns and cities, many of these places are lived in by increasingly elderly
people who cannot always afford the basic maintainance costs.
7. On our left we have this cottage, which has been extended at the
back, a porch at the front, and a sattelite dish, but it is still essentially
as it was. This one is timber framed, as can be seen by the fact that the
walls are timbered with vertical planks.
8. Next we have an almost identical layout as the previous, except that
this is not timber framed but built more on the principle of a log cabin,
using think, square timbers placed horizontally. This one has an added
timber skirting, possibly to help to protect the all-important lower timbers.
To replace the lower timbers in this kind of house means taking almost
all the whole house apart.
9. Beyond this we have two more wooden cottages, log cabin style on
the left and framed on the left. Just out of sight, behind these cottages
are a few more modern houses, built since the 1950's.
10. Looking to the right down a side street we have a view to the east
of the village.
11. Going down the above side road and taking the first turn to the
left we can see the roof of the Roman Catholic church seen over the roof
of yet another wooden cottage.
12. Down this street about 30 metres and we find the village square
on our left. This is grass with many mature trees to provide shelter from
the sun. I don't know what the original purpose of this building which
faces the square, but it is off brick and rendered in plaster. Given the
classical styling, it probnably dates from about the midle of the 19th
century. Behind this building, almost hidden in the trees, is the church.
On the opposite side of the square are some shops built in the 1960's or
70's in the usual cheap style of the time and already in poor condition.
13. If we walk down beside the above building, we come to the church
(kosciel). Essentially a baroque church with other influences. Polish churches
often get rebuilt every century or so due to fires, war and neglect and
so often there is a blending of old and new styles.
14. Turning left we soon drop down a slope onto meadows, with the church
looming above us. The cemetary is now located some distance away, although
it was probably quite close in the past. It is healthier to have a cemetary
away from the village, with the other benefit that the cemetary has also
then room to grow.
15. Returning to the main part of the village and turning right, we
pass the square (rynek) on our left and the brick built, 2 storey Urzad
Gmina (district offices) on our right, we find ourselves amongst
wooden cottages again. Many wooden cottages have received the treatment
of the cottage shown below - the nailing on of hardboard sheets on the
walls. It was done for several reasons; to keep the house warmer by blocking
the gaps between the planks, to help prederve the timbers from the elements,
and to give the cottage a more modern look.
16. Another wooden cottage, with small asbestos tiles. These tiles resemble
traditional wooden tiles in colour. Here you can see clearly that the right
hand end of the cottage was the living area, and the left hand end was
for storage or work purposes (see the white painted door to the left of
the main entrance).
17. More wooden cottages, again with the typical central door opening
onto a corridor spanning the width of the cottage.
18. A rare type of cottage built in brick. The layout is almost identical
to the wooden cottage style, and it might date to as early as the 1920's.
New buildings in brick in the 50's and 60's tended to end up looking like
brick cubes.
19. This cottage shows clearly the corner joints (fish tails) and the
gaps between the planks that need to be filled and frequently maintained.
This is a small cottage and lacks the storage room at the far end.
20. The tarmac has now given out and we are on an earthern track as
we approach a line of trees on a bank. Behind the trees a canal bissects
the village from east to west. We cross on a metal footbridge. the canal
was dug in the 1960's and connects 2 rivers. It was built to help keep
the land drained, but it has not been a particular success.
21. There are many cottages and farm buildings lining either side of
the road we are approaching, which runs parallel to the the canal. This
northern part of the village is obviuosly concerned mainly with agriculture.
This wooden cottage has been rendered all over with plaster. The roof is
either wooden or steel with an asphalt covering.
22. A wooden barn on the northern edge of the village that has been
built partly around a tree. If we continued across the road and down the
path beside the barn we would find ourselves at the edge of a field. Across
the other side of the field is the cemetary.
23. A more basic barn, close to the previous, on the path to the cemetary.
24. If we continue down the road and then turn left, we cross the canal
once more and see this building on our left. It is a brick built cottage
in the traditional layout, but with a stables later added. However, they
are no longer stables as they have been converted into living quarters.
As with a growing number of cottages in the village, they are now owned
by people from places like Lublin to use as holiday homes. Despite the
Bogdanka coalmine on the horizon, the nearness of the Wlodawa lakes area
makes this a popular place, and the prices are therefore about twice what
you could expect to pay elsewhere.
25. A stone and brick barn. Limestone is the most common building stone
as it is available from quarries on the other side of Lublin, near the
Vistula (Wisla) river. Opposite this barn and the cottage above is a factory
making agricultural machinery.
26. A metal cross as a roadside shrine (kapliczka) at a road junction.
The flowers on the cross are plastic, but make a change from the usual
coloured ribbons tied from the centre of the cross to various points on
the surrounding fence. We will turn left here to take us back into the
centre of the village.
27. Although we are inside the village, here is a farmstead, with cottage
on the right and a barn in the background. This is a very common farmstead
layout.
28. Quite a substantial house, especially when youconsider that it must
have dominated the other cottages in the village. After so many centuries
of living in one storey cottages, Polish houses get taller and taller to
create as much living space as possible from any given plot. I suspect
that this was the farm machinery factory owners house before the war.
29. Here we have a barn and shed behind the large brick house. As the
barn is built using white bricks, I suspect that it is a later, post war
addition to the property.
30. Many of the woodn cottages in the village have suffered neglect
over the years, and this brick built, under the floor cellar (piwnica)
is all the remains of this one.
31. A well kept wooden cottage of the timber framed type. You can easily
see that it is of this construction by the lack of fish-tail joints at
the corner and the fact the timbers for the walls are nailed on. The lower
sign is the street name and consists of enamal on a convex steel sheet,
a very common way of making street name-plates. The upper plate is an explanation
for the street name: Stefana Skoczylasa (1918-1945) was a commander in
the local resistance underground army during WW2.
32. On the same cottage we can find this metal work on the end of the
gutter. These are post war, but quite common throughout the village.
Some have little mirrors on them, but I am not sure of the significance,
if any.
33. Across the road is this long cottage and barn combined. This is
not comon in this area, the two buildings are usually separate. However,
this one is beginning to sag with neglect and will soon be gone unless
someone restores it as a home.
34. Next on the right we have the village school. Many village schools
are closing, but this one should remain and they have a bus to collect
pupils who live in other villages.
35. Just as the road bends to the left we have another wooden cottage.
we are now on a stretch where more homes are owned as holiday homes than
as local residences.
36. This is unusual in the village and is a cut above the average wooden
cottage. During WW2 the Germans used it as a chapel. Although the main
structure does not look to bad from the outside, it is said that the interior
beams are in poor condition. This one has recently been bought and is likely
to be demolished in favour of a new house.
37. A small brick built barn with a separate hayloft. Since their is
a small glazed window on the left, it is possible that the building also
houses a summer kitchen. It is very common to have a separate kitchen for
the summer, since the main stove in the house is located in the main room,
fine for keeping warm in winter, but uncomfortably hot in summer.
38. Another holiday home, recently purchased and now sporting a sattelite
dish. Green is an unusual colour, too. The darker patch of green on the
wall was once one of the 2 entrances to the cottage, now it has only the
one on the opposite wall and the interior has been remodelled to make the
storage room (at the far end) into part of the living area.
39. Now we are at the point where the road joins the one along which
we originally entered the village, and our journey ends. I hope that you
have enjoyed it. You might also like to visit the Starowies
page, as you can see from the map, it is only a short distance away.
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