Majowka 2013 -
a recommendation for a road trip
In Poland there is an old custom of Majowkas. Majowka means that people, mostly bigger groups, hit the road for an entire day or even the entire weekend to spend the day in the outdoors. By organizing a Majowka, people pay tribute to May being a month of sprawling nature and good weather.
Inspired by a route description we received from our friends Maciek and Basia, we leave Jaslo to drive around abandoned places on the border of two voivodships: Lesser Poland and the Subcarpathian Region.
SzymbarkMaciek and Basia called us in the morning and suggested for our Majowka a fragment of the Route of Wooden Architecture close to Jaslo. We have been on this road, for the first time 2006, as they invited us to join them for a day ride. But you can never see everything in this area on one day, interesting spots are densely spread between Gorlice and the Slovakian border. You have to pick your priorities as there is so much to see within very short distances.
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The castle of Szymbark has it all - a picturesque localization, a well preserved renaissance elevation and a friendly service for tourists.
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The noble family Gladysz had built the castle here in 16th century hoping that a city will develop around it. This calculation had been proven wrong, no town came to be. The castle remained though and as an independent stronghold it is one of the best preserved historical monuments of its kind in Poland. |
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The back elevation faces the mountains of Beskid Niski (Lower Beskid in Outer Eastern Carpathians).
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In chambers of the castle you can see souvenirs left here by the last family who owned the place, apart of that you can visit exhibitions of contemporary art here.
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Ancient family photographies of Polish aristocrats, archived in the museum of the castle.
The museum uses also a barn in the garden for theme expositions - currently a series of old photographies showing the coexistence of different ethnic groups in villages and cities of the region: Lemko, Ukrainians, Polish and Jewish. The intention of the exhibition is to show how close together these people lived before the World War II and how the two totalitarianisms of the 20th century took over the rule in course of the war, wiping out the old social relations. I find it more interesting than souvenirs of aristocrats. |
Ropa
We need gasoline after having left Szymbark and where to find it if not in Ropa?
Ropa means in Polish both pus and oil. A river in the region is named Ropa as well as many villages - Ropa, Ropienka, Ropianka and so on. People from this area would for centuries observe greasy spots floating on the rivers. They called places and the river according to what they saw.
The region has geological layers of mineral oil just below the surface. The names were however established centuries before mineral oil had been considered as useful.
The discovery of oil as source of energy goes back to Ignacy Lukasiewicz, a pharmacist from the town Gorlice near by. After Lukasiewicz used paraffin for a lamp construction, the idea conquered the world and the oil industry conquered the region. There is an open air museum near by (Bobrka) very much worth seeing, presenting all earlier methods of winning oil.
We won petrol in a traditional way - by getting it at the gas station. A place looking like the announcement of the end of the world coming after the next turn. Well, in fact, the conditions on the road to come were not so much different.
Ironically, Seweryn Boner a Polish king's banker was looking for gold in the area in 1530s. His goldmine was flooded and destroyed by a black thick fluid... It was before gold was black.
Ropa is as small as you can imagine so when you drive through it you see immediately the both most important buildings for the history of the place: There is a wooden baroque church to the left and a baroque-neoclassical manor to the right. The church was closed when we got there.
We took a walk around the building. The wooden panels seem to be in good shape.
However both the church and the manor give you the impression of being lost in space. But when you read the history of the manor you know that between 1989 and 1999 the place looked much worse and abandoned - it was falling apart due to the fact that the local authority had to return it to the previous owners (from before the World War II) and these had no means to restore it. The buidling looks for that much better than in the 1990s. It is not fully restored yet though.
In Ropa, the storks are alive and kicking - like in every village on our route. Storks are holly cows in Poland. People believe that a nest of storks on the roof of a house bring prosperity to its inhabitants.
After a short stop in Ropa, we get into our car and continue the road trip.
Uscie Gorlickie
We head towards the south, the mountains get higher, the air sharper. We pass the lake Klimkowka which is quite a view. The road is getting narrower!
In Uscie Gorlickie, a small village, we find - as we were told - an Orthodox church.
Basia and Maciek told us that the place might be closed but there would be an information on the door:
The key to the church is under the following telephone number ...
We call and a nice woman's voice tells me that she will be there in five minutes. And here she comes, opens the church and lets us inside.
We enter the Christian Orthodox world. In the time of communist regime, the authorities concealed Christian Orthodox groups as the communist regime felt threatened by multiplicity of ethnic groups and cultures. Most of the rural people were displaced to other places in Poland or to Ukraine. Many have however secretely returned. Today the Orthodox diaspora in Poland experiences a small renaissance as there is a high interest in the Polish society concerning the national past and regional identities.
The Polish wooden churches irrespective of their confession gathered in an organized historic and touristic union called the Route of Wooden Architecture. Since 2003 they are enlisted by UNESCO as World Cultural and Natural Heritage. One after another they regain their glamour due to the means invested now in them. When you look at these pictures it is hard to believe that these churches were in many cases almost turned to ruins by being neglected on purpose.
See more under: http://www.drewniana.malopolska.pl/?l=en
A detail that I liked very much was the fact that the prayer books are in Ukrainian language. 23 years ago nobody would believe it may happen one day. The tenor was to pull back all what is Ukrainian to UdSSR and make it Russian, all what is Polish to Poland. Lemko as ethnic minority was supposed to be swallowed by one of the cultures and disappear in its cultural individuality. The point was to wipe out any multicultural character of what territory ever.
The culture proved stronger than totalitarian regimes. All items on this church table demonstrate the return of Orthodox - in this part of the world Orthodox is equal to Lemko culture.
Orthodox church celebrates Easter in May - thus we witnessed the Easter decoration in the church. The traditional Lemko / Ukrainian way of decorating fabrics with the stitch embroidery has returned to the temple. However... it is not stitched, it is painted but in a very high quality so you need to touch it to prove the difference. I think they simply still do not have the original stitched Rutchnik yet. Nice that they at least try to replace it somehow.
Another obvious evidence of the multi-ethnical character of the region are the country side cemeteries. Orthodox and Catholic crucifixes next to each other are typical.
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Our car stands next to the main road. The sign asks the drivers in Polish language to slow down. No foreigner from the Western hemisphere would drive fast on these roads anyway. In the background you see a renovated Lemko cottage used by current owners (maybe Lemkos themselves).
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And sometimes you simply cannot drive fast. You follow what is in front of you.
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Hanczowa
We stop at our next station - Hanczowa. As we travel south, the villages get tinier, the architecture more and more primal. The satellite dishes decorate the original cottages.
This orthodox church (see below) is locked, no telephone number on the door, no key under the door mat. I walk around the building and try to photograph it.
A challenge of making pictures of these churches is that they are always surrounded by trees. It is for safety reasons. Trees can detract lightnings. So you cannot make a picture of the church from far away for the most of the time. You have to get very close to the church and then it is up to you how you manage to fit the whole construction in.
We are about to leave but I cannot resist this grocery store.You cannot be more lost in space, forgotten, neglected and abandoned than this building. It is a left over from socialist time. Apparently nobody maintains the place anymore. But to my opinion, they should preserve it, it is very authentic.
Wysowa
To Wysowa we drive with hungry stomachs. We know from Basia and Maciek that the local kitchen is worth stopping by as one of the restaurants is serving original Lemko dishes. As Wysowa is a well known health resort popular for its mineral springs, there is a range of restaurants ready to host tourists.
"Goscinna Chata" - "Hospitable Cottage", this is how our recommended restaurant is named. We have to state that the name is a true prophecy when calorie rich starters are being placed in front of us.
The menu contains many words that I do not understand. This obviously has to do with the usage of Lemko original names for dishes. But the waiter is used to translating Lemko into Polish and soon I am able to make my choice.
I go for something very simple - potatoes with soured milk. It is definitely children's favorite and indeed it reminds me of childhood, sunsets and suppers in the hot Subcarpathian summer. I immidiaetely realize that I am chewing on culinary heaven, so filled with garlic that I will be walking in a garlic cloud all day. But it does not matter, I do not expect any civilization to come across.
Blechnarka
I am right about the end of civilization. We miss the church of Blechnarka because it is very well hidden behind the surrounding trees. We reach the end of the road. We reach the end of Poland too. A car coming from opposite direction stops at our height and the driver asks us whether we are planing to cross the border. Probably the guy wanted to warn us that going on a bumpy mountain road with a Corsa is not such a good idea. Well, we explain to him, we just wanted to turn around - he replies that if so, than we NEED to turn here. On the other side of the hill, it is Slovakia.
The church of Blechnarka is not so wooden as we know it from other churches. It still represents very well the original local architecture.
We want to get inside and we find the place where the key is normally deposited but unfortunately no key there.
The only thing that we can do is to walk around the building and take the joy with the outside.
In front of the church we find yet an interesting information. An information board tells us that the attic of the church is nothing less than a protected wildlife habitat for very rare bats. The church is a bat cave...
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On the road to Gladyszow
Our route is a true challenge to our satnav. It constantly stops recognizing the roads beneath our wheels. The signal projects us being in the middle of the field.
In the villages we pass the old Lemko houses still exist and are used at least partially. The Lemko houses are longish and have numerous different sections. You can tell by the facade which part is being used for living and which one used to be domicile for the animals or a storage place. Nowadays animals are not anymore being kept in the houses. In some houses only one third of the house is in use and the rest is falling apart. Some are completely abandoned and in decay.
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On our way we leave behind numerous objects belonging to the UNESCO cultural world heritage on the route of wooden architecture. Catholic and Orthodox churches. We cannot stop to see all of them as the day has its limits.
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| Church in Wysowa |
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| Church in I forgot where |
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| Kwiaton - we have been there 2006. Extraordinary beautiful. |
As we travel along the Lemko territories, many road signs are written in cyrillic script. Unthinkable before 1989.
And below - I am very happy that I managed to take the picture from the front seat - the local sheriff. The dog sleeps on the road, sees our car and raises its head slowly. No attempt to walk off the road. We had to drive around it.
Gladyszow
The stud of Hucul horses
We find our destination not immediately. First we go by mistake to the old unit of Gladyszow which is smaller. I jump out of the car and ask a guy who stands in front of the stables how to find Maciek and Basia. Before I open my mouth he shouts: "Do not tell me you come to pick up more shit! And I hope you don't want to transport it with your Corsa!"
Darek - this is the name of the guy who introduces himself to me immediately after he finds out that I am looking for Maciek and Basia - is relieved to find out that we are not going to transport horse droppings in our little opel. He writes down a description how to get to the main unit of the stud on a piece of paper with a comment: "You are going to get directions like a rally driver because I am a rally driver."
I am not surprised, Maciek is a rally driver too - there seems to be a link between the region, the horse back riding and car rallies. What surprises me is that darek switches to fluent German as he gets introduced to my husband. He used to work in Germany he says. We thank him and drive towards the main stud. It is a big realm including stables, accommodations for summer schools, training grounds, chilling areas for horses and for people.
Maciek is training the Tuesday evening group. These are regulars who live in villages and cities nearby. Maciek shouts at them - like couches do. But I guess this is necessary and also I feel pure happiness emanating from the riders. Great place for some great sports.
After watching Maciek for a while, we go with Basia and her kid to the canteen of Gladyszow stud. Here we can have a nice chat. Basia is speaking fluent German, she was born in Germany but her parents are Polish. She teaches German at a college in Krosno.
Just next door from the canteen you can visit the animals. Many of the horses are champions and very precious for preserving the Hucul breed. Gladyszow is the biggest stud for Huculs. Hucul horses are short and very compact. They have the so called dorsal stripe, a marking of primitive horses along their back. The description "primitive" refers to the direct origin of the horse from wild horse - before the horse got domesticated. Hucul horses share their name with the ethnic group - the Huculs - who still live in Carpathian mountains, nowadays most densely represented in Romania. The history of Hucul people and Hucul horses are tightly attached to each other. The highlanders bred and celebrated their horse. They developed a festivity culture with the horses in its focus.
Firstly, we visited the maternity unit (picture above). After spending time with a mom to be, who is according to the inscription on her box on an avena-free diet, we went to the animals standing outside.
Hucul horses are very resistant to different weather conditions and immune for diseases. They are easy to handle in mountainous terrain and there is literally no mountain high enough for them. They do not get scared easily and are trusting towards humans. No wonder that they immediately headed to the fence as they saw us approaching.
Known for their good temper, the horses are used a lot for horse back riding training for kids. They had their big coming out in the beginning of the 90s in Poland for their wonderful effects in hippotherapy - in rehabilitation or in work with disabled or mentally handicapped children. On the picture above, the son of Basia is feeding the Huculs with a carrot.
I took plenty of pictures of the horses that day so it takes a lot of discipline to just place here one last picture - the one above I like the most. So take one last glimpse at the animals!
For more information on the stud Gladyszow and Hucul horses, visit their homepage: http://www.huculy.com.pl/pl
Magura Malastowska
We really had to hurry now, as we wanted to get through the steepest part of the road before it gets completely dark. After the sun went down in Gladyszow the temperature sunk significantly as well. So we had one short chat with Maciek after he finished his training and got to the car. Our brave Corsa with relatively low PS-number worked its way up on the road back to Jaslo, on Magura Malastowska mountain. On its top we however made a short stop. Hidden in a forrest, yet very well signposted there is a memorial cemetery from the World War I. 1915 a very bloody fights known as the battle of Gorlice took place in this region. World War I cemeteries are spread everywhere in this part of Poland. This particular one we saw already 2006 and still we couldn't resist to have a look at it.
But the darkness was chasing us and we had to chase down some serious serpentines. Probably all of you who are fans of the motorcycle sport will get goos bumps now.
Almost home
Our satnav brought us back home on an alternative route, heading directly towards Biecz instead of Gorlice. This means that we were driving on streets even more minor than we experienced between Gorlice and Ropa. Suddenly we have realized that we are passing by a REALLY freaky new rich residence. No way we would not stop and take a picture of it. See yourself!
We keep on driving. A guy on a bicycle gesticulates and shows us to turn around warning us of something. Behind the curve a police car is standing and we get stopped for alcohol control. My husband never drinks a drop when he drives.
After a day like this, it is easy to fall asleep once you reached home.
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