Painted houses in Zalipye: a Polish village-museum under the open sky

There are many beautiful places in the world that have acquired beauty and special charm thanks to the imagination, creativity and efforts of their inhabitants. Suffice it to recall the Italian island of Burano with its bright colorful houses, the beautiful city of Mittenwald in Bavaria and its fairy houses, painted by artists, like illustrations for books or the island of Lanzarote with its beautiful villages and amazing houses.

Residents of a Polish village Zalipie(Zalipie), located in the south of Poland, thanks to their creativity, they have made a small village one of the most charming and colorful places in the country. They love to decorate their homes with colorful floral designs. But not only the facades of houses, the objects of their creativity also included walls and ceilings inside the house, household items, sheds, fences, wells, buckets and even barrels.

Now this one is very beautiful village became the center of ethnographic folk art in its region and one of the real sights of Poland. Thanks to the villagers' and artists' passion for creativity and self-expression, the Painted House Competition (Malowana Chata) is held here every year.

The tradition of painting houses in Zalipie is over 100 years old. And it all started with the usual whitewashing of walls smoked with soot. During the whitewashing, the imagination and imagination of the housewives helped them to see in the reliefs of the walls the outlines of not only flowers and leaves, but also entire bouquets. So, using available materials - brown clay, soot from chimneys, lime and birch sticks instead of brushes, village women began to paint flowers on the walls of their houses.

Now there are more than 20 painted houses in the village. The most famous and talented artist of Zalipie was Felicja Curylowa (1904-1974). Her original and very beautiful house after her death it became a museum and was transferred to the Regional Museum of Tarnów. The interior created by a talented housewife has been preserved here, and you can admire the true beauty created by a village woman.

First of all, impressions of Poland. At the moment I am absolutely delighted. I really have visited a lot of places in Europe, but I don’t seem to remember such admiration for a foreign power. Poland combines much of the best that this continent has to offer. Here the roads and provinces are the same as in Germany, England or Sweden - only the latter are even more beautiful. No abandoned fields; wildlife bridges over roads; an insignificant percentage of high-rise buildings and at the same time large plots of magnificent private houses, equally pleasing to the eye in any, even the most remote place. And at the same time, there is no this completely unbearable “correctness” of Western Europeans, which is expressed, for example, by the Germans in incredible pedantry and predictability. There are a lot of tourists here, but among the locals I have NEVER seen barbarians, with whom, alas, many good countries are filled. It’s like they’re just not here, can you imagine? The Poles seem to have taken the best from their neighbors - the ability to live quality lives, like in the west, and at the same time - healthy indifference from the east. How do they combine it? Don't know. But I could easily live here with a feeling of the superiority of this country over any Europeans (I am a patriot, but an objective one). It is also inexplicable to me that prices here are orders of magnitude lower than in Germany and seem to be comparable to Russian ones. As a St. Petersburg resident, I was also pleased with the climate, which is ten degrees warmer. What kind of morning frost is there? Summer has just ended here. I hope these delights will not be dispelled by any negativity.

Needless to say that Poland has a great variety of pagan Slavic antiquities? This country includes part of the Slavic ancestral home; there is no such era when modern territory Almost from their very appearance, the Slavs would not have constituted a significant, or rather the predominant, part of the population. Since this time we only have a week, we decided to explore only the most significant points, unfortunately missing out on a lot. At the same time, without further developing the topic, I will note that little is known reliably about ancient Polish paganism - we know almost more about the paganism of the same Semi-Baltic Slavs on the territory of Poland, and yet this is the only community (Pomeranians) that has already been conquered in the 12th century

Day 1. Bald Mountain (Świętokrzyskie Mountains)

Upon arrival in Poland in the late afternoon, October 21, we took a car at the Warsaw airport and drove south. Since the airport is also located in the south of the city, we haven’t really seen the capital yet - after driving several miles of “sleeping” areas, we left Warsaw, leaving it for last. However, the city is not at all ancient and, as far as I know, there is nothing significant here for the Slavic pagan culture.

The first point of the trip was Bald Mountain in the Świętokrzyski Range. Alas, the classic name “night on Bald Mountain” became prophetic for us - we were here already by dark. The Świętokrzyskie Mountains are a ridge 500-600 m high, not exactly mountainous: they are hills without a snow cap, quite earthen. From an era long before the appearance of the Slavs, pagan festivals were celebrated here. Probably, in some form, the Slavs adopted from the former inhabitants of these lands such an attitude towards Bald Mountain (and in general towards the Świętokrzyski ridge) - archaeologists discovered the remains of a fence-wall of pagan Slavic times, probably surrounding a sacred grove at the top. In modern times, reports have appeared about the worship here in the old days of the Gods Lada, Lele and Bode (the first two are controversial, the third did not exist at all; see A. Geishtor, Slavic mythology, p. 183), but all this, of course, is fiction, albeit having some folklore basis. Having wandered in the darkness around the monastery that had stood here since the baptismal era (Geishtor, ill. 20), where there were pagan shrines, we left for Krakow. As in the case of Mount Chernebog in Germany, my feelings about the place were something like this: a strong, holy place, but not particularly Slavic-pagan in this regard.

Since it was dark, I will not accompany this chapter with a few not quite good photos first day, and I’ll just attach - map of pagan landmarks in Poland(a lot is unconfirmed, but overall the map turned out to be very useful) and a promise that further photos will be in place.

Day 2. Krakow (and especially the Zbruch Idol)

Having woken up from an overnight stay in Krakow, we started the second day of the trip from the village of Lednica Górna, which today is almost merged with the south of Krakow. Alas, I did not find any traces of the character who glorified this village: Here are the women. It’s strange, they could have erected some kind of monument or something like that. During Easter time, the ancient ritual is still carried out today, but the rest of the time I couldn’t find anything reminiscent of it - only a cute village that barely preserved traces of the former collective farm nearby.

Otto of Bamberg was forced to visit Wolin several times in order to achieve success in the baptism of the Wolinians and consolidate it. According to all of Otto’s “Lives,” they worshiped the eponymous God of the city here, who for some reason was seen in Julius Caesar. Allegedly, Julius founded a city, which the lives call exclusively “Yulin,” and it was he who was revered by the Slavs here: “the city is Yulin. It got its name from Julius Caesar, who once built it; it was located on the banks of the Oder River not far from the sea” (Priflingenets, II.5). This, of course, is nonsense - the Pomeranians did not reverence any Caesar and in general they hardly knew much about him, however, apparently, the real Slavic name of the deity was very similar to “Julius”, which the authors of the “Lives” used for euhemeral purposes: they say, naive pagans , deified man. There is a corresponding one on the topic of the Pomeranian pantheon. Among the pagan shrines of “Yulina” an ancient spear is mentioned, so dilapidated that it could no longer be used in battle - it was stuck into a huge pillar standing in the city. In this regard, the Wolin God is sometimes called the "God-with-spear". After yesterday’s stories and personal meditations, without much surprise I deduced from my feelings that “Wolf-with-a-spear” is also Veles. In Szczecin he was revered in a three-headed form, and in Wolin - in the form of an attribute quite typical for this kind of deity. Like any great God, he had many names, and all of Western Pomerania (at least) saw him as a patron.

Although modern Wolin is a very small town, it is very picturesque and beautiful. First of all, we went to the embankment of the Dziwna River, which completes the path of the Odra waters to the Baltic - even the river here bore some kind of divine name. Having washed ourselves in the marvelous water, along the embankment dotted with fishermen and lined with various artifacts, we moved towards the Regional Museum. Among other monuments there is a painted modern "Viking picture stone". It is interesting precisely because the authentic, ancient picture stones that have come down to us have long since faded, and their new coloring can damage them from the point of view of historical value. At the same time, the modern stylization standing here gives a true idea of ​​exactly how these stones looked in ancient times.

The Wolin Regional Museum is small, but its collection is of great interest to a lover of pagan antiquities. The most famous exhibit is the “Volinsky Sventovit”: a small “pocket idol” made of wood with four faces on a rectangular base. It is securely hidden behind glass, which is good; The bad thing is that you can only view it from one side. It certainly gives the impression of an idol of some powerful Deity; perhaps this really is Sventovit. Nothing is known about the cult of the Ruyansk Sventovit among the Pomeranians, but Rügen is not so far away, and nothing is impossible about it. On the other hand, four-headedness could be a common motif (apparently meaning control over all directions of the world) of a number of great Deities of the Polabian region and beyond.
The museum's exhibition also includes various medieval and earlier antiquities, a model-reconstruction of a settlement from the Pomeranian era, and household and cult objects of the ancient Volynians. Among the important monuments are wooden pocket idols, vaguely reminiscent of their Novgorod counterparts; a staff with a pommel in the form of a head, again similar to those from Novgorod; Scandinavian runic inscription on a stick; decorations, including moonlights and amulets, etc. Although I am leaving most of the photographic selection to the Volinsky Museum, I must say that what is presented here does not exhaust the most interesting set of its exhibits.

“Volinsky Sventovit”, wooden four-faced idol (9 cm) from the 9th century.

Wooden kite from Sweden, scabbard frame, stick with Germanic runes, amber spindle whorl, etc.

Cult statues – “konik” and “pocket idols”

Household items – rivets, spears; in the upper right part of the image there are possibly cult figurines (face and hare)

Staff with a carved face

Tin and silver pendants from the 10th century, including moonlights

A fragment of a wind instrument with 12 faces made from deer antler from the 10th century.

Having then crossed Dziwna to Wolinsky Island, we found ourselves in an open-air reconstruction museum called “Center of the Slavs and Vikings.” There is something similar in the German Gross-Raden, later we will see a similar museum in Ovidz, but this one is certainly the best of its kind. This is a “settlement” fenced with a palisade, where there are several different houses, buildings, sanctuaries in the stylization of the end of the early Middle Ages (10th century give or take), and both Slavic (mostly) and Scandinavian antiquities are copied or reproduced. The level of detail and the number of different little things that are done or taken into account here is simply amazing. Apparently, people come here for long periods of time. warm time years, craftsmen-reenactors, people who are very knowledgeable in their topic, who, having fun, make one trinket after another. I will not even try to express my admiration for this place, only advising any lover of Slavic and Scandinavian antiquities to visit it. In terms of its exhibition and reconstruction of antiquity, Volin surpasses everything I have seen in Germany and Poland, and is almost on an equal footing with Mister Veliky Novgorod.

Having spent a lot of time completely walking around the seemingly tiny Center, we finally left it, then moving on in search of the mysterious “Clawdone” or “Claudne”. This “very significant settlement” (Priflingen, II.19) was visited by Otto of Bamberg and it is not entirely clear what it is. Most researchers see it as the modern village of Kłodkowo, south along the Rega River from Trzebiatów; another version says that we are talking about the village of Tserkovets, 5–7 km west of Klodkowo. One way or another, in this place, described as “wooded and very beautiful” (Herbord, II.38), Otto founded a church, baptizing a large number of people. We visited both villages: both have fairly similar churches, one of which probably had a hand in the Bamberg missionary. These places did not make any impression on me, although 900 years ago the Polabian-Baltic version of Slavic paganism reigned here.

Due to the large number of objects we visited that day, and the abundance of important photos, I will divide the report about it into two parts.

Day 5, part 2. Places of Otto of Bamberg in Poland: Trzyglow, Kolobrzeg, Bialogard; as well as Sadno, Trzebiatów, Triglav boulder from Tychowo

When Otto baptized Szczecin, people remaining faithful to paganism took the idol of God Triglav from the city to a village to the east of the city. Almost unanimously, the role of this village is assumed to be a settlement under the eloquent name Trzygłów (see Geishtor, pp. 137–138, although such a localization is unlikely to be correct), located in the same area (about 10 km south of Gryfice, where we were passing also dropped in, and where I washed myself in the Rega River). A certain widow hid the idol in the hollow of a large tree, and even with cunning, Otto’s companions were unable to steal or destroy the statue (Ebon, II.13). By the way, it is noteworthy that Otto’s assistant Hermann, who managed to spit at the idol, soon after ingloriously drowned in the Parsenta River (Priflingenets, II.20). In Trzhiglova Park I saw ancient oak trees that trace back to the descendants of the tree that sheltered the idol. Not so far from Trzhiglov (but far from being in this village itself!) by the road there is another, large wooden statue of Triglav - haven’t you lost count yet, which one? Unfortunately, I can’t imagine how in Russia, even in historical places, it would be possible to arrange them so boldly and en masse. Meanwhile, we stumbled upon the idol almost “by accident”, having already despaired of finding it in the village of Trzhiglov itself, where it is located in numerous materials both in Russian and in Polish: in fact, it stands along the road in the village of Lubin east of Baszewice, in 3 km from Trziglov.

Sadlno is a tiny village 5–10 km west of Trzebiatów. Although local patriots are trying to attribute Otto’s visit to her, there is no reliable information about this. However, there is an ancient and mysterious church here. One of its secrets is “The Face from Sadno”. This is a small bas-relief on a stone embedded in the ground near the walls of the church next to the entrance. It is unclear who is depicted; For example, the opinion was put forward that this monument could be included among the “overthrown” idols of the Altenkirchen and Wolgast type (as well as the previously mentioned slab from Slupsk). But after examining “The Face from Sadno”, I retained my skepticism in this regard. Let's imagine a medieval sculptor of these places, depicting some kind of face. Let us imagine clergy obsessed with religion shouting about the bas-relief: “idol! idol!". And so, like a defeated idol, he is placed at the foot of the church entrance - undeservedly, but that’s how it happened. It's my opinion.

The name of the city of Trzebiatów on the Rega River probably comes from the common Slavic word “treba” (Polish trzeba). This term refers to the pagan lexicon and means “sacrifice”, “offering”, for example, in the ancient Russian (XI-XIII centuries) teaching against paganism “The Lay of Idols”: “the Slavic people also lay down and create what they require for the gods...”. There are many such names in Poland, and probably some of them refer to some pagan facts (and others to the meaning of “demand”). Archaeologists have established that in pagan times there was a sanctuary near Trzebiatów (“Wyszkowo_(Trzebiatów)”, see L.P. Slupecki, Slavonic pagan sanctuaries, p. 128), interesting for its astronomical landmarks. A. Geishtor writes: “traces of such an oval-shaped complex with traces of a fireplace and a pillar were found in Trzebiatovo in Pomerania (the very name of the place indicates the performance of sacrificial rites there). The astronomical orientation of the elements (stones, traces of pillars) of both this place of worship and other cult complexes was discovered (determination of sunrises in Trzebiatów on March 21, June 23 and September 23" (Geisztor, p. 207). We stopped there for a short time; I I saw that a plot of this land is for sale. Eh, it’s a pity there are no plots near St. Petersburg where plots with former pagan sanctuaries of the Slavs would be sold! The area is deserted and damp; next to the lowland of the Rega River. I wandered here a little, trying to find the ruins of an ancient medieval church, destroyed during the Second World War, but I’m not sure that I found them. But I managed to easily find a roadside ancient penitential cross. For tourists, apart from it, nothing interesting could be found here. Although north of Trzebiatów there is a village adjacent to this city called Białoboki, I did not intend to to look for the non-existent Belobogs there, and we moved further to the northeast.

A face from Sadno, with ancient and mysterious origins

Wyszkowo in Trzebiatów, site of an ancient Slavic temple; penitential cross of the 16th century

The city of Kołobrzeg (its name means “near the [Baltic] coast”) is interesting because already at the beginning of the 11th century. Thietmar of Merseburg briefly described its pagan cult: the local bishop Reinbern was active in the period 1000–1007 until he was expelled by the pagans: “He destroyed and burned the sanctuaries of idols; the sea, inhabited by demons, he threw there 4 stones anointed with holy oil and blessed with water, he cleansed it.” This is one of the few clear examples of the mention of water Slavic Deities. However, Otto of Bamberg, 120 years later, was forced to go there again to baptize the local Slavs. It was here, in Kolobrzeg, in the Parsent River, that Otto’s associate, Deacon Herman, who had recently spat on the idol of Triglav, foolishly drowned, plunging the missionary’s team into deep despondency and prompting them to quickly leave the unfriendly land. Are they strong? water gods this city! Herbord, writing about the baptism of Kołobrzeg (II.39), noted that by the arrival of Otto, almost all the inhabitants had left the city, and those who remained did not want to be baptized in the minority, although according to him Otto ultimately succeeded. It is a pity that none of the sources brought to us the names of the local Gods.
We reached the Baltic coast near the Kołobrzeg lighthouse. Dul strong wind, the sea waves hissed, and hundreds of seagulls of all shades and sizes crowded around the water. The wife first managed to feed them a chocolate bar, and then, getting excited, bought a whole large loaf. The birds caught pieces of the bun on the fly, and took two or three slices directly from their hands, maneuvering in the wind. Here we captured some gorgeous sunset shots.

As a result, we arrived at Bialogard, the easternmost point visited by Otto during his missionary activities (Herbord, II.40), by dark. I wanted to wash myself in Parsenta, but the city seemed to be not on the river, but at some distance from it. As a result, in complete darkness, approaching fast waters Parcents, I washed my face in it - but along the way I didn’t come across anything interesting or well-lit enough to photograph it properly. However, both Otto’s Lives and the guidebooks did not offer anything valuable in this city.

Despite the long-falling darkness, we stopped at another place, again connected with Triglav. This is a huge boulder called Trygław, near which the cemetery of the village of Tychowo was laid out. So, laughing at ourselves, in complete darkness, we walked to the boulder through the village cemetery. However, throughout the cemetery, multi-colored lights of candles in colored transparent stands flickered - but still nothing was visible; The backlights on mobile phones for video shooting were almost useless. I climbed onto the boulder: it is indeed quite a massive stone, overgrown with mosses, although in the darkness it seemed larger to the touch than it appears in the photo. At its highest point there is a crucifix. Since we didn’t really get any photos of our own (“somewhere there’s something glowing”), I’ll attach a few pictures from the net for general idea; Moreover, I have not come across any information about him in the Russian-speaking environment. However, in Poland this is a well-known thing, and in Tychowo in several places there are signs and plaques with reference information hanging on the boulder. I can’t say to what extent the boulder could be connected with God Triglav - rather, I think not. Its name is easier to explain as “three-headed”: at least one, the front ledge actually vaguely resembles a head. If you use your imagination, finding two more ledges and calling the stone three-headed will be quite easy. The stone undoubtedly attracts attention, regardless of any historical facts: it is too huge and not entirely typical for this area, therefore it is quite appropriately recorded as one of the surrounding “places of power”. From here we went to spend the night in Szczecinek.

Photo from the network, Triglav boulder at the Tychovo cemetery

Photo from the network, Triglav boulder at the Tychovo cemetery

Days 6 and 7. Szczecinek, Gdansk, Owidz, Mlawa

This is the last material about the trip itself, and the penultimate one in the section: in the next – summary – final chapter I will collect all vital information and advice to future pilgrims together.
We started our morning in Szczecinek with a visit to the local Regional Museum. Here is a stone idol known in Polish literature - the so-called “Lubovsky Belobog” of the 10th century. (Geishtor, ill. 7). This name is strange, taken out of nowhere, since there is no such Deity in reliable sources, and here, in the Szczecinek area, there are especially no hints of it - but alas, it has become established. Geishtor and Slupecki were misled by the era of its discovery, considering it post-war, but in fact the idol became known already in the 19th century. and was found slightly different from where it is usually noted. Those who want details can google an author with the last name Skrzypek on this topic - he wrote a good article in Polish about this “Belbuk”. I didn’t know what else there was in this museum, and after visiting it I was disappointed. Lyubov's idol stands at the entrance, under glass, and theoretically, with the right impudence, one could take a photo of it without buying tickets. Having bought them, we walked around several floors of a collection that was completely uninteresting and had virtually no historical value. Joking with my wife about a dilapidated door we saw in the exhibition (we have such “exhibits” in Petrogradka in every second entrance!), 20 minutes later we went down again to the idol, getting ready to leave - there was absolutely nothing to see there besides it. The idol impressed me as a shrine of “local significance”: apparently it is really a simple Slavic idol, depicting the Deity and having some power. Perhaps - at the level of assumption - in addition to a smiling face, it also meant a “princely hat” typical of Slavic idols, indicated, however, extremely schematically.

Lyubovsky idol (sometimes inappropriately called “Belbog”), around the 10th century; Regional Museum of Szczecinek

Lyubovsky idol (sometimes inappropriately called “Belbog”), around the 10th century; Regional Museum of Szczecinek

Then we finally left the former lands of the Pomeranians - on the whole they made a strong and pleasant impression on me. We arrived in seaside Gdansk. I want to emphasize that in the era of paganism, Poland did not have permanent access to the sea: to the east of the Pomeranians, their neighbors were the Balts - the Poles bordered on both of them from the south. Monuments of Baltic paganism in northeastern Poland are so numerous that, as far as I can imagine, there are almost more archaeological artifacts here than in Lithuania and Latvia combined. It’s a pity, but there wasn’t much time to study Baltic antiquities: Gdansk became the only point on the program, and only because it was on the way between other important “Slavic” points of the route. As we approached these regions, we were surprised by the bilingual geographical signatures: only later did I discover to my surprise that Kashubian (of the West Slavic group) is widely spoken here as a regional language (hundreds of thousands of speakers). In the era of paganism, these lands belonged to the Western Baltic tribe of Prussians.
The Archaeological Museum of Gdansk stands on a picturesque bank (several branches of the western mouth of the Vistula also pass through Baltic Gdansk). The city itself is large and beautiful, although we saw a lot of essentially German architecture during our trips around Germany. Right on the street between the water and the museum there are idols of the Balts, the so-called “Prussian women”: there are four of them and another revered stone next to them.

The museum itself is quite large, although thematically decorated in an odd way. After the large section of northern Africa comes the ancient eras and local region - there is no other here. Of the antiquities that are interesting to us, the first is the Boulder from Lezno. I was skeptical about what Geishtor wrote about him (ill. 9, pp. 218–219), but after examining and meditating, I decided that nothing was impossible if he somehow related to the Slavs. It’s not like an idol – a large round stone with drawings on three sides. The first one is apparently a horseman, very sketchy. The second is a person holding something in right hand. The third, the fuzziest and made in a slightly different technique, is another person, either holding a spear, or tied to something. I thought that these could be illustrations of some myth. We must agree with Geishtor that he dismissed the two-faced figure from Novy Vets from the list of Slavic antiquities: this is anything, but not Slavic antiquity. It is too pretentious, complex and in general in no way similar to other Slavic idols. Perhaps this is a fragment of some kind of church. Other thematic exhibits include amber figurines, moonlites, and Baltic stone shrines. However, in general, the museum did not make a big impression on me - especially after Szczecin and Wolin.

Boulder from Ležno from different sides: perhaps an illustration of some myth; Archaeological Museum of Gdańsk

Boulder from Ležno from different sides: perhaps an illustration of some myth; Archaeological Museum of Gdańsk

A two-headed statue from Novy Wiec, of a completely non-Slavic appearance; Archaeological Museum of Gdańsk

We drove south, trying to make it to the Museum of Slavic Mythology before closing, which is next to the Settlement in Owidz (Grodzisko Owidz) to the southeast of Starogard-Gdanski. We both had time and did not have time: the museum was already closed, since the last entry of visitors was made an hour before closing, and an hour-long excursion was expected. There were no people. We pulled out a local employee, an aunt who spoke neither Russian nor English, and tearfully asked her to let us in privately, since we were rushing here on purpose, wanting to stay in the museum for at least 15 minutes. My aunt, not without hesitation, took the keys at her own risk and led us into the museum, even trying to tell us something in Polish. The idea of ​​the museum is quite original: it is dark, the installations are illuminated and even “move” a little when you put on 3D glasses. The first installation is dedicated to the “main myth”: near some mountain Perun fought with the Serpent - supposedly Veles. Well, that's okay. One of the following installations was dedicated to the “myth” of the love of Yarila and Marena. My aunt told a whole story, which I understood little of - but enough to understand that there is a lot of nonsense in this museum. Some part of the exhibition was devoted to holidays, the myth of the World Egg (where did they get it from the Slavs, I wonder, not from the “Ryaba Hen”? Do not confuse folklore and mythology) and folk painting. The museum is essentially tiny, and what can be told there besides nonsense for an hour is completely incomprehensible. But there was something for which I was eager to come here, and which deservedly pleased me.
This is a statue of God Sventovit, made exactly in accordance with the description of Saxo Grammar (“Acts of the Danes”, XIV.39.3), standing in the 12th century. in the holy city of Arkona of the Polabian Ruyan tribe, in the dim lighting of the museum, looking as if unreal. Although it was written at the entrance that filming was prohibited, my aunt did not forbid us to film and photograph - and almost everything that I photographed there was the “Arkonian” Sventovit. Undoubtedly, this is his best reconstruction of all that I have seen, both in the form of pictures and, especially, in the form of statues. Having thanked the aunt for visiting the museum, which also turned out to be free - they say, what should they charge us for, we didn’t listen to the excursion - we were sent by her to walk around the Settlement, which was a separate project.

As in the German Gross-Raden, the Ovidz Fortification was a reconstruction of a medieval settlement and fortress; however, after a similar “Center of Slavs and Vikings” in Wolin, it seemed to us completely superficial, undeveloped and uninteresting. It must be admitted that the bar set by Volin is incredibly high - he is head and shoulders above all his peers. The local settlement stands on the banks of the river along which swans swam, there is a wooden tower, a number of houses and buildings for various purposes, as well as several wooden sculptures, including reconstructions of idols. When it began to get dark, we went to spend the night at the last point of the route before Warsaw - the city of Mlawa.

Waking up on the morning of the seventh day of the trip in Mlawe, we went to the local museum: here I wanted to see the Maloczyn Idol (“Kamienne bóstwo pogańskie z Małocina” in Polish Wikipedia). The pleasant little museum has made it its symbol and stands as the focal point of one of the main halls. First of all, I was surprised by the size of the Malochinsky idol: for some reason, from several well-known pictures, I imagined a hefty boulder. In fact, this is the smallest free-standing stone idol I have ever seen: its head is the size of a human one. Examining him, I noticed a number of details: in addition to his face, his hair and ears were clearly visible, and the parting on his head was made with a clear hint of the frenulum of the phallus. What I previously took for a smile is apparently a mustache. Small pieces have been broken off from the head and bottom to the right (for the viewer). The mustache and beard were cut out and retained traces of black coloring; The idol was also painted on top, where the hair was. This is a powerful shrine; according to my subjective feeling, the idol depicts one of the supreme common Slavic Deities.

Unlike the Szczecinek Museum, the rest of the exhibition here is also very interesting: although there are almost no medieval antiquities, we wandered with curiosity through the biological section of the museum, where almost all the local fauna is exhibited in stuffed form. St O There were also exhibits in the section of geology, Paleolithic, and modern times. From Mlawa we left for Warsaw for the last day, dedicated to non-pagan tourism and shopping.

From October 21 to October 28, 2017, my wife and I visited Poland for the first time without passing through. Having rented a car in Warsaw, in one week we covered the same 2,500 km that we covered in two weeks in the summer in Germany. There is no doubt, however, that even this considerable distance could not accommodate everything that deserves a visit in this country, full of Slavic antiquities and pagan monuments. Here, in the west of the Slavic ancestral home, there are too many of them.
What to say? – First of all, I am delighted with Poland. Almost ten years ago, having visited Italy - with a paradise sea and ancient monuments at every step - I put it first on my tourist list, and to be honest, I was sure that no country with a colder climate could displace it. Poland did it - it’s the best country I’ve been to (which doesn’t stop me from loving my native Russia more - because it’s mine), and I’ve been to many places. Here, a healthy mentality amazingly coincides (believe me, the Poles, with all their focus on Europe, are not tolerant) and the standard of living and ecology. I won’t say that everything is perfect here – but everything is learned by comparison. I didn’t see here, as in Russia, abandoned drunken villages and “roads” made of holes and mud; I haven’t seen spontaneous garbage dumps, and bureaucrats with flashing lights, for the sake of which highways are blocked. I haven’t seen a dozen barbarians here in a week - although it’s hard for me to believe that such glorious places still exist. I haven't seen it here as in Western Europe, correct snobs who want to be fined for parking in a wasteland forgotten by the world and did not see the social and career fatalism to which every Englishman or Swede seems doomed. The Poles took the best from the east and west. It’s strange, however, that among the Polish women there are so few pretty or even fair... And by the way, here they really show accidents on Russian roads on TV like barbaric exoticism.
I was somewhat miscalculated with the timing, when it became dark - too early - and several evening points were not able to be properly seen and photographed (Lysa Gora of the Świętokrzyski ridge, Santok, Białogard, Tychowo). Unfortunately, due to the shortness of the trip, we were not able to visit all the museums - the day off fell in Poznan, and we missed the most interesting archaeological museum of this city. It remains a mystery to me whether, and where, if so, the idols from Powercze and the Mikorzyn stones, which I expected to see in the Krakow Archaeological Museum, are on display somewhere. It was quite unexpected for me that a number of the large bookstores we visited did not have a single worthwhile book about Slavic paganism, although we saw some specialized archeology on the shelves of museums. Otherwise, everything turned out great. In general, the road was successful, the weather was practically undisturbing, and there were no special adventures. In some places I found more than I was looking for - for example, I discovered an ancient Plate from Slupsk in Szczecin. Even if the list of points to visit, far from being completely complete, was completed in its entirety. We spent every night in hotels, each time in a new place, assessing almost all regions of this rather large country by European standards - again I can recommend the booking.com service for this.

What else can you advise a pagan pilgrim heading to Poland? “He started a worthwhile business, I’ll say.” Renting a car and driving around Poland is easy, I advise you not to be afraid of it. I note that in Poland very few people speak English: we met approximately the same number of people who at some level spoke Russian. A thousand years ago, our languages ​​were still almost the same - and this also contributes to the understanding of people and culture.
Speaking of places, of course, not everything we visited will be interesting to everyone. The places of Otto of Bamberg, for example, are my personal feature, since I am currently working on a project on the “Lives” of this missionary. And what is worth visiting - without fanaticism for specific images?
– First of all, I was delighted by the region of Szczecin and Wolin. These two cities in the very west of the country and some of their surroundings truly immerse you in a pagan atmosphere with their countless idols right on the streets, magnificent museums and historical monuments. In addition, it is precisely about the paganism (however, the Semi-Baltic, and not the Polish version) of these places in Poland that is most reliably known (the “Lives” of Otto of Bamberg is from the 12th century; chroniclers of the 11th–13th centuries report something about Wolin). Adam of Bremen or Saxo Grammar). These are beautiful regions in themselves - Szczecin is a large metropolis, and Wolin is a village with all the corresponding features. And all around are marvelous rivers and bays; It's a stone's throw to the Baltic.
– Krakow is also very good. A lover of Slavic antiquities may be drawn there only by the Zbruch Idol, an adornment of the local museum, but there is something to see there besides that. This is very beautiful city, full of tourists and attractions, standing on the Vistula River, sacred to the Slavs. Don't miss the Kraka Mound and Wawel Castle - and if you wish, there is plenty to see in the area around the city.
– Mount Slenzha, although full of pre-Slavic monuments, in all likelihood, was also revered by the pagan Slavs. This is an amazing wild place, a wilderness covered with forests and boulders. Gorgeous views of nature and a special connection with it are guaranteed here. Very close by is the noble city of Wroclaw, and even closer are many of the key places in Sapkowski’s Reinewan Saga.
– In general, I liked Kolobrzeg, and many points between it and the above-mentioned Szczecin and Wolin - but this region, where Polob-Baltic and Polish antiquities intersected, is too vast to point out anything specific here. By the way, I believe that there is a short period of the year when the local Baltic Sea becomes quite swimmable. To a lesser extent I was pleased with Gniezno and Poznan, the outskirts of Gdansk; and I didn’t like Warsaw at all (the only one), full of skyscrapers (however, the Stalinist high-rise was still far from being lost against their background) and almost without art O shopping stores.

Well, we can close this section.

Villa "Jedlinka", built according to the design of S. Vitkevich

Construction and related wooden architecture in Poland have their roots in a very distant past. The first traces of buildings were discovered during excavations of an ancient Slavic settlement on Lake Biskupin, near Poznan, which dates back to the 5th century BC, to the period of the so-called Lusatian culture.

The dwellings were built from vertically placed untreated logs, connected at the corners by posts with grooves. The only decoration of the buildings was a roughly hewn pazdur - a spire that crowned the ridge of the roof.

From the chronicles that have survived to this day, it follows that around the 10th century AD, the first carved details appeared in wooden pagan temples. Along with the development of wooden architecture, applied decorative art also developed.

In the 10th-16th centuries, wooden construction flourished in Poland. Along with simple residential and outbuildings, estates, barns, taverns, wind and water mills, forges, as well as religious buildings - temples, bell towers, chapels and roadside worship crosses were built. Over time, builders are beginning to pay more and more attention to architectural details, exterior decoration and interior decoration.

Initially decorative role the very design of the buildings played a role. The connection of log logs at the corners “on the edge”, when the resulting outlets extend beyond the walls, or in a “fish tail”, when there are no outlets in the corners, in itself served as a decorative element in wooden architecture.

Many architectural details of buildings become decorations thanks to the rich carvings. Gradually, decorative designs are increasingly being used at the ends of load-bearing beams and carvings on roof overhangs. The carving covers the door frames and the doors themselves. The pattern on consoles, lintels, door jamb joints, rafters, load-bearing beams, and frieze slats is becoming more and more complex.

Gural style.

I am publishing an article by one of my designer friends, who recently had the pleasure of not only admiring and photographing Polish wooden houses, but also chatting with their hospitable owners.

People and architecture. The story of one experiment. Author. E. Zabelina (designer)

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Podhale style

Very interesting are the decorative decorations in the wooden architecture of Podhale - a large mountain valley lying between the Beskids and the Tatras, in southern Poland, as well as in the surrounding areas. The specifics of the Podhale style in folk art developed over the centuries, under the influence of climatic conditions, traditions and beliefs of the local population, and the specifics of the main building material - wood. Wooden architecture and decorative art developed in close harmony with nature, which served folk craftsmen as an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

The breath of the mountains is felt in Podhale folk architecture; it has absorbed their harsh beauty. A huge contribution to the cultivation and popularization of the Podhale style in architecture was made by Stanislav Witkiewicz (1851-1915), an artist, critic and writer who settled in the heart of the Tatras - Zakopane in 1888, Stanislav Witkiewicz, an excellent connoisseur and admirer of Podhale applied art, local folk art, proposed to spread and consolidate a style based on mountain traditions, their architecture and the art of wood carving throughout the entire Tatra region and its surroundings.

Vitkevich strove for the revival and use of all the most valuable elements of artistic expression in the form of decorative applied art and carpentry skills of the Gurals, both in building structures, interior design, and architectural details.

He considered Podhale a reserve of the old, primordial Polish style in wooden architecture.

Thanks to Witkiewicz, interest in the folk craftsmen of Podhale increased, and the style, the spread of which he actively contributed to, began to be called the Witkiewicz style, or Zakopane style. His influence extended to architecture and art, both secular and ecclesiastical.

Zakopane style

Characteristic roof completions - panels

Lynx - beams under the roof canopy

Characteristic features of the buried style in architecture are a stone foundation, a log frame, often sheathed with boards, steep, pointed roofs with patterned, far-protruding awnings, verandas and porches with board railings decorated with carvings or contour cutting, triangular attic gables with a carved sun motif and carved a figured spire on the roof ridge, profiled consoles, carved pillars, carvings on door jambs and door panels. All these details can be seen in peasant houses, estates, barns, taverns, and on gates. The same decorative details were used in church construction - richly ornamented collars, slotted valances in churches, chapels, belfries, and grave monuments, which were often true masterpieces of small forms of wooden architecture.

Folk craftsmen also put a lot of work and art into interior decoration. Rich carvings covered beams, ceilings, cornices, wooden furniture, various household utensils and dishes. A typical house of a Tatra highlander is made of hewn fir logs. It is characterized by pointed steep roofs, covered with shingles or shingles - thin wooden plates that overlap one another, like scales. Far protruding roof canopies are supported by carved beams - lynxes. The roof ridge is crowned with a carved spire - pamdur. Doors leading into a house usually end in a bow or arch at the top.

The outside and inside of the house are richly decorated with carvings - voluminous and openwork. The beams that support the roof overhang come in the most bizarre shapes. Roof panels are often sheathed with boards laid in an intricate pattern. The sun motif usually predominates. The same motif is repeated on the doors. Doors generally occupy an important place as a decorative element. Here the talent of folk craftsmen finds wide application. One of the old ways of decorating doors is pecking, that is, driving in wooden pegs to form a pattern. Previously, pegs made of durable wood were driven in to connect door risers to the lintel. Later they acquired independent decorative significance. They began to be made not only at joints, but also on other parts of the door frame and door leaf. One of the favorite motifs, repeated both on the door lintels - the lintels, and on the lintels - the elements connecting the door riser with the lintel, was a geometric or floral ornament, pazenitsa - a Gural pattern found in embroidery, metal jewelry, and folk costumes. Very often there are various options for sockets.

Ornament on the doors

Ornament on window frames

The platbands framing the windows are covered with less rich carvings. Most often they are decorated with friezes.

In some large houses of the mountaineers - the Gurals, pillars and patterned railings of the verandas served as a decorative element. The external design was complemented by jagged canopies with through-cut threads and the same roof ridge, formed by the outermost layers of shingles cut along an oblique line, or more often in a semicircle. Folk craftsmen were able to discover beauty even in such a seemingly unremarkable material as wool - wood fiber or thin and long wood shavings, which are used to caulk the cracks between the logs of a log house. When laying a log house, a hole is specially left between the logs - a shel 3 to 6 centimeters wide, for which special pegs are placed between the ends of the logs. The cracks are then plugged with shavings rolled into a bundle. The edges sticking out from the inside are cut off with a scythe removed from the handle. On the outside, the strands lying between the logs form beautiful and intricate patterns.

Let's now take a look inside such a house. Usually there are two huts: a black one, or a living one, where the entire life of the inhabitants is concentrated, and a white, front one, in which there are high-made beds with a mountain of fluffed pillows, painted chests with a dowry and festive clothes, and furniture decorated with carvings.

The inside of the doors and the central ceiling beam - sosremb - are covered with rich carvings of intricate ornamentation. Carvings can also be found on the ceiling between the beams.

Sosremby - central ceiling beams

Carved friezes stretch along the walls under the ceiling, above the windows and along the beams. Craftsmen have also worked a lot on the furniture that they cover. dense pattern. Table, chairs, benches, a cradle, which is usually suspended from a ceiling beam, inclined single-row shelves for dishes, shelves for spoons - skiers, - ladles, spoons, forks, mugs and other household items carved from sycamore, made and decorated with love and skill. The ornament repeats many geometric patterns that adorn the outside of the house and the internal ceiling beams: teeth, semicircles, arcs, rosettes. Very rich carvings cover the dish shelves, especially their upper parts. The main technique is relief carving and chiselling, as well as openwork through carving.

Decorative elements can be found in the simplest residential and commercial buildings: high-mountain shepherd's huts, barns, barns. Typically this is carved patterns on door frames, roof overhangs, shingles cut at an angle, forming a scaly roof covering.

Friezes for interior decoration

Inside the hut you can often see an ornamented pillar, profiled beams, patterned heads of pegs that strengthen wooden structure, carved “jadwigs” - special hooks with grooves that were fixed to the ceiling and served to hang pots in which food was cooked over the hearth at different heights.

Pillars in the Gural hut

The ingenuity and talent of folk craftsmen often find application in the design and decoration of fences. Typically, fence posts are made of four poles located in the corners of a square, covered with a cone-shaped roof with a carved edge and a small spire - pazdur.

Even in the simplest fences enclosing sheep pens on high mountain pastures, you can find decorative elements in the corner posts.

The gate leading to the Gural farm often has a roof, usually a hipped one, supported on pillars. And here the same ones as on the roofs are repeated: carved spiers, decorative canopies, often jagged, ornaments on supporting pillars, profiled beams, a pattern on the door leaf, in which the sun motif is found. Sometimes board cladding plays a decorative role.

Very beautiful gates are most often found in closed buildings, where a residential building along with its connected outbuildings form a closed quadrangle, with a courtyard in the middle.

Wells occupy an important place among the Gural buildings, large and small. The decoration of the above-ground part of a well frame is often extremely rich and varied. Often wells are true masterpieces of carpentry.

Richly decorated wells were built at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, during the heyday of the Zakopane style, promoted by its great admirer Stanislav Witkiewicz, an architect, artist and writer. The wells resemble small houses with intricate balconies, roofs, and carved spiers. They are covered with rich ornaments, in which Gural motifs, geometric and floral are repeated, and plank cladding is often found.

True, after the Second World War there was some revival of the old Zakopane style in Podhale folk art, decorative art and construction, but this did not happen consistently everywhere in Podhale, and sometimes the purity of the style was lost due to numerous pseudo-folk layers and the influence of pseudo-modern fashion.

Open-air museum-reserves, which contain the most characteristic and original examples of folk craftsmanship in its pure form, serve the cause of cultivating and developing folk traditions. One of these reserves is the Sądecki Ethnographic Park.

This reserve was created in 1967 and occupies about 20 hectares. It is located in a picturesque area, with relief typical of Podhale.

A private house in the village of Boruwiec, near the city of Poznan, Poland, was built in 2016 according to the design of the architectural studio mode:lina. The house is built from simple and affordable materials such as concrete, wood, sheet metal and brick. Thanks to its original form, it was called “The Fence House”. Two-story building with an area of ​​290 square meters consists of two identical blocks with sloping roof and an asymmetrical cube containing a garage.

On the street side, the house has a closed facade without windows, which ensures privacy and creates a feeling of privacy and security. Finished with metal siding gray, the facade resembles a fence. But from the outside courtyard The façade has a large glass area, making the house look stylish and welcoming. Large panoramic windows and sliding glass doors offer stunning views of the courtyard garden and the nearby forest. The owners of the mansion are a family with two young children.

The desire of the home owners to have spaces isolated from each other dictated this building design. In addition, the young family wished to have large free spaces, as she plans to have several more children in the future. One block of the building is occupied by parents’ apartments, the other by children’s rooms. On the ground floor there is a common area for everyone - a social one. There is a living room, dining room and kitchen opening onto the garden. The interior, made in a modern style, impresses with many original design solutions.

A large home library located on the mezzanine above the living room looks gorgeous. Bookshelves made of massive oak logs, giving this area a special coziness and charm. The highlight of the interior is the window in the corridor, made in the form of a picture, from where you can see a unique red car standing in the garage - the pride of the owners of the house. The interior of the children's room is interestingly presented. The two beds are designed as separate houses with windows and skylights, which allow children to feel their own space and feel more comfortable.

A striking touch in the interior design are the retro doors, reminiscent of barn doors, which, in combination with modern furniture make the space brutal and exclusive. The staircase connecting the floors of the house, made of concrete and glass, looks gorgeous. A lot was used in the interior natural materials, the dominant of which is wood. The presence of raw concrete, rough wood and exposed brick in the interior design brings an industrial hint to the interior. In the courtyard of the house there are several cozy terraces and a large swimming pool.