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The Borderland of Mountains and Cultures
in the Muszyna Almanac
by Bozena Msciwujewska-Kruk
The Muszyna Almanac is a yearbook that has been published for 14
years "out of the need of the heart" under the auspices of the Muszyna
Region Aficionados Society. The Almanac addresses a wide range of
interests and makes use of its readers' intellectual capability.
We do not hesitate to publish scientific articles written by professionals
and memoirs of people reaching for their pen and paper only occasionally.
In those 14 yearbooks, one can find nearly 500 features, including
some that, in our opinion, deserve to be called revelations. The
authors are united by the same passion - their love of Muszyna and
its vicinity.
The magazine's programme, i.e. exploring the history of the town
and its vicinity, presenting the monuments of sacred and secular
architecture, the landscape and balneological values of the area,
and the lives of people and their unique memories, has been considerably
extended over this 14-year period. We sometimes travel beyond the
borders of the so-called State of Muszyna. As we go along, many
new challenges appear (e.g. finding old documents), which we feel
we should respond to. Through different initiatives, we deal with
matters that are important to the town placing ourselves in the
very heart of our small motherland's life. At the same time, we
steer clear of the local conflicts.
The Almanac's scope of interest.
History is definitely in its very core. We lead our readers along
the complex pathways of Muszyna's borderland showing them the town's
changing fortune against the background of general historical events
- from the earliest documents that mention Muszyna's name, through
the rebellion of Bishop Muskata (Tomasz Pietras, 2002), the process
of strengthening the borderland in the times of the Piast and Jagiello
dynasties, the Swedish "deluge", the Confederation of Bar that is
so frequently mentioned in the Almanac in the texts written by Professor
Kazimierz Przybos (1994, 1995) and other authors, to the 19th century,
sunk in its torpor and stagnation, and the dramatic 20th century.
We also visit other places in the area, such as Stary Sacz, Nowy
Sacz, Piwniczna with its czarni gorale [the black mountain people]
and Rytro (Dr. Stanislaw Weglarz, 2003), and various places in Slovakia
- Stara Lubovna, Bardejov, Chmelnica, Kolackov, and others. In this
way, the Almanac paints a picture of a town whose development and
culture has been influenced by the rule of the Bishops of Krakow,
the proximity of Hungarians and Slovaks, and the surrounding Rusyn
and Wolochian settlements.
We have written about the customs of the devout and famous townspeople
of Muszyna, especially in the texts by native Muszynians - Franciszek
and Witt Kmietowicz. The sense of individualism, pride and self-importance,
stemming from its inhabitants' living in the seat of the Bishops'
power, made Muszyna inhospitable to strangers and foreigners. The
partition period, when Poland lost its independence and was divided
between three European powers, was destructive for the economy and
people's living standards. Nevertheless, it stimulated migration
of the population. At that time, Muszyna saw a small number of Hungarian
and German settlers, including the family of Stanislaw Porth, the
future Mayor of Muszyna (whom we mention several times), and - most
importantly - Jewish settlers.
As far as the Hungarian settlement is concerned, one must mention
the Slovak and Hungarian Medwecki Family, who played a significant
role in the development of Muszyna and Zegiestow. We mention them
in the Almanac several times. In 2004, we reached for their family
album to recall the Muszyna line of this family.
The Bishops of Krakow and the governors that ruled on their behalf
are a frequent subject of the Almanac's articles. The bishops were
explored by Professor Kazimierz Przybos in a special series of articles.
The governors appear in texts devoted to their own lives and in
articles discussing other subjects, e.g. the activity of robbers
in Muszyna's vicinity (K. Przybos, 2000).
We often return to the topic that fascinated our ancestors at the
turn of the 20th century - the railway. The postcards from the beginning
of the 20th century show that, apart from the local castle, the
object that was most frequently photographed was the railway bridge,
treated as a technological innovation, as well as the station building
and the trains themselves. The articles by Edward Drozd, the former
stationmaster in Muszyna, and Leszek Zakrzewski depict the history
and recall some unknown facts about the Tarnow - Orlov railway line
(which was commissioned in 1876), the construction of the Muszyna
- Krynica line in 1911, and the mishaps during the construction
of the tunnel under Zegiestow. Leszek Zakrzewski, who is fascinated
by railways, also explored the story of one plain crash in Krynica
and a UFO sighting over Muszyna recorded by the press.
Co-inhabitants of the town and the borderland.
It is surprising how little we know about the Jews of Muszyna.
The generation that worked, made friends, or quarrelled with them
is gone. We managed to persuade Dr. Rafal Zebrowski from the ZIH
to work with us and, based on scrappy data, he was able to reconstruct
some pieces of the history of our town's Jewish inhabitants, i.e.
the displacement of Muszyna's Jews, the labour camp in Muszyna's
sawmill (AM 1999, 2003), the history of the Boy Scout organization
Ha-Noar ha-Cijoni (AM 2001), and the operation of the "Bristol",
a Jewish hotel (AM 1998). We also wrote about B'nei B'rith, or the
Summer Lodge (AM 2002), and about the ritual slaughterer (rzezak)
from Krynica (AM 2004).
The topic of Muszyna's Jewish inhabitants was also featured in
the articles by Leszek Honda from the Jagiellonian University, and
in pieces of poetry, which, for years, we have been "smuggling"
onto the pages of the Almanac. Its frequent theme is the kirkut,
or the Jewish cemetery - the one in Muszyna and the one in Krynica.
An important event for us, the editors, was a meeting with people
of Jewish descent who had lived abroad for many years (or even generations),
but were still emotionally attached to Muszyna. We printed the memoirs
of Jules Mandel, a citizen of California, USA, whose mother was
born in Muszyna in 1900 (AM 2000). Our yearbook featured Miriam
Akavia, who was born in Krakow, and has lived in Tel Aviv for many
years. She is the Chairperson of Israel's Society of Authors Writing
in Polish and an author of several books - most of them memoirs
about the time of the Holocaust. Her connection with Muszyna is
her memory of the last summer of her childhood, which, in 1939,
she spent right here, in our town (AM 2001).
Having for several centuries been surrounded by villages populated
by inhabitants of the Wolochian and Rusyn origin, Muszyna could
not help but borrow from their culture and language. We have written
about the Lemkian culture many times, telling the story of the Wolochian
settlement in Muszyna's vicinity, the beginnings of the Greek Orthodox
Church in the area, the history of the local Greek orthodox churches
(Father Mieczyslaw Czekaj in AM 1992, 1994; Elzbieta Slusarczyk
in AM 2002; Andrzej Gil in AM 2003), and published ethnographic
texts (Bogdan Horbal from the New York City Public Library in AM
2003). We have reached for the genuine school chronicles from the
Village of Milik and the reports of the District Council from the
Village of Andrzejowka (compiled by Malgorzata K. Przybos) as an
effort to depict the daily life of the Lemkian villages in the 1930s
and the 1940s.
A disastrous deterioration of the relations between the Polish-speaking
inhabitants of Muszyna and the Lemkian population from the surrounding
hamlets was brought about by World War II. Fortunately, in our area,
common poverty, and possibly the fact that there had never been
any significantly dramatic historical events here, soon relieved
the tension. There were isolated excesses. New teachers appeared
in Lemkian schools and the Polish language was replaced with Ukrainian
in school registers (e.g. in Milik and Andrzejowka). According to
Muszyna's older generation, some Ukrainians became interpreters
for Gestapo. These people are mentioned, for instance, in the war
notes by Stanislaw Stojek, published in the Almanac, who was an
employee in the Local Administrative Office before the war and during
the German occupation (AM 2001). The tragic events connected with
the displacement of the Lemkian population are referred to in the
memoirs published by us. New settlers came to the abandoned villages.
The first Polish kolkhoz was established in Zlockie (Adam Czarnowski,
AM 2004). The sacred buildings that had been left behind were later
converted into Roman-Catholic churches and became unique monuments
of the Lemkian settlement. They were protected by, among others,
Father Kazimierz Zatorski, the parish priest of Muszyna. His presbytery
served as a makeshift museum storage room. The inventory of its
collection, compiled by Hanna Pienkowska and made available to us
by the Centre for the Documentation of Monuments in Warsaw, was
presented in the 2004 Almanac by Professor Tadeusz Trajdos.
It is more difficult to write about the more recent period in history,
e.g. about the 20th-century aspirations of the Lemkian population
to self-government. We are planning to take up this theme. We would
like to talk about the latest Lemkian achievements, especially in
the field of culture. We have printed essays and poems by Wladyslaw
Graban. Nikifor, the famous naive artist, was featured in the article
by Zbigniew Wolanin (AM 1999).
Muszynians' neighbours.
A stone's throw away from Muszyna, there is the state border with
Slovakia. In September 2003, we were finally able to use a real
border crossing point when the bridge in Leluchow was built over
the Smreczek brook. The project itself was controversial, especially
for nature lovers, but - since it has become the reality - let it
play the role of a real bridge, also in the historical and cultural
sense.
One can find many Polish traces in the Spis Region, not only in
the seat of the Governors of Spis - Stara Lubovnia, or in Podoliniec
with its Piarist College - but also in other places, sometimes quite
unexpected. Thanks to a detailed historical "investigation" conducted
by Professor Tadeusz Trajdos, we were able to publish extensive
material concerning Kolackov, a village founded by the 17th-century
Polish settlers, and the history of the Kolaczkowski Family (T.
Trajdos, AM 2003, 2004).
In the 20th century, the Polish-Slovak relationships were not always
friendly, especially on the verge of World War II when Slovakia,
being Hitler's ally at that point, participated in the invasion
of Southern Poland. An analysis of Slovak military materials (made
available by Slovak archives) was undertaken by a Pole, Waldemar
Oszczeda, who has been living in Slovakia for many years (AM 2004).
In order to show the other side of the coin, too, we are going to
print an extract from a book published in Stara Lubovna describing
the anti-fascist movement in the Spis Region.
We invite Slovak guests to contribute to our publication. We have
already published articles by Jozef Petrovic from Bardejov and Ivan
Chalupecky from Levoca, and representatives of the local authorities
from the surrounding villages, teachers, and young people from Stara
Lubovna. We publish texts that are historical in nature and those
that transfer us (in the Slovak Language) to the daily life of our
neighbours. In the 2004 Almanac, we printed a text about Chmelnica
(Hobgart), a village founded by German settlers.
Each text provides information that broadens the readers' minds.
Sometimes these are such curiosities as the fact that Terezia Vansova,
a Slovak writer, was born in the Medwecki Family (S. Popovic, AM
2002), thus she might have been a descendent of a family connected
with the history of Muszyna and Zegiestow.
The borderland was frequently visited by missionaries, e.g. St.
Swierad, who was described by Father Stanislaw Pietrzak, the parish
priest from Tropie - Swierad's home village. Merchants used the
Poprad River as a waterway, troops marched across this area, and
culture migrated, too. Sometimes, the same artists worked both in
Poland, and in the Spis and Saris Regions, which today belong to
Slovakia. The Almanac has featured Victorin Zomph, a townsman from
Bardejov, who left his iconostas in the orthodox churches in Leluchow
and Andrzejowka (T. Trajdos in AM 1995).
The Language of Muszyna's townspeople.
Throughout the centuries, Muszyna's townspeople, giving in to the
influence of their Slovak and Hungarian neighbours, "the black mountain
people" from Piwniczna, the inhabitants of the surrounding Lemkian
villages, and borrowing some words from Germans, Jews, Italians
and Poles coming to Muszyna from other regions of Poland, created
a unique language, which arose interest among linguists. In order
to preserve this ancient language of Muszyna, we printed articles
by Eugeniusz Pawłowski, compiled by Professor Leszek Bednarczuk
(AM 2001, 2003). In texts by Małgorzata K. Przybos, we presented
mini dictionaries of specific phrases, such as… invectives (AM 1997,
1998). We also printed a text about Muszyna's language by Franek
Kmietowicz (AM 1999) and his Muszynian Fables written in the stylised
local dialect.
Nature.
A significant part of the Almanac is taken up by descriptions of
nature - from the fossils of long extinct organisms (Dr. Jaroslaw
Stolarski in AM 2002), through the presentations of The Poprad River
Landscape Park (Antoni Szewczyk, former director of the PRLP, AM
1994, 2000) and the nature reserves in Muszyna's vicinity, to Old
Forrester's Stories. Readers interested in geology were able to
find a study of the topography of this area in the 2001 issue. Less
scientifically oriented readers were treated to articles describing
some rocky formations and caves around Muszyna (Adam Czarnowski,
2001).
The most famous natural riches of Muszyna's region - mineral water
springs - are featured in the Almanac both from the historical and
the modern perspective. The balneological values of the area were
discussed in articles by Dr. Andrzej Grabka and Jerzy Gala. The
so-called mofettes, which are natural exhalations of carbon dioxide
near Zlockie and Jastrzebik, were explored by Lucyna and Jacek Rajchel
from the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow (AM 2000).
Profiles of the region's distinguished
personalities.
It is impossible to talk about our part of the Nowy Sacz Beskid
Range without recalling the people who shaped this region's character.
We presented the profile of Professor Jozef Dietl in an article
by Jerzy Dietl, his brother's grandson (AM 2001). Based on the study
by Wincenty Spiechowicz, we published the profile of Ignacy Medwecki,
the founder of the Spa of Zegiestow. Jan Kiepura (a famous Polish
singer from the 1930s) was featured in an article by Stefan Polchlopek
(the creator and organizer of Jan Kiepura Festival in Krynica).
We also wrote about Dr. Franciszek Kmietowicz, the mayor of Krynica,
and his patriotic mission to erect a mound and a monument in Krynica
to commemorate Kazimierz Pulaski (AM 1998, 1999). Professor Jacek
Purchla profiled Jan Zawiejski, an architect and the designer of
Krynica's Stary Dom Zdrojowy [the Old Pump House] (AM 2004). Obviously,
Muszynians themselves have been featured, too, e.g., Antoni Jurczak,
the mayor of Muszyna before World War II, numerous parish priests,
and other people such as poets connected with the region (Jerzy
Harasymowicz, Adam Ziemianin), and graphic artists and painters
(Bogusz Steczynski, Boleslaw Barbacki, Edmund Cieczkiewicz).
A large number of articles published in the Almanac are excerpts
of various memoirs. The authors are people who rendered great service
to culture (e.g. Jozef Szajna, Miriam Akavia), and who visited Muszyna
during their holiday tours or during the German occupation. They
also include veterans, refugees, and common Muszynians who wish
to record their youth on paper. The language and style of these
memoirs varies, but - apart from their authors' fate - they depict
the picture of the town, including its beauty and ugliness, its
great religiosity and hospitality, but also its sense of identity
and bourgeois pride. Moving are the memories of the people who,
mostly because of the war, were sentenced to exile, sometimes without
any hope of returning to their motherland. Now and then, there are
surprises, e.g. the discovery of the fact that Adam Bien (one of
the leaders of the underground state) with his family spent his
holidays in Muszyna several times. We encouraged his relatives to
publish their unique memories in the Almanac (2002).
The Almanac for the local environment.
Four years ago, we came up with the idea of starting a partnership
program between the students of Muszyna's secondary school and their
peers from the middle school in Stara Lubovna. The students set
up so-called Vysehrad Clubs and invited to cooperate their peers
from the Czech town of Vsetin and the Hungarian town of Nyiregyhaza.
Through these students' initiative, the bridge between Leluchow
and Circ was called the Vysehrad Bridge.
The need to illustrate our yearbook was the starting point for
the Almanac's graphic collection, which includes postcards from
Krynica, Muszyna and Zegiestow, and court files connected with Muszyna.
They served as sources of information for several articles which
presented the content of the collection with its curiosities and
- based on the postcards - made ambitious efforts to recreate the
original form of Muszyna's castle. We also use this collection to
illustrate various texts, especially those whose authors do not
include their own iconography.
Another step was the co-organization with the Photographic Society
of Krynica of photographic competitions, whose leading theme was
the architectural detail in the region. In three years we managed
to collect photographic documentation showing details that are on
the verge of destruction and irrevocable disappearance from the
architecture of Krynica, Muszyna, and Tylicz and its vicinity. These
are hundreds of photographs of high artistic and research value.
We also co-organized with the Muszyna branch of the Society of Fine
Arts Aficionados a painting competition titled The Monuments of
Muszyna, Krynica and their Vicinity, whose outcome was an exhibition
in the Regional Museum in Muszyna.
An important aspect of our activity is the Muszyna Almanac Scholarship
Fund. The Fund has been active since 1999 and awards grants to gifted
young people from Muszyna's secondary school, middle schools from
Muszyna's administrative district, and to the students of Krynica's
Music School. We have been able to raise - mainly through private
sponsors and friends of the Almanac - approximately 150 thousand
Polish zlotys. On the promotion day of the fourteenth issue of the
Almanac, we awarded 27 grants. Four of them crossed the border and
were received by members of the Vysehrad Clubs from the partner
schools in Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia (Stara Lubovna).
Another initiative of the Muszyna Almanac are the annual Castle
Seminars. The issue we would like to discuss soon are the embankments
mentioned in the entail of Bishop Piotr Gembicki from 1647 that
once protected the passage from Hungary to the Crown, and which
are now in danger of destruction.
Our yearbook comes out at the end of June. The main point of its
promotional campaign is the meeting of friends, which is a great
picnic used by us to thank all the partners and sponsors of the
Scholarship Fund and to award grants for the coming school and academic
year.
Documents.
Let me now return to the documents which I mentioned earlier and
which were found with the Almanac's participation. The most interesting
one, in our opinion, was tracked down with the assistance of Father
Mieczyslaw Czekaj and Professor Tadeusz Trajdos. It is a privilege
granted in 1726 to Muszyna's Guild of Linen-Drapers by the Krakow
Bishop Konstanty Szaniawski. The document, whose copy was impossible
to recover, is kept in the Parish Museum in Rzepiennik Strzyzowski.
The privilege, interpreted and explained by Professor Trajdos, was
published in the 2004 issue of the Almanac. There, we also printed
the text of the tenancy contract concerning two estates that belonged
to the Order of St. Clara from Stary Sacz. We were able to purchase
this document (drew up in 1704) at an auction. When it was read,
photographed and explained by Professor K. Krzybos in the Almanac,
it was handed over to the Convent archives.
*
In 2005, we are planning to present the bibliography of the fifteen
issues and the profiles of the contributing authors. The index of
the authors' and geographical names will be published as a separate
brochure. In the meantime, please visit our website at www.almanachmuszyny.pl.
Since poetry is an important part of the Almanac, let me conclude
with the words by Adam Ziemianin, a native Muszynian, which, I believe,
best justify our endeavours:
You will nowhere find a sky
Like Muszyna's sacred heavens
Under which we hustle by
From Spring to Winter faithful servants
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References
Almanach Muszyny [The Muszyna Almanac], a yearbook, Muszyna 1991
- 2004.
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