Summertime in Przechówko

Generations of Mennonites in America and around the world have wondered what Przechówko Village would have looked like when our ancestors lived there.  Still today, relatively few Mennonite descendants have visited the village and due to changes in the area, the village land bears little resemblance to how it was during the Mennonite era.

Today, the the area is covered with trees whereas in centuries past, there were actually very few trees (the Prussian planted a lot of these trees in beginning in the 18th century).  The Mondi factory, occupying land cultivated for crops by the Mennonite villagers, creates a huge visual obstruction to the north.  And the general hustle and bustle of modern life - traffic on the Bydgoska Road, urban expansion from the City of Świecie, etc - creates a situation which obscures the geography of the village area.

Cindy Sigmund of Newton, Kansas, has created this painting of the village, named "Summertime in Przechówko".

Here we have a depiction of the village center based on this aerial photo from 1961.

On the painting, the village cemetery is depicted on the bluff in the center, the church on the bluff to the left, two Mennonite houses in the foreground, village fields stretching into the background.  All these elements can be seen on the 1961 aerial photo.

Of course, we don't really know exactly how the village would have looked during the Mennonite era so we have to take some guesses.  Right now, with the cemetery restoration underway, we are beginning to come to an understanding about how the cemetery would have looked.  And we know that the Mennonites grew mostly rye in the fields that stretched northwards from the main village road.  The painting depicts the rye golden and ripe, which should be late summer: late August or early September.

The Mennonite housebarns sit in the foreground.  The house on the left is based on a housebarn which until recently stood in neighboring Wielki Konopat:

The house on the right is based on a housebarn which stood in Przechowko until the very early years of the 21st century.  Thanks to Kathy Friesen for the photo:

We don't know what the church looked like, but we do know what the church in Sady, Poland, constructed by Przechówko congregants in the very early 19th century looked like:

(This photo is taken from a display at Olender museum at Nowy Wiączemin/Muzeum Mazowieckie w Plocku.  I believe it is probably photographed 2010 by Wojech Marchlewski.  Built in 1806, destroyed in 2011)

The depictions of the Mennonite yards are based on scenes found at the Hollander museums in Torun and Nowy Wiączemin:

Willow trees stand along the canal in the extreme foreground.  We know Mennonites planted many willow trees, especially along canals, as a tactic to drain wet ground of excess water.