Thursday, May 29, 2025

Przechówko Village Layout II

 

Amazing aerial photographs can be found here: https://pzgik.geoportal.gov.pl/imap

Using photos from this site we can see how the Przechowko area looked in the 1961. From the photos, we can clearly see where the houses were, where the fields were, etc.


Using the same photo, we can mark several items: village road and village boundaries in yellow.  Przechowko village houses in orange.  The cemetery is circled in red, the site of the church circled in green.

And here we can mark the village fields, and the lowland meadow, separated by the village road (red) and the strip of houses which were immediately south of the road.

Zooming in on the village center, we can see the cemetery (circled red) and church site (circled green). The quality of the photo is such that we can almost see gravestones in the cemetery.  There are two buildings on the church site.  In the mid-19th century, the local Lutherans wanted to rebuild the Mennonite church into the village school.  In 1857 there was a fire and it's unclear what became of the Mennonite church building.  Today, there are a couple remnants of concrete or cinder block foundation at the site. 

Elsewhere at this website we can see photos of Jeziorki from 1964:


Schonsee, 1961: (the Frisian church is marked)

Brenkenhofswalde, 1963


Franzthal, 1963

Sady, 1961, Mennonite church and cemetery area marked


How to use the site:
1) Get rid of the mapy.geoportal.gov.pl window
2) Click on Photogrammetric vertical aerial photographs/Order photos
3) Create account
4) Select “I will mark photos on map”
5) Zoom the map in to the appropriate location
6) Select year (a green-dot grid will appear if photos are available. Most of the Przechowko/Schonsee/Montau area is covered by 1961.  Jeziorki is covered in 1964. Scroll down and click ‘next’.
7) Select a method by which to mark the area, and then mark it.
8) Select the number of the photo or view the thumbnail (miniature)
9) Large scale rendering can then be purchased.

Mennonite Structures at Zabytek.pl

 https://zabytek.pl/pl/mapa is a treasure trove of information about old village houses across Poland.  Specifically for Mennonite history interests, the site includes plenty of information for villages in the Vistula River delta and valley.  Wonderful photos of Hollander and Mennonite houses can be found representing villages from Gdansk and Elblag in the north, all the way south to Torun.  Further, the Netzebruch villages and the Masovian villages are also represented.

In decades past, Polish researchers traveled across the countryside, presumably visiting each city, town, and village, documenting the oldest structures.  In many cases, photos were taken, sketches were made, and historical summaries were written, for each structure.  Again, for Mennonite history interests, files for the wonderful old Werder houses can be found, as well as housebarns, and in many cases, cemeteries are also listed.

For my own interests, housebarns are documented in Vistula River valley villages, including many associated with the Przechowko congregation and its daughter communities.  For instance:

Przechowko https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/dom-(chalupa)-nr-141-(16-875964 


Deutsch Konopat https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/dom-(chalupa)-nr-26-876818

Jeziorki https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/dom-(chalupa)-nr-28-784946


Schönsee https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/dom-(chalupa)-nr-6-872932

Jamerau https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/dom-(chalupa)-nr-14-784164

Brenkenhofswalde https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/blotnica-kosciol-ewang-ob-rzym-kat-fil-pw-sw-michala-ar

Franzthal https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/cmentarz-ewangelicki-prz-683112


Deutsche Wymysle https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/dom-mieszkalno-inwentars-781931

These are all structures built before the mid-19th century and all likely Mennonite- or Hollander-built.

The Niedźwiedź house, now restored and standing at the Hollander museum outside Torun, can be seen here in situ https://zabytek.pl/pl/obiekty/dom-(chalupa)-nr-4-875536.  Note the strong similarity between this house and the Przechowko house above.



Looking at these structures can give us a better understanding of how our ancestors lived and help us envision how their farms looked.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to put these houses side by side and see how they compare?  We can actually do that since these Zabytek files include floor plans and dimensions for each house.