Searching for the Last Housebarn in Przechowko

In June, 2024, my friend David Richert and I were searching at Przechowko for remains of the houses in which villagers lived in former years when the village was occupied.  Based mostly on this photo from the early 1960s:

Here we have the cemetery circled in red, the site of the church circled in green, and a couple houses right behind (to the south) of these sites.  David and I figured that by walking between the bluffs upon which sit the cemetery and the church/school, we might find flat spots where it would make sense that houses would have stood.  So, here's the gap between the two bluffs, looking towards the north:

And here's a spot, right about where it should be (based on the above village photo) that looks flat - like it could be a spot where a house could stand:

Near this spot we even found some bricks or something.  Could these be remains of a house or just some bricks or rubbish that were dumped here?:

Otherwise, this former village area is really overgrown with trees and weeds and such:

In the spring of 2025, I was introduced to a man who is now a good friend of mine named Robert Adrych.  Robert is an artist living in the vicinity of Swiecie, Poland, and he specializes in stone carving; he can create the most wonderful items right out of stone.  He's shown me plenty of things he's carved: animals, flowers, people, etc.  It's an absolutely amazing talent, really.  I don't know how a person would even begin to carve items out of a stone but Robert can just come at the rock with his grinder and - like Michelangelo said - there's a item trapped in the stone and the artist liberates it.  Robert can do that with his chisels and grinder and it's just fascinating.  Robert also grew up living in Przechowko - right there in a Hollander housebarn.

Mennonites moved away from Przechowko by the very early 1830s.  After that point, Lutheran Hollanders moved into the village and they simply moved into the housebarns previously occupied by the Mennonite Hollanders.  Eventually, local Poles also moved into the village and were co-inhabitants with some of the Lutherans.  By the 1940s I think there were 14 farms in the village and, little by little, as the century progressed, villagers moved away from Przechowko until only one farm was occupied - the farm and housebarn that sat almost immediately east of the cemetery.  This housebarn stood until the early 2000s and Robert grew up living in it.

This is a photo of the house from Peter Klassen's "Mennonites in Early Modern Poland and Prussia", page 88:  

Note the ornamental tree in front of the house, again seen clearly in this photo via Kathy Friesen from the early 2000s.  Friesen traveled to the village at that time with a tour led by Allen Peters:

The same tree is still standing in its spot.  In the photo below, you can see the flat, open spot behind the marked tree where the house stood:

In the summer of 2025, Robert was good enough to show me exactly where the house stood.  Here we can find portions of the house foundations as well as bricks that made up the walls of the stable.

When I see this now, it looks like David and I had the correct spot back near the top of this article.

The driveway leading to the house is still seen clearly through the trees.  This is basically the gap between the cemetery and the church/school bluffs:

The Memorial Stone that Robert carved for the Przechowko is magnificent piece of art as well as a touching tribute to the souls buried in the cemetery, both Robert's ancestors and mine.

Robert included a heart-shaped stone on the front to signify our love and respect for the village and the cemetery.  This stone, as well as the Memorial Stone itself, are native stones that Robert recovered from the area.:

On the front, Robert carved a map of the village, copied from a well-known early 20th century map.

Marked here in with red crosses is the cemetery, and the house where Robert lived in marked with a yellow arrow.

At the back of the Memorial Stone, Robert carved a likeness of the housebarn in which he lived.

Thank you, Robert Adrych, for showing me the place where your childhood home stood, and thank you for your wonderful efforts in creating the Przechowko Memorial Stone.  May it, and the cemetery itself, stand as a lasting tribute to the village and to those who lived there.

Inscribed upon the Przechowko Memorial Stone:

"To the Mennonites and Evangelicals from Przechowko (Wintersdorf), and the surrounding area who found their final resting place here. Peace be upon their ashes.

The work and design were carried out by Robert Adrych, a former resident of Przechowko."

Chelmno in the Old Days

Przechowko is located directly across the Vistula from Chelmno, Poland.  In centuries past, Chelmno was an extremely important town even though for various reasons it declined.  The town was the seat of a very early bishopric even though the official bishop's residence and church was actually located in nearby Chelmza.  As a result, Chelmno was home to several important churches and monasteries.  The standard for the Chelmno Rod has been bolted onto the backside of the Renaissance-era city building.  And even today you certainly get the feel that the town was an important center back in the old days.  The locals like to repeat that sentiment and like to point out that there are more churches here than in Torun.

The largest church in town, the Church of the Assumption, could certainly be seen from Przechowko and I imagine the Mennonite villagers gazing at the tower as they did fieldwork.

View to the south from western-most Przechowko lot.  Note church towers in the distance.

Recently, I came across fantastic old photos that give an idea to what Chelmno looked like centuries ago.  These photos are likely from the inter-war period, before the deprivations and destructions of WWII and the communist era.  Photos Here.

This photo in particular fascinates me.

And it's interesting that we can compare it very much with a modern photo from Wikipedia.  Obviously, both photos are focused on the buildings of Chelmno, but I'm looking at the landscape in the distance to the north.

The most interesting thing to me is that we can see how the surrounding landscape has evolved over the last century.  We cannot see Przechowko from this angle, but we still get a real good idea about how Przechowko has changed.  Notice the lack of trees in the old photo.  We can see the Vistula not too distantly beyond the city walls (north).  And the view here is towards the northeast whereas Przechowko would actually be directly north from this view (this view is obviously taken from the tower of the Church of the Assumption).  (Another interesting point is that the Chelmno Rod is bolted onto the backside of the Ratusz, obviously in the new photo.  If you look carefully, you can also see it on the old photo too.)

Notice the lack of trees on the north side of the Vistula.  We read here and there about the fact that no trees - or very few trees - were present at Przechowko in centuries past.  This photo would seem to be witness to that fact.  In the modern-day photo, obviously, the whole area is absolutely filled with trees so it's hard to get a good handle on the topography of the land.  But this early-century photo really gives a feel for what our ancestors' perspective would have been.