This is where my house stood.
Project for Plaw
8.09-31.10.2017
Place: the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola, 1 Sandomierska St.
Plaw is no longer there, but there is still a living memory of it. It is one of the oldest settlements located on the lower San River. The first written references to the village date from the second half of the 15th century, although it existed earlier. Pławo shared the fate of many villages, which, despite its long history, was eventually absorbed by newer urban structures. Today it is only a part of the industrial city – our city – Stalowa Wola. What remains are a few old houses, chapels, few traces of the network of old streets, and old trees in places…. And there remain the fawns who remember it well and return to it with their thoughts.
The village of Plawo at the end of the 1930s became the subject of reporters’ observations and journalists’ exceptional interest in the context of the construction of Stalowa Wola, the largest economic investment of the CID. It appeared on the pages of Melchior Wańkowicz’s famous “Relay” and the newspapers and publications of the time. Unfortunately, it was presented in an unfavorable light, which Plawians still emphasize today. However, the picture of the village presented there is different from what the oldest residents of Plaw remember. Were the reporters not thoroughly acquainted with the realities of the place, or did they mean to particularly emphasize the importance and uniqueness of the CID investment?
The start of construction of the Central Industrial District in 1937 was of great importance to the population living here and initiated a cultural transformation. Until the outbreak of World War II there was a “golden period” for the village and for its residents, a time well remembered. Unfortunately, the post-war period brought with it drastic changes. In 1953 Pławo was incorporated into Stalowa Wola. Land development projects were implemented gradually but consistently. The village was disappearing in sight.
Memories of the old village is a space saturated with images, images, beliefs and feelings. The protagonists of the exhibition are both those Plawians found in old photographs, and their names and surnames appeared on preserved documents, as well as the living who talk about the old world that no longer exists, sharing their own experience of tradition, religiosity, the atmosphere of childhood and youth. Museums complete the ephemeral memory space of the former Plaw, which was their home, their small homeland, their family nest.
Telling the story of the fate of the village of Plawo provides an opportunity to present a broader research spectrum of transformations that took place in the Polish countryside in the 20th century. The exhibition shows the volatility and rapidity of cultural changes that took place in the 20th century and affected traditional folk culture, including in our area.
