Students from Ks. Kwiatkowski School in Bychawa on a trip to the Open Air Village Museum in Lublin

Last week students from the 1st grade of the Lower Secondary School (Gimnazjum), aged 13, visited the Open Air Village Museum in Lublin. It's a place where everyone can see how life looked like in the Polish countryside in the 18th and 19th century. Some of the exhibits, like old churches and chapels, date back to 17th century.

Our students could learn more about works done by villagers at that time: 
- farming land, growing crops and harvesting, raising animals,
- baking bread and crude biscuits,
- weaving 
- pottery
- basketry 
- blacksmithing 

They heard interesting stories about daily life and farmwork of Polish peasants, about their traditions and ritual events. They could see displays of disappearing crafts, thatched cottages, a manor house and the exhibition featuring life of a middle class landed proprietor, an old firehouse with the equipment of the District Fire Brigade from Bedlno in 1936, a 17th century church from the village Matczyn, a presbytery, a granary and traditional windmills.

Our students were really impressed with what they saw:

"The old houses are great, they are so simple and at the same time so naturally beautiful. I really liked the animals too: cows and goats on the pastures, they were cute." (Aneta)

"The most interesting things for me were the animals, the goats and the horse by the windmill. I also liked the smithy where the blacksmith made a horseshoe for us." (Anna)

"What I liked most was the interior of an old cottage, the ornaments, the basic furniture like beds and tables. I was really surprised that even six people could sleep in one room. It must have been very uncomfortable." (Piotr)

"The old architecture and buildings are so interesting. They could make everything using wood only. They didn't need any iron nails. This is so amazing." (Patryk)

"Life in the past wasn't easy and comfortable, they all had to work really hard, even the kids helped their parents on the farm. But they were able to spend a lot of time together. This is really good." (Ilona)

A traditional farmyard

Inside a cottage

A weaving loom and other traditional machines used by 19th century farmers

The blacksmith at work