A Long-Planned Visit to Kotuń

The Reymontówka Creative Work Center is located 15 miles to the west of Siedlce, three miles from the international route No. 2, in the hamlet of Chlewiska, Kotuń Municipality, among forests and meadows. This facility in Chlewiska has sheer advantages such as a quiet and safe location, crystal-clear air and picturesque woods, and it can be reached within only one hour from from Warsaw.

The roadside chapel in front of the entrance gate to Reymontówka

The bust of Władysław Reymont

Walking about the Reymontówka Park, Kotuń Municipality

My wife and I had planned visiting this facility by train. However, all visits during school summer vacations are prohibited. We wouldn’t have known, and It would not have occurred to me I should seek permission to visit beforehand. Thank Goodness, our local friend Martha had agreed with an old friend of her, Mr.Jacek Jurczak, and we received an invitation to be his guests on that day. Our guide Mr.Jacek Jurczak told us a lot about Reymontówka and its amenities, showed us around and even treated us to some coffee and cakes at the restaurant terrace.

At the entrance to Reymontówka

Wedding Musicians statue in front of the entrance to Reymontówka

The mini open-air museum at Reymontówka, Kotuń Municipality

The present area of this facility is four hectares. Reymontówka offers 25 hotel rooms: single rooms, double rooms, three-bed rooms and one ten-bed dormitory. They have a conference room room for 70 and a banquet room for 160 persons, as well as a library, a restaurant with the traditional Podlaski cuisine which is provided with salubrious food from the cultural center’s own garden and greenhouse. There’s no shortage of audiovisual equipment and satellite television. And, of course, the guests can use tennis-courts and kids can bathe in the swimming-pool.
The "Reymontówka" Creative Work Center organizes four holiday camps for children during their summer vacations. They call those 12-day intervals “a colony”. Hardly any visits “from outside” are possible during a “colony period”. There is a special notice at the gate, “Kids’ Colony. No entry. Our apologies”.

We saw many paintings created by Janusz Lewandowski that hang in the drawing-room, as well as paintings by Bukhar (Slovakia) and Shyrokov (Russia).

In the drawing-room of Reymontówka

Reymontówka is located in a historic manor house built in the mid-nineteenth century for the Różański family on the foundations of the previous one, dated 1807. In 1926, the manor house along with 300 hectares of land was bought by Aurelia Reymont, the widow of Władysław Reymont, from the Sparos Agricultural Company. She used the allocated part of the money from the Nobel Prize, which Władysław Reymont had received for his novel "Chłopi" (The Peasants).

During the ownership of Aurelia Reymont, the manor in Chlewiska experienced a large development. However, in 1939, Aurelia Reymont had to sell the manor house and the estate to Feliks Tymieniecki, the president of the "Węglobok" Coal Company. From 1946, it belonged to the State Treasury.

Trying to embrace the huge old oak at Reymontówka

The huge old oak at Reymontówka

The portrait of Jacek Woszczerowicz (1904-1970), a famous local actor

At the restaurant of Reymontówka

In 1981, the manor and park complex was purchased by the Department of Culture and Arts of the Voivodeship Office in Siedlce, which designated it for the "Reymontówka" Creative Work Center. Since January 1, 1999, Siedlce County Office has been the owner of Reymontówka.

The festival grounds at Reymontówka

"Reymontówka - hey, hey!" is the motto of all events here.

The festival grounds at Reymontówka

There are numerous events here, among them open-air painting workshops, concerts, language courses, literary workshops, and occasionally balls, weddings and conferences. International and national open-air and artistic workshops (painting, sculpture, dance, literature) organized by "Reymontówka" are known in Poland.

The workshops space at Reymontówka

The Gallery House at Reymontówka

The Gallery House at Reymontówka

On May 20, 2007, "Reymontówka" solemnly celebrated the the 200th anniversary of the manor. On that occasion, the bust of Władysław Reymont according to the design of Jerzy Necel was unveiled.

"Reymontówka" has hotel facilities for 50 guests, as well as recreational facilities (tennis courts, a stud farm, a swimming pool for children, a mini open-air museum, a beautiful park with historic trees and ponds). It has the atmosphere and charm of the Polish countryside.

Over the last few years, using the funds of the Siedlce District, the European Union, the Provincial Fund for Environmental Protection and the unit's own funds, a general renovation has been carried out in the manor. The standard of the facility was also raised by replacing the furnishings of the guest rooms with stylish furniture and renovation of the attic space with its further air-conditioning. We were shown all the improvements.

Cooperation with the American organization Global Volunteers began in 1990, when this US organization started implementing the program of teaching English, care for children with special needs and children from orphanages. In total, over 3,000 American volunteers have worked in "Reymontówka" over the past 25 years. The history of the program in Poland dates back to 1990, when Rural Solidarity invited Global Volunteers to teach conversational English in rural communities of former Siedlce Province and presently the territory of Siedlce County. During the school year, some volunteers teach in rural elementary/middle school classrooms, while others can also assist children with special needs in two settings: a boarding school for youths with physical and mental disabilities in Stok Lacki and a home for children from dysfunctional families in Kisielany.

Driving along the main street of Kotuń, we made a stopover at the Independence Fighters memorial. The inscription on the memorial plaque reads,
In tribute to the soldiers, partizans and residents of the Kotuń and its area who fell for the freedom of their homeland in the years 1939-1945.

Independence Fighters memorial,Kotuń

The main street in Kotuń

The Firefighters Museum is another must in Kotuń. The museum collected two hand-held fire hoses from the 19th century, 19 fire hoses from the first half of the 20th century, 22 motor pumps from the 20th century, two horse-drawn carts and tree cars from the 1950s, fire-fighting, alarm and lighting equipment, breathing apparatus, personal weapons and uniforms, hand-held fire-fighting equipment, banners and pennants, decorations, medals, seals, tableau, photographs, posters, sculptures and other objects illustrating the history and culture of Polish firefighting.

We were shown Bedford OLB7-N70 CM-8 (manufactured in 1949), a medium water and foam fire extinguishing truck. The vehicle was built in Poland on a Bedford OLBZ chassis. At that time, 152 chassis of this type were purchased from Denmark. At the front there are two individual seats for the driver and for the commander in the crew, and two benches for eight persons. The lowered rear part of the body contains compartments for firefighting equipment and fittings, closed with flaps. Bedford trucks were the first unified fire vehicles received by the Polish fire brigade after the war. This operating museum vehicle is the only one of such type in Poland. The truck was donated to the museum by the District Headquarters of the Fire Brigade in Garwolin in 1986.

Bedford OLBZ N-70 (1949)
Chassis: Bedford OLBZ with inline six-cylinder petrol engine with a power of 72 HP
Chassis: 4x2; Body: N70 - single-section.
Number of seats: 10 (2+8).
Dimensions (length, width, height): 6790x2200x2460 (mm)
Wheelbase: 3991 mm.
Total weight: 8250 kg.
Max speed: 65 km/h.
Firefighting equipment:
M-800 PO-1 Leopolia motor pump with a capacity of 800 l/min at pressure 8 bar.

There is a wooden sculpture of St.Florian at the entrance to the volunteer fire brigade.

The memorial plaque at the entrance to the volunteer fire brigade building that is attached to the museum building reads,
A man is great not because of what he has, but because of who he is; not because of what he has,
but by what he shares with others.
Pope John Paul II

1918-2018
In tribute to all firefighters, founders and continuators of the activity
on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the volunteer fire brigade in Kotuń.
The management board and the members of the volunteer association
Kotuń, June 10, 2018

The oldest firefighters flag at the Firefighting Museum in Kotuń

Historical firefighters vehicles at the Firefighting Museum in Kotuń

At the exhibition of old firefighting vehicles in the museum courtyard, Kotun.
We also liked this 3-d tour of Reymontówka