In eastern Poland, Driving today to Lithuania along the Tatar Trail "Tatarski Szlak" en.poland.gov.pl/Tatar,Trail,11701.html **************************************************************** The villages of Bohoniki and Kruszyniany are referred as the Polish Orient or Tartar Trail. Lost in the eastern borderland, in the Podlaskie Province, they are Poland’s oldest Islamic centres. The Tatars have lived in the Podlasie region for more than 300 years. The history of their settlements is connected with king John III Sobieski. Even today, the inhabitants of Kruszyniany will show you a place under old linden trees where, centuries ago, stood the manor house of the colonel Samuel Murza Krzeczowski, the commander of a Tartar cavalry company. During the Battle of Parkany in 1683, he saved king John’s life; he also fought later in the Battle of Vienna. For their faithful service in Polish and Lithuanian units, John III Sobieski endowed the Tartar with landed property in Podlasie. Relics of the region’s Islamic past include two mosques in Bohoniki and Kruszyniany, which lie at a distance of ca. 30 km (19 miles). In Kruszyniany, there is Poland’s oldest Muslim temple, a 18th-century wooden celadon mosque, whose architectural style resembles that of modest Orthodox or Catholic parish churches. It has a sloping shingled roof and gilded crescents on the tower domes. Next to it, on a small hill among tall trees, there is a Muslim cemetery, surrounded by a strong wall. It is the best place to realize how strong the bonds between the Tartars and the Poland’s history were. Some of the old mossy graves come from the 18th century, and their tombstones show worn-off inscriptions in Arabic, Russian and Polish. There are ca. 5,000 Tartars living in Poland nowadays, most of them in Bialystok and its environs. Tartar villages have become depopulated. Bohoniki and Kruszyniany revive only during Muslim holidays – the Ramazan Bayrami and Qurban. Entire Muslim families come here to celebrate. They pray at the mosques and visit the cemeteries. Then is the time for famous Tartar delicacies pierekaczewnik (a roll-shaped pasta pie stuffed with curd and raisins or meat and vegetables etc), trybuszok (a sausage stuffed with ground potatoes) or kolduny (dumplings with meat stuffing). szlaktatarski.pl
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 07:58:33 +0000