In our area of Poland, we have a kind of house that is called "Swidermajer".  I love the look. Here is one.  This is a picture I took a while ago now. This particular one is located right across from our city hall.

According to Wikipedia, they combined several elements of various regions and specialties to get this look - wood architecture, Swiss style, Russian traditional homes and some of the decorative elements from the Podhale region of Poland which is in the mountains - in southern Poland - foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.

The decoration on them is incredible!

Our town is called Jozefow - or technically - Joseph’s town - belonging to Joseph - the “ow” ending showing possession - like the English ‘s.

There were a lot of Jewish people who had summer homes in this area where they came to get out of the heat and smog of the city center of Warsaw during the summer months. This region was known for having a healthier climate due to all the pine trees and wooded areas around.

A lot of these summer homes, which sometimes were quite large, I have been told were sometimes designed as a type of sanitarium - and they became government property after World War 2 since most of the Jews didn’t return after the war, having been either killed or the ones who lived - emigrated.

The other day I asked my husband to stop and let me get pictures of each of the photos that are up on a type of mural near our KFC not far from our house. I felt better about that than about going around to where people live and taking photos of their homes. I have wanted to do that but felt kind of creepy doing so.

These are what they are calling “new swidermajer” - Świder is the name of the river right down from our house - so the name given this type of house is just based on the area around this river - the Świder.

Here are a variety of the nice ones in our area. A few - VERY few, have opted to build new homes with any of this type of detail on it. Most homes in our area are constructed with cement block - not wooden with any decorations on them.

You can see the amazing woodwork on them - and I like that. I would guess that most of you would also appreciate the detail and craftsmanship needed to make such designs.

The only problem with these wooden homes is that the ones that became government property were then made into public housing. This public housing, as you can guess, was given to the poor people who had no other place to live - but because these were SUMMER homes, they often didn’t have adequate insulation - if any at all - in them. This meant that they are cold in the winter. Because they are old, and often have several families living in them, they have electrical issues because of old and poor wiring. Every year, when it is especially cold in the winter, we lose a few to fires - no doubt due to people simply trying to stay warm with extra electric heaters - far beyond what the house was ever designed for.

If you want to see more of these homes, you can click on google images and a lot of them come up. Try it.

A while ago - years ago now 2008, I guess - there was a charity auction here in the area and someone drew a pen and ink drawing of a Swidermajer house which I bid on and won. I cherish it to this day - it has been on the wall in our home since then. I think I paid about $40 which I thought was a steal. The other people who bid, I guess, thought I paid a lot.

It’s okay. I love it. I also don’t think I paid too much - not at all. Not because the money was given to charity- sick kids’ families - but because of the talent needed to draw such a thing:

Here’s a little closer look at the woodwork:

The woodwork on one of these houses is amazing in the detail. Simply amazing. Sadly, we are losing some every year due to the aging process and the lack of care of most of them.

I thought you might appreciate taking a closer look at these homes. This area’s woodworkers went far beyond the normal, everyday construction of a “house”.

If this type of construction interests you, can you look at more pictures here. I’d encourage you to take a few minutes to look at them.

The people who live in these old, big houses often are the recipients of our charity quilts, BTW! Especially the huge, more dilapidated ones. These houses are here in our area - Jozefow and Otwock, the exact area where we live and work!

I know - once again - it’s not about quilting - but it IS about us and where we live. I started this post over 2 years ago now and have wanted to share with you these pictures and links.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing one of the unique features of our area of Poland!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!