The Magic of the Twenties Festival

Community Highlights Europe The Magic of the Twenties Festival

Our local Polish friends from Siedlce – Martha and Chris - invited us to visit an oustanding event in Korchew – the Magic of the Twenties Festival, a traditional annual event taking place on the grounds of the Palace in Korczew. To their opinion, there was no reason to abstain from visiting that festival. They had taken us to the northern towns and cities before, and we had seen the palace in Korczew. Many thanks, friends!

Thus, on September 29, 2024, we had the privilege of moving to the extraordinary twenties. This festival was the fifth one. The Magic of the Twenties Festival included many interesting things, among them:

• a horse riding show;
• a performance of Julian Kuczyński band from Poznań;
• a ballroom dance show of the 20s and a dancing workshop;
• "Elegance in the style of the 20s" Competition in the categories “Ladies” and «Gentlemen”;
• a show of vintage motorcycles, cars, bicycles;
• an archery section;
• a free guided tour of the Syberia Manor;
• animations for children;
• paragliding flights.

The Magic of the Twenties, Korczew, 2024

The festival ad, Korczew

The Magic of the Twenties, Korczew

We came in time for the horse riding show presented by "the charming Amazon ladies" from Ranczo Selianka.
We were also glad to listen to the great songs performed by Julian Kuczyński band from Poznań.
The ballroom dance show of the 20s and a dancing workshop were superb.
The "Elegance in the style of the 20s" Competition was followed by a solemn ceremony of thanks and cutting the festival cake that was jokingly called "the minicake". I think its dimensions were 1x2 meters. A large crowd came up to the table that stood below the stage, and the festival organizers cut it into dozens of tasty pieces, thus treating practically all those who wished to partake.

During the festival, the visitors viited the fair and could do some shopping or window shopping at numerous stalls:

• handicrafts and painting;
• coffee tasting;
• bakery, cheese and meat producers.

The children did not feel bored at all. They had fun at inflatable slides, rode horses in a special area under the supervision of instructors and, of course, partook to lots of ice cream since, as you know, it's a sin to abstain from an ice cream or two during such a festival.

No event without some ice cream, Korczew

The fair in Korczew during the festival

A paragliding flight, anyone?

The archery section at the festival.

After some window shopping, we went to see the exhibition of veteran cars.

The oldest car in the veteran cars presentation, Korczew

Most of the veteran cars were presented by "Retro Ritz Białystok" Association of Old Motoring and Technology.

We paid attention to the motorcycle presentation during the festival. We saw many of those huge ultramodern motorbikes for the first time.

The motorbike exhibition at the Magic of the Twenties Festival, Korczew

The motorbike exhibition at the Magic of the Twenties Festival, Korczew, 2024

We enrolled for the coffee ceremony and had an appointment at 2 p.m. Each group of the coffee presentation consisted of eight persons. We were in the first group. The manager from Iskra Roastery introduced three kinds of coffee to us: Finca Don Rafa Mexican coffee, Kenya Kegwa coffe and Ethiopian Shonora coffee. He went into detail of the coffee logistics and brewing and described its components..

The coffee tasting at the Magic of the Twenties festival in Korczew, 2024

The Magic of the Twenties, Korczew

"Elegance in the style of the 20s" Competition in the categories “Ladies” and «Gentlemen”:
The first place winners/The second place winners/The third place winners

"Elegance in the style of the 20s" Competition in the categories “Ladies” and «Gentlemen: the closimg ceremony and thanks.

Arts exhibition and sale at the Magic of the Twenties Festival, Korczew, 2024

Julian Kuczyński from Poznań with the band

Attending the Magic of the Twenties event in Korczew, 2024

Horse riding show in period costumes - Ranczo Sielanka

Franciszek Jaszczołd (1806-1873) created all his projects in the Podlasie and Grodno regions. They were exclusively projects related to private residences. They are characterized by creative independence, stylistic eclecticism and a visible love of the English neo-Gothic style. He designed parks in the English style, which imitated natural landscapes, breaking away from the formal geometry of Baroque parks.

The palace in Korczew dating back to the 1830s is the complex that lost its 18th-century baroque character and gained the romantic spirit of a new era. At the request of Aleksander Kuczyński, the owner of the palace, the architect Franciszek Jaszczołd not only redesigned the palace, but also created an English-style park with a residential pavilion called Siberia, surrounded the complex with a neo-Gothic wall. What’s more, he demolished the former treasury located north of the palace, and rebuilt the building known as Trian (today's chapel).
The central two-storey hall of the palace was eliminated during the reconstruction, and the sides were raised by one floor. Numerous pseudo-Gothic motifs were used. Jaszczołd's design did not always meet with approval of the owner’s family and friends, it was an innovative solution, focusing primarily on the purity of form.

The palace according to Jaszczołd's design at the beginning of the 20th century. Visible is the turret that was shot down during World War I and the clock in the tympanum above the main entrance. >>> Photo: Adolf Ganiewski (Gancwol), collection of the Regional Museum in Siedlce, before 1918.

A photo from the early 20th century showing the palace according to Jaszczołd's design. In the carriage: Aleksander Ostrowski, the grandson of Aleksander Kuczyński, who commissioned Jaszczołd to rebuild it, with his wife Helena, née Tyszkiewicz. The terrace at the back of the palace was destroyed during World War I and rebuilt in 2018.

We visited the Siberia Manor located in the English Park adjoining the palace. According to local legends, Siberia was built on the foundations of an older defensive building. There is no evidence of this in written sources and archaeological research has not confirmed it. Nevertheless, it is possible that the wall forming the Siberia courtyard may be older than Jaszczołd's design. It is also possible that some of the deep cellars under Siberia may date back to an earlier period.

Joanna Kuczyńska, the palace owner’s wife, was the most famous resident of Siberia. She was known for her correspondence with Norwid. It is likely that she read his letters in this very building.

During our tour of Siberia Manor, we also found out about Marian Walentynowicz (1896-1967), an architect and cartoonist, famous primarily as the illustrator of books about Koziołek Matołek and the monkey Fiki-Miki with verse texts by Kornel Makuszyński. He is considered the forerunner of Polish comics.
Marian Walentynowicz is the author of illustrations for many books, some of which are presented at the exhibition. He learned drawing from Stanisław Noakowski, during whose classes he probably met Wanda Ostrowska. In the interwar period, he supervised the reconstruction of the palace in Korczew.

“At Oświęcim [5 September 1939] I realize that we are not going to Nałęczów at all, but towards Brześć nad Bugiem. I recognize the small Niemojki railway station, where I boarded just a week ago on my way to Warsaw after visiting the palace of the Ostrowski Counts in Korczew Podlaski, which I had rebuilt.” - Marian Walentynowicz, War Without Pathos, 1969

Siberia was the only one of the few buildings in the complex that survived the Communist era in good condition, thanks to the fact that for many years it served as a bakery and then as a municipal office.
Rodney Harris, the President of the Management Board of Dobra Korczewskie Company, wrote about the fire in Siberia in his book “Stalks Don't Nest on Vulnerable Trees» in 2006,
"At 2 a.m., we were sleeping in the tower, when the phone rang. «Your house - an unfamiliar voice said, - your house is on fire».
We looked around in all directions and realized that the house in question must be Siberia... The cause of the fire soon became clear. In two rooms we found candles on shallow stands surrounded by crumpled papers. Here the room did not catch fire, but in the third room did. The fire must have been started deliberately. The mayor concluded that some boys had broken into the building to steal car registration certificates and set the building on fire to cover their tracks."

Enjoying the Magic of the Twenties Festival in Korczew

Afternoon in Korczew near the palace entrance: we're off to Siedlce

This featured blog entry was written by Vic_IV from the blog Our Stay in Poland.
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