Tarczyn

Tarczyn is an important fruit-growing centre with a rich local history. If you are looking for a hotel in Tarczyn, these two aspects can help you choose the destination: the town’s agricultural character is represented by a symbol in the market square, while the church, bell tower and memorial sites evoke different chapters of the past.

Fruit Growing and the Market Square

A fountain featuring a stone apple stands in the market square, symbolising the fruit-growing region. The motif reflects Tarczyn’s agricultural importance and gives it a tangible form in the public space. The square is also home to a monument to the soldiers from Tarczyn who fell in 1920. The market square thus brings together two different connections to the town: fruit growing as part of its character and the memory of its fallen residents. It slopes gently down towards the Tarczynka Valley.

The history of the local post office also goes back a long way. It was one of the first post offices in the Kingdom of Poland and was numbered 11. Together with the memorial sites established later, this detail shows how varied Tarczyn’s historical themes are: they range from the development of public institutions to the personal and community consequences of political conflicts.

St Nicholas Church and Its Construction History

The parish of St Nicholas was founded in the 14th century; the exact year the church was built is unknown. It was destroyed in the town fire of 1704. Ten years later, its then parish priest, Kazimierz Szczuka, rebuilt the church from the ruins. Szczuka later became Bishop of Chełmno. This sequence of events connects the parish’s long history with a specific turning point in the town’s history, without equating the unknown construction date of the church with the parish’s foundation date.

The chapels also tell of changes to the church building. Jan and Marianna Mokronowski funded St Anne’s Chapel in the 16th century; it was later converted into a vestibule. Another chapel, dedicated to St Stanislaus, was funded by parish priest Adam Chełkowski; it was demolished. The church has five altars. The main altar, with an image of the Immaculate Conception, is Neo-Gothic; the other altars are Baroque. Their different styles make the altars a subject in their own right alongside the history of the building.

Bells and Historical Memorial Sites

Tarczyn’s Neoclassical bell tower dates from the 19th century and contains three bells. “Św. Trójca” is dated 1841; “Maria” and “Mikołaj” date from 1974. The different dates place the bells in different periods. The parish cemetery also contains a mass grave for the insurgents who fell in 1863.

The Jewish cemetery lies on the outskirts of town and was destroyed by the Nazis. Volunteers later spent several years cleaning it and arranged for a fence to be built. Only a few matzevot have survived. The mass grave in the parish cemetery and the Jewish cemetery represent distinct, clearly identifiable aspects of local history and remembrance.

Irena Sendlerowa (1910–2008), who lived in Tarczyn during the interwar period, is also associated with the town. During the Second World War, she rescued around 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Her time in Tarczyn and her rescue work belong to different periods of her life; together, they provide another historical point of reference for the town.

Discover more destinations: Głosków, Jeziórko, Łęg, Bobrowiec, Baniocha, Many, Borowiec, Mysiadło

For the overview of the wider area: Piaseczyński.