Land of Open Shutters

Three villages in the Narew valley – Trześcianka, Soce and Puchły – lie just a few kilometres apart and together form the Land of Open Shutters (Kraina Otwartych Okiennic), a cultural trail of wooden architecture with carved window frames, white and colourful shutters and fretwork ornaments. The project, running since 2001, aims to save this landscape: the villages are losing their inhabitants, and decorations tend to disappear when houses are modernised. Come while you can still see these houses as part of everyday village life rather than in an open-air museum.

Where the patterns came from

Most people here are Orthodox Christians of Belarusian origin who still speak a local dialect. The rich decoration of the houses is linked to the First World War and the "bieżeństwo" – the mass flight during which the population hurried east ahead of the advancing German army. Some returned only in the interwar period, bringing back patterns they had seen in Russian folk architecture. On the façades look for boarding laid in squares, triangles and diamonds, plant ornaments, animal motifs and decorated corners and bargeboards.

Trześcianka

The largest of the three villages, called Trościanica until 1967, has kept the layout of Queen Bona's 16th-century land reform – narrow, very long plots, which is why the houses face the road with their gable ends. In the middle of the village stands the wooden Orthodox Church of St Michael the Archangel, built in 1864–1867, with a three-tier iconostasis; since a renovation completed in 2015 it has a green façade and new gilded domes. In the 19th century Trześcianka was a busy centre of Orthodox church education. On an old barn at the entrance to the village and on the fire station wall you will find works from 2023 by artist Arkadiusz Andrejkow – painted boards from his "Silent Memorial" series that transfer old photographs of local people onto wood.

Soce

The most museum-like village on the trail, divided by a small river into two parts. Houses stand gable-end to the road: on one side of the street with their back (the dark storeroom) facing the road, on the other with their front, windows and shutters. At each end stands one of four iron votive crosses from 1895 on stone bases, with inscriptions carved in Cyrillic. According to local legend they were put up during an epidemic, and the women linked them with thread spun in a single day to seal the village off from the disease. There is also a wooden chapel of the Prophet Elijah from around 1900 and an oak post shrine from 1861, restored in 2005.

Puchły

Puchły has the colourful Orthodox Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, built in 1913–1918 and famous for its icon of Our Lady of Protection. Tradition says that in the 15th century the icon appeared on a linden tree to an old villager with a swollen leg, who was healed after praying – hence the village name, from the Polish word for swelling. A shoot of the old linden still grows by the church. The original icon burned in 1771; the present image dates from 1781. About 500 m from the church a wooden footbridge leads over the Narew.

Tripto tip

Allow half a day for all three villages: Puchły is about 5 km from Trześcianka, and a car or bike is the easiest way to get between the villages. The church in Trześcianka is often open around services, while a visit inside the church in Puchły usually has to be arranged with the parish. Remember these are living villages, not a museum: take photos from the road and do not walk into yards. There are very few places to eat, so bring supplies. Nearby, the village of Wojszki with its wooden house decorations and the Narew National Park are worth a detour.