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The Church and The Cemetery

The Church

Although the sacral architecture was one of the most important manifestations of material culture of the Dutch colonists, only one sacral building has survived to the present day in the researched area. Most probably, it is an Evangelical church and is located in the outskirts of the village of Banachów dist. Olszówka, Kolski county, Wielkopolski province. The building dates from ca. 1920. Currently, the building is not used and is in bad condition.

The church was made of limestone and brick (window and door surrounds); no truss work or roof have survived. The walls are plastered inside. The main entrance to the building is located on the southern side and leads to the nave. A narrower hall and a vestry (with a separate entrance) are adjacent to the northern side of the nave. An inscription in Gothic script is located on the granite header: "Kommt last uns anbeten".

The building unquestionably represents a type of church that was common during the interwar period. It is a neo-Gothic or neo-Renaissance church without a tower.^[1]

The Cemetery

The cemeteries - burial grounds of the Dutch colonists - constitute an inherent element of the rural landscape of the region colonized by the settlers. Frequently, a cemetery is the last remnant of a Dutch village. Such a site often provides the only evidence that a certain village was linked to the Dutch colonization.

Only X cemeteries have survived to the present day in Ziemia Łęczycka, and only about these sites can we say that they almost certainly or unquestionably were related to the colonization. They are often in poor condition. After the departure of the original residents of villages, the cemeteries have been neglected and even purposefully destroyed. The cold war propaganda, which followed the WWII, largely contributed to this phenomenon. Although, the site rescuing and cleaning initiatives have been quite successful, this tendency is still not universal. Only in Żuławy, due to the wide-ranging social involvement and actions of the Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Mennonickiej (The Association of Polish-Mennonite Friendship) several cemeteries have been cleaned up.

The current residents see the Olęder cemeteries in Ziemia Łęczycka from the perspective of the war experiences; they associate the heritage of their predecessors with Germans, who in the 20th century constituted majority among the settlers. The inhabitants, who linked their origin to the Dutch Mennonites through their traditions, were lost in this majority.

Cemeteries are generally located in the village outskirts, and in the case when a village had a church, the cemetery was located next to it. As a rule, the cemeteries are small and in one case surrounded by a low stone wall and are situated among old beautiful trees - often natural monuments; of course, the older the cemetery, the more exquisite the trees. Every single cemetery is unique and worth preserving.

Practically, no gravestones have survived on these cemeteries. If we are lucky and gravestones do exist, they are quite damaged. There is only one simple legible inscription.

It is a sad example of post-war destruction, which testifies to a lack of respect for the deceased and a willingness to erase our common history.

Footnotes

^[1]M. Warchoł, Katalog domów modlitwy mennonitów na ziemiach polskich. Przyczynek do badań nad budownictwem sakralnym mennonitów, mpis w zbiorach autora.