U Małowej

In Słoneczna Street in Rakoniewice, there is an old house with a beautiful turret, surrounded by mighty lindens and maples. This is the house of Mr and Mrs Maćkowiak, who almost everybody knows in Rakoniewice.

In 1924, Mrs Marciniak bought the house from the German Fuchs.

The building housed a restaurant and private rooms of the owners. Below the oldest part of the building there are deep cellars, built of untypically big, yellow bricks. This was the place where barrels with wine pressed from the grapes growing on the hills were stored.

In the park surrounding the house, some very rare trees used to grow. The latest gale felled the American pine and the acacia with red flowers and red wood which grew here. The pride of the park was also a small pond and a beautiful band shell where a band played during spring outings. In 1956 a huge tree crushed the shell.

Gentlemen were attracted by a wooden bowling alley which was destroyed during the Second World War. One of eminent guests of Mrs Marciniak was Wincenty Witos, the Prime Minister of Poland, who came here incognito for a little rest in 1926.

In September 1939, the Nazis dispossessed the owners and displaced them, with other citizens of Rakoniewice, to the Podlasie region in eastern Poland. After the war, the German Jachom ran away, the owners came back, and as early as April 1945 the famous parties "U Małowej' (at Małowa's) started. The last dance party was held in 1965. Then the restaurant was taken over by different companies. Today it a very quiet and peaceful place; and you can only hear the nightingales singing beautifully.

Sources:

• Rakoniewicki Magazyn Informacyjny, 1997, Issue 5, p. 10