Mińsk Mazowiecki

Today, 22 September, is European Car-Free Day, and as happens every year, Koleje Mazowieckie allows ticket-free travel all over its network. This spans the entire Mazovian province, with many lines extending beyond. I had planned to visit Siedlce (pop. 75,000), to complete the set of former voivodship capitals prior to the 1999 territorial reform that cut their number  from 49 to 16.  To date, I have blogged the other three, Radom, Ciechanów and Płock.

However, because of delays, I missed the connecting train at W-wa Wschodnia (Warsaw East), and rather than wait an hour for the next Siedlce-bound train, I decided to visit Mińsk Mazowiecki (pop. 40,000) instead. Which proved a disappointment. I look for the good points and the bad points in places I visit and reach a balanced conclusion. The city that Mińsk Mazowiecki reminds me of most is Białystok, another place originally established and owned by one family in the 18th century and lacking a mediaeval market square.

Until 2012, Mińsk Mazowiecki lay on the main road from Warsaw to Moscow. In that year, the new A2 motorway bypassed the town to the north, diverting a significant amount of passing trade. This is visible in the number of investments made in the 1990s that today look shabby and tired. Below: a row of commercial and residential buildings, just off ulica Warszawska, the main town's east-west thoroughfare.

Below: the bus station building, dilapidated but still functioning. Another reminder of how Poland looked in the 1990s. Probably around the last time I used a Euronet cash machine...

Thoroughly trashed by the war, most of Mińsk Mazowiecki is made up of communist-era buildings of modest architectural merit. Below: mixed-use properties from drabber times.

Over the railway station, a lovely old-school sign; the neon no longer working (sprayed over it seems). It reminds me of the sign over the old Łódź Fabryczna station. The weather was perfect; the last day of summer, indeed.

Below: another sign bearing the name of the town. This one on ul. Warszawska, by the Park Dernałowiczów. [I googled "what should I see in Mińsk Mazowiecki?" Number one was Park Dernałowiczów. Now, if the answer to "what's a given town's must-see attraction" is a park, beware, brother, beware...]

Some Tsarist-era buildings remain – most of the ones I saw were in poor good condition, such as the one below.

Left: a plaque mounted in the pavement is the only reminder of the old Jewish cemetery, that served 'from the second half of the 18th century until the end of the 19th', and 'existed until 1945'. Some 7,000 Polish Jews were imprisoned in the Mińsk Mazowiecki ghetto; most were murdered at Treblinka, but 1,300 were killed in the town's streets as the ghetto was liquidated in August 1942.

Below: the town hall, built in the 1950s, served as the local headquarters of the PZPR (Polish United Workers' Party) until 1973.

Below: here and there, you can still find wooden buildings from the 19th and early 20th century. Not as well maintained as in Kazimierz Dolny, but still bearing a certain charm.

Below: what have we here? A pristine BMW 535 (E34, third-generation 5-series). I remember road-testing one of these for CBI News in 1989! Note the 21st-century buildings to the right and the crane on the horizon to the left... change is happening.

Below: there is hope. Mińsk Mazowiecki station is just 45 minutes away from W-wa Śródmieście (by Koleje Mazowieckie local services) and 35 minutes from W-wa Centralna (by InterCity). Property prices are about one-third lower per square metre compared to Warsaw suburbs like Ursynów. Developers are starting to notice, and putting up apartment blocks like the one below, situated a mere 200m from the railway station. To the right, you can see cranes working on new blocks.

Something tells me that Mińsk Mazowiecki will experience a revival by reinventing itself as a dormitory suburb rather than as a local hub. Having said that, the town has one flourishing enterprise, the railway rolling-stock refurbishment firm, Pesa Mińsk Mazowiecki. The works now refurbish trains for multiple railway operators from across Poland. and employ over 700 people. In the photo below, taken from the footbridge at the western end of the platform of Mińsk Mazowiecki station, you can see rolling stock belonging to Koleje Dolnośląskie and PKP InterCity.

Mińsk Mazowiecki is also home to the Polish Air Force's 23rd Tactical Base, which is there to defend Warsaw's airspace from the east. While waiting for my train back, I heard the characteristic howling screech of a jet fighter; I looked up to see a South Korean-built KAI T-50 Golden Eagle blasting up into the sky. This multirole light combat/trainer aircraft based here would be on the front line for downing Russian drones that 'stray' over Polish territory.

This time last year:
Car-free day 2024 - Łowicz

This time four years ago
Into darkness

This time seven years ago:
Summer's end

This time eight years ago:
In which I lose a lot of data from my old laptop

This time nine years ago:
Konin – town of aluminium, electricity and coal

This time 12 years ago:
Car-free day falls on a Sunday

This time 13 years ago:
Vistula at record low level

This time 16 years ago:
Car-free day? Warsaw's roads busier than ever

This time 17 years ago:
The shape of equinox

This time 18 years ago:
Potato harvest time in Jeziorki