Saturday 3 January 2009

Zamienie in winter

Zamienie - the story so far. Back in communist days, there was a factory here manufacturing vaccines. It closed in 2004. Above: the guarded entry to the complex, today owned by Biomed Warszawa Sp. z o.o.

Before the war, Zamienie was a manor house, with many outbuildings. Most of these remain, situated to the left of the roadway above (view looking east; in the distance the Action warehouse). To the right, fence posts show where the closed-off manufacturing facility was.

Above: This is where the vaccine production buildings were, long, single-story blocks. At the far end of this complex were stables complete with haylofts, where cattle was kept. Is this usual practice for a vaccine plant? The buildings are gone, Biomed last month auctioned two plots of land (details here in Polish) in Zamienie. One, 1,710 sq m., had a starting price of 185 zł per square metre (43 quid), the second plot, of 1,272 sq m., was cheaper at 144 zł per square metre (36 quid). Did Biomed find a buyer, I wonder? If so, what are the chances something will get built here in the near future?

Above: The fire station. Tyre tracks in the snow suggest that at least the right-hand bay is still in regular use. Behind the building is a mobile phone mast.

Above: One of the manor house's outbuildings. Beyond it, a small pond. Past that and to the fields beyond, where the landscape is rapidly changing.

Having passed through Zamienie, one comes across the Osiedle Polnych Maków ('Poppies of the Fields') estate. A development of 36 terraced houses. As yet, all are empty, 29 still for sale. The credit crunch may slow down the pace at which people move in, but I'm sure that before too long, this terrace (one of two currently completed) will have gardens full of trees, bespoke fencing and cars in the drive. Behind these houses - fields, stretching on to Dawidy Bankowe and Łady (pron. "wuddy"). The houses are being sold for 855,000 zł - 988,000 zł (200K - 230K quid). Interesting to see how quickly they'll go - and for how much.

5 comments:

Aphelion said...

You asked: ". At the far end of this complex were stables complete with haylofts, where cattle was kept. Is this usual practice for a vaccine plant?"

It is indeed, or used to be - not sure how it is done today, but in earlier years vaccines were produced by injecting the bacteria or toxins into cows or horses, and then using their antibody-laden blood serum as vaccine. That's where the word "vaccination" comes from, by the way, from the Latin "vacca" ("cow").

Apologies for being such a know-it-all ;-)

Michael Dembinski said...

I'm delighted to have such erudite commentators visiting my blog! Thanks for that particular piece of knowledge - always puzzled my why there were stables, mangers and haylofts in a vaccine plant.

Anonymous said...

Did you notice the name of the road in the first photo? "Droga Pożarowa" - evidently named after Soviet biological warfare pioneer, Gen. Pozharov.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I think any purchaser of the land would be advised to carry out a very specific serious of environmental tests for contaminants!

As for the "Poppy field estate" I'm sure the answers to your questions are 1/ very slowly and 2/ for less than they are asking.

Anonymous said...

That'll be seven well-off households without neighbours for a long, long time.