A Zone of My Own II: Mysiadło

It's been a while (five years) since I last wandered into the site of the former state farm PGR Mysiadło. After a failed privatisation ending in the bankruptcy of the new owners, Eco Mysiadło, in 2000, the site, straddling ul. Puławska just south of Warsaw's border, has gone to seed. This used to be a large tomato-growing business, with many greenhouses, with boilers heating the crops via large underground pipes.

Some time since my last visit, in 2007, most of the buildings on the site were demolished. Today started rainy and grey, a worthy klimat in which to pay homage to Tarkovsky's Stalker and enter a little zona of my own.

Above: the main internal road running through the east site of the PGR. This was a temporary thoroughfare while Puławska was being widened back in 2007; traffic for Józefosław and Auchan was diverted this way.

Left: not a place to wander through after dark; all the manhole covers have been stolen (presumably sold for scrap) and so, without lighting, the chances of falling into one of the heating conduits, strategically positioned in the centre of the paths, are high. There are thousands of empty vodka and beer bottles strewn all over the place, suggesting this is a popular hang-out for the local alcoholic community.

While both sites are fenced off, there are plenty of routes in, some must be big enough to drive cars through. Large amounts of household waste and building rubble attest to the fact that many locals routinely use the site as a refuse dump. Right: this child's chair looks like it came from a local primary school.

Only a few structures remain of what was once an intensive complex of greenhouses and ancillary buildings. One, at the eastern edge of the site, seems to have been a pumping station (below).

Below: still securely padlocked and grilled, what looks like the old electricity substation.

Below: pipes coming out of the boiler house and disappearing into a clump of young trees. In the distance, houses along ul. Geodetów.

Two golden rules of photography - number one: get close to the subject, number two: get closer still. With the 10-24mm Nikkor, you can indeed get very close and still get everything in frame. Below: the whole building, with decorated with colourful street art. The sides of the building are clad in asbestos - don't breathe in too deeply around here!

Below: close-up of the another piece, at the other end of the building. Nicely done - I wonder if the artist works commercially in graphics.

I take a wander round; a plane is on final approach to Okęcie airport overhead, the sky is brightening. It's still three-layer weather.

Below: crossing now to the other side of ul. Puławska, I walk down ul. Katarynki, cross a field and climb through a tumbledown fence, and enter the west site of PGR Mysiadło.

Here, all the buildings have been flattened. It was once quite an interesting place (see the lower photo on this post from five years ago), now, there's literally nothing. Empty scrub land, evidence of recent flooding, and, fleeing in the distance, a hare.

Below: near the western edge of the west site. Nothing's going on; no sign of any future development. There was talk of a large Orthodox church being built in the corner of this field by ul. Puławska, but that all seems to have gone quiet. The PGR Mysiadło site is likely to remain undeveloped for the immediate future; not a bad thing.


This time last year:
What's the Polish for puncture?

This time three years ago:
Welcome the Ice Saints
[and on cue, temperature falls from 30C yesterday to 12C today at noon]

This time four years ago:
Like a Kodachrome

This time five years ago:
The future of cities