Let's go back to communist Poland in the mid-1970s. Local voivodes (provincial governors) were getting too big for their boots. The party's central committee, led by Edward Gierek, wanted to cut them down to size. So out of 17 voivodships (plus four cities with voivodship status), 49 new ones were created, the size of small English counties. Some of these new voivodships were based in towns that historically had served as administrative centres (a gród, surrounded by its ziemie) in mediaeval Poland.
Such a town was Ciechanów, with its 14th century castle (below), once home to the Dukes of Mazovia, but by 1975 a bit of a backwater with a population of just 25,000. As such, it was one of the smallest voivodship towns between 1975 and 2000, when the territorial administration of Poland was again reformed, returning (more or less) to historical voivodship boundaries.
The territory that constitues today's Mazowieckie voivodship (Mazowsze/ Mazovia/ Masovia) was carved up into five smaller units – the Warsaw voivodship surrounded by the voivodships of Radom to the south, Siedlce to the east, Płock to the north-west and Ciechanów to the north.
Discovering by chance that there's one train a day linking Chynów and Ciechanów, I decided to go. My intention was to see the castle of the Dukes of Mazovia and then to look around at a small town that between 1975 and 1999 had been elevated to the seat of a first-order administrative division. Before setting off, I consult Filip Springer's Miasto Archipelag, a collection of reportages from those 30 towns that after 2000 lost their status as voivodship capitals (thanks again, Ula – a book that's come in very handy!). Written in 2016, Miasto Archipelag also serves to show just how strongly some of these towns have bounced back in the few short years since it was written.
And so, I wake at 04:30, catch the 05:37 Kamienna Koleje Mazowieckie limited-stop service that goes straight through to Ciechanów via Warsaw. The journey is perfect (only imperfections: train announcements were one station-stop out of synch with reality, and the clock at Pomiechówek station was broken). I arrive to the minute at Ciechanów (07:39), having travelled 138km in just over two hours, for a little over 20zł (£4) with my senior's discount.
Below: today, this office building is the vastly oversized for what it is seat of a second-order administrative division (poviat, or district). But when built in the mid-1970s in its copy-paste style, the Ciechanów voivodship office brought a touch of big-city glamour to a somewhat sleepy town. Several times smaller than Siedlce or Płock, let alone Radom, Ciechanów was the outlier among the voivodship capitals. The communist authorities said that Ciechanów's population would soon double – it did not, rising only to around 41,000.
Below: Ciechanów's historic town hall still functions as such. Built in 1844, designed by
Enrico Marconi, it stands in the corner of the old market square, which today is little more than a concreted-over car park.
Today was the last chance to catch winter opening times (08:00-16:00). From tomorrow, it doesn't open until 10:00 (to 18:00, Jun-Sep). From the moment I arrived in Ciechanów, my eyes were subconsciously drawn to the horizon; seeking a hilltop upon which a castle would naturally stand. But this one could not be seen. Having walked down from the market square, I find it (below), located not atop a hill but on a water-meadow, by the river Łydynia, which arcs around the castle to the south and east.
My dictum – get your sightseeing in early – pays off. It's not yet nine, so the castle has been open for less than an hour, and I'm the first visitor. As such, I get VIP treatment; I am shown how to download the audio tour-guide app (in excellent English!) and get to enjoy the entire tour without bumping into a soul. Below: the castle's two towers face out towards the river; the main building (destroyed during the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1655) was to the right (you can see the square holes in the wall where the rafters were inserted. Incidentally, the redness of the brick is not a tweak in Photoshop, rather it's the morning sun.
The mediaeval history of Poland is essentially about the folly of Bolesław III Wrymouth (Krzywousty) who divided the Polish kingdom among his sons. This led to the fragmentation after his death in 1138 of the Polish state into dukedoms, of which the Duchy of Mazovia was one. The Dukes of Mazovia died off (or were murdered) and by 1526, the duchy was incorporated into the Polish kingdom. (Having visited Ciechanów, I am minded that a visit to nearby Czersk and its castle is very much in order).
Left: Ciechanów's other famous sight, the toroidal water tower, perched on top of a hyperboloid tower. Built in the early 1970s, this amazing structure fell into disuse and disrepair by the 1980s, and remained in a lamentable state until a thorough
remont in 2017 and incorporation into the Ciechanów Torus Science Park. By late morning, the car park and the museum part of the complex were both full. To the right of the tower is the local firefighters' training wall.
Below: ulica Warszawska, a main shopping thoroughfare, beautifully restored and pedestrianised. The town has good cycle infrastructure and local bus provision.
Below: at the western end of ul. Warszawska. Kamienica Brudnickich, nicely restored. EU parliamentary elections (Brexiteers – you know, those elections for 'unelected Eurocrats') take place in two weeks' time. Many posters all over town. Slight numerical advantage for PiS over KO and 3D.
Below: bit by bit, the town of Ciechanów is restoring old buildings. Here, just off the road from the main railway station to the old town centre is an early-20th century tenement that's approaching the end of its remont; note the period lettering on the brickwork.
To the south and east of the railway station is a district of Ciechanów called Bloki ('the blocks'). It doesn't sound appealing (across the tracks lies another district of Ciechanów called Śmiecin ('Trashville' or 'Rubbishton'), yet Bloki is architecturally and historically interesting. This section of town was built during WW2 by the Germans; it reminded me of the low-rise modernist functionalism of
Zbąszynek (Neu-Bentschen). As Gartenforstadt Zichenau, it was meant as a model garden suburb for Nazi administrators of their newly occupied lands. They were, however, not destined to live here long. [See this
excellent two-part blog about Bloki by Jerzy S. Majewski starting here.]
Below: ulica Henryka Sienkiewicza retains original German cobblestone, you can see the typical building style and the tree-lined avenues of Bloki on the corner of ul. Spółdzielcza ('Cooperative Street'). Ironically, there's a Lidl just down there.
Below: Ciechanów has some church architecture worthy of note too. The gate/belltower of the late-Gothic (16th century) Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Below: just across the road from the late-Gothic (16th century) Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the late-Gothic (16th century) Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Next to it sands a neo-Gothic (19th century) bell tower. Despite similar names, the two churches are entirely different structures; the one below serves as the parish church for Ciechanów's St Joseph's parish, whilst the one above used to be the church of the Augustinian convent; today it serves as the parish church for Ciechanów's St Thecla's parish.
And now let me turn my attention to railway matters. On my way from the station, I passed this beautifully restored steam engine, a reminder of the times when a narrow-gauge railway ran through Ciechanów. This was part of a network of lines running out of Mława (Mławska Kolej Dojazdowa) that was axed in the mid-1980s. A mere rump of it remains (around Mława to the north). The monument stands close to the site of Łydynia station (more accurately a halt); looking along ul. Sienkiewicza towards Ciechanów's main railway station, you can see that today's cycle path follows the old narrow-gauge line's track alignment.
The main line from Warsaw to Gdańsk runs through Ciechanów, so the town is well-served by InterCity trains. Modernised in recent years, the line is adapted to running Pendolino trains at high speed, so almost all level crossings between Warsaw and Ciechanów have been replaced by tunnels or viaduct (even unimportant local roads). I recommend Ciechanów as a worthy day trip out of Warsaw; you will not be disappointed.
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