The text describes the larch manor house in Bienica, built in 1770 by Michał Kazimierz Kociełło. The architectural parameters are presented in detail, and the surroundings of the building itself are described, as well as the local church founded by Kociełło. The text is also accompanied by several photographs (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany' Warsaw 1929, no. 14, p. 5-, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text

Bienica.

Not much has changed in the eastern borderlands: as before - soldiers' comrades in their wooden hay keep watch over them. Occasionally blood will be shed, someone will be killed, and patrols circulate day and night in the borderlands - because the enemy does not sleep. The days of diversionary attacks are over; the manor houses and towns are quiet and the work of God has begun. Today, now that the turmoil of war has passed, the power of the mementoes of the past, the great artistic and historical value, is gone, and it is time to save what remains, because the monuments of the past in the eastern borderlands are melting away: castles are falling into ruins, graves are lost under the plough of a greedy peasant who has no past and does not understand it, churches that have been incompetently renovated are losing their artistry, and larch mansions, which have an old-Polish tradition, are now unique.

It is only in ancient manor houses that legends and tales, told from generation to generation, and traditional customs, which you would look for in vain in your new surroundings, can live on. When the old walls come down and the new ones are built, there will be nothing to frighten and "disturb" you, and the soul of these ancient houses will fade irretrievably into the past. - One of the old monuments of Polish architecture, which miraculously survived the World War and the Bolshevik invasion, is the larch manor house in Bienica, built in 1770 by Michał Kazimierz Kociełł, treasurer of the Great Tenth of Poland. The tooth of time and wars destroyed its former glory, but from what remains we can conclude about the high artistic level of those who built this larch manor.

A row of Doric columns on a high porch guards the entrance to the brick-lined hallway, then a spacious ballroom decorated with fluted pilasters, followed by a row of chambers, stylish fireplaces, colourful cookers and plasterwork speak of the artistry of the early 18th century, and the surroundings of the manor house! In the past, the residence was surrounded by seven ponds, a circular lawn in front of the house, and to add variety to the distant perspective seen from the porch, a beautiful entablature was erected supported by a row of Doric columns and topped by a two-storey turret.

The treasurer had excellent taste. Not only did he know how to decorate his residence, but the House of God, which he founded in Bienica, has strict architectural proportions and a refined baroque taste. Next to the church there was a Bernardine monastery, of which no trace remains. The stylish tombstones in the church could adorn many a cathedral in large cities. The Rococo-style altars, damaged by Orthodox vandalism, need thorough restoration, and it is hard to guess what memories of the past are hidden by the thick coating of lime with which the destructive hand covered the walls.

In the graves and in the church cemetery rest the ashes of the church's collators: the Kociełłos and the Szwykowskis. And the grave of the church's founder, treasurer Kociełł, is shrouded in legend; once described by Chhodko, it tells us that the founder of the church and monastery decided to take care of the founded House of God even after his death. During his lifetime, he had his portrait painted (now in the church), in which we see the treasurer in all his glory with the White Eagle ribbon, the shield of his coat of arms above the table, under which the painter placed a chest full of ducats, and a number of money bags with the contents marked.

Kocieł's will stated that the sums painted in the painting were to be used to restore the church in the event of a fire, and he ordered gold in that amount to be put in the coffin. The Lord Treasurer took good care of the execution of his will even after his death, because legend has it that when the roof of the monastery burned down and the monks decided to reach for the ducats, neither prayers nor holy water helped, at the moment they reached for the coffin, the lights went out, the sepulchral slab collapsed with a clatter and the words rang out: "Peace to the dead!" The money Kociel did not give, and to this day they point to a cracked grave slab at the entrance to the church to obscure the truth of the legend.

After the 1863 uprising, wanting to save the church from certain suppression, the then owner of Bienica, Konstanty Szwykowski, founded an orthodox church, but the Moscow authorities acted barbarously, taking an orthodox church founded by a Catholic and at the same time converting the church into an orthodox church. This is where the destruction of Polish memorabilia began, with marble tombstones painted over with lime, paintings removed and the coffins of the columnists thrown out of the vaults. It was not until the German occupation in 1918 that the church returned to its rightful owners. Near the Bienica manor house, there is an old avenue of Vistula poplars, and on the road to the town, there is a pillar across the road on which a statue of St. Francis once stood.

This place was shrouded in the legend of French treasures, so Bolsheviks plundering Bienica, wanting French gold, undermined the column until it collapsed, and the legend of buried treasures still circulates in Bienica. It was in this ancient Polish manor that Napoleon I spent the night on his retreat from Moscow; it was here that the entire staff of the "god of war" put his signatures on one of the doors; through Bienica the great emperor's disorganised regiments were drawn, harassed not only by Russian troops and afflicted by exceptional frosts, but in many places also by peasants.

So much for the past of the nest of the Kociełs and Szwykowskis, and today's Bienica? After the wars and the Bolshevik invasions, a planned subversive work began in the eastern borderlands: to destroy the Polish people materially, to discourage them from working and force them to give up their occupied posts, and to rule over the dark masses of the people indivisibly - this is one of the aims of our enemies. The fires started, the gums full of crops were set on fire, the barn in Zaleśni was on fire, the French soldiers bathing in the bathhouse were burnt alive - the whole harvest in Bienica was burnt to the ground, and although there was no war, the glows were hitting the sky at night.

But the criminals had miscalculated when they set fire to the thatched roof of the barn in Bienica, thinking that the present owner would be discouraged and give up - they were disappointed. The fire passed, about a hundred and fifty thousand zlotys went up in smoke, there were hard times for the estate, but the persistence of work prevailed. Today, the farm is developing more and more, and social work has already spread far and wide: the "Koło Macierzy Szkolnej" (School Mother Circle) named after Archbishop Cieplak was founded, the "Tow. Tow. pracy społecznej" (Society for Social Work) was established, there is the "Kasa Spółdzielcza Stefczyka" (Stefczyk Cooperative Fund), the "Kółko Dramatyczne" (Dramatic Circle), and in organizational form there is the Voluntary Fire Brigade.

Thanks to the initiative of the owner of the estate, a branch of the "Agricultural Society", a dairy and a seed purification point have been established at the Bienica community in recent times. Again, just as before the enslavement, the Polish element is thriving, spreading its culture in the eastern borderlands, a culture of which the monuments of the past, spread all over the country, speak best. And our enemies should well remember that despite the sometimes harsh living conditions, no force can tear us away from this land, soaked for centuries with our blood and sweat.