The Warsaw-Ursynów Municipality came into existence in 1994, but the actual area had been incorporated into Warsaw as early as 1951. Until 1994 Ursynów was part of Warsaw's largest district, Mokotów.
Some settlements and villages situated in Ursynów such as Służew, Kabaty, Imielin, Wyczółki, Moczydło, Dąbrówka and Pyry are centuries old, although most of the 100 000-large Ursynów community remains unaware of this heritage. This is not surprising considering that these young and, for the most part, well-educated people have only been living here since 1977, when estates and blocks of apartments started coming up. They were built on a land that in prehistoric times, together with most of left-bank Warsaw, was uninhabited and didn't start having a local life or become part of the city's history until later.
Flint implements for leather-work dating back to 6 000 BC (the mesolithic period) were recently found in Moczydło and the Kabacki Forest. For a long time afterwards, however, there was nothing there except forests. A casket from the Lusatian period (1300-400 BC) found in Służew suggests it was only then that the first settlements were established.
It was in Służew that the Benedictines from Mogilno near Kruszwica established their mission in 1065. They were subsequently displaced by Konrad, the duke of Mazowsze, who offered Służew as a villa militari tone of his knights, Gotard, in return for defending the land against the Prussians, Lithuanians and Jadzwings and as a form of payment.
In 1238 a parish and St. Catherine's church were built in Służew. They exist to this day and are amongst Warsaw's oldest monuments. At the time, Służew was situated just next to the mouth of the Służewiecki stream, where it joined the Vistula, flowing at the foot of today's Warsaw Escarpment. The place was a ford and thus made up a part of the trade route between southern France and Kiev.
Historians are certain that in the 14th century 17 localities in the forest area belonged to Gotard's descendants, the Służewieckis of Radwan. In the 1700s and 1800s the increasingly fragmented property was being bought up by magnates, more and more of whom were moving to Warsaw, Poland's new capital. Służew was bought by the owners of Wilanów, the Sobieskis; shortly such magnates as the Leszczyńskis, the Radziwiłłs and others built estates in the area.
Crops produced by this area fed the inhabitants of the developing capital, including the owners of the aristocratic residences, who also bought up local villages for recreational purposes.
Following the Swedish Deluge, the production of strong bricks, a commodity in great demand at the time, began here. The number of brickyards grew and the local tradition survived until the midtwentieth century. In 1898 a narrow-gauge railway was constructed between Warsaw's Mokotowska toll-bar, Piaseczno and Góra Kalwaria to transport their products.
The magnates' recreational base comprised famous summer and country residences set up by the wife of marshal Lubomirski, Izabela of the Czartoryskis (owner of Wilanów).
The Sobieskis' Pheasantry, situated on the Escarpment, was developed by the successors of Mrs Lubomirska, the Potocki family, into the classicistic palace in Natolin. The development was supervised by such renowned architects as Zug, Aigner and Marconi.
In 1817 Stanisław Kostka Potocki made the area at the foot of St. Catherine's church into a recreational site for himself, called Gucin. After his death, his wife set up the Gucin-Gaj (grove), a well-known and admired garden where trees were interspersed with obelisks and monuments in memory of meritorious Poles. Unfortunately it was completely destroyed during the German occupation of Poland.
Ursynów, which eventually gave its name to the whole of today's municipality, came into existence in the years 1775-1780 and was initially called Rozkosz (bliss), an apt name for a place where Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his wife Aleksandra had spent their honeymoon. Rozkosz was bought in 1822 by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, who wanted to change the name of the grange to "America" or "Washington" as a remembrance of his seven-year-long stay in the United States. He was dissuaded from doing that by his friends, who warned him that "the name of a free country would be perceived as dissent and conspiracy" by the invader (Poland was under partition at that time). Eventually the decision was made to call it "Ursynów" from the owner's family name.
Many outstanding people have been guests of Ursynów, including young Juliusz Słowacki. In one of the letters to his mother the poet described Niemcewicz and his house and garden, saying the latter was "full of great trees, resembling more a wild forest than a garden". Neither of them suspected that shortly after their meeting in Ursynów, following the outbreak of the November Uprising both of them would be forced to leave their homeland, never to return.
However, life in the Służew-Ursynów area carried on regardless of the historical turmoil. Children went to the local parish school (set up at the beginning of the 16th century); the parish orphanage, nursery home and a small hospital also continued with their work.
In 1906 Ursynów's next owner, the grandson of Zygmunt Krasiński Adam, offered the 120-hectare Ursynów grange together with the palace which exists to this day, to the meritorious Seminar Association of Country Teachers. Half a century later the grange was taken over by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences.
The region, living off agriculture, horticulture and the production of building materials was becoming increasingly attractive to the capital, as locally produced goods satisfied many of the city's needs. In 1934 the Warsaw-Radom railway line was constructed, skirting the area, and Okęcie International Airport was built nearby. In 1938 the Służew and Służewiec areas were incorporated into Warsaw, and a modern and elegant horse racing track was built there.
One of Warsaw's presidents, Stefan Starzyński, used funds obtained from the issue of municipal bonds to purchase the Kabacki Forest for the capital. The reserve was named in his honour and has kept its name to this day. During World War II, and the Warsaw Uprising in particular, the inhabitants of what is known today as the Ursynów municipality proved their patriotism and their absolute commitment to Warsaw by fighting in the squads of the National Army's "Baszta" regiment, the insurgents' graves constitute a separate section of the parish cemetery in Pyry. A monumental stone commemorating the attack launched by the "Baszta" regiment's "Karpaty" battalion on the SS barracks in Służew was erected in front of the horse racing track's main gate.
Historical buildings and, above all, living memory of the past are the heritage of the new municipality. This may be of considerable value to the latter, whose development is becoming increasingly dynamic, consolidating the inhabitants' identification with their locality.
Sources:
- "The History of Mokotów", PWN, Warsaw 1972
- "Józef Maj "St. Catherine's Church", Warsaw 1994
- "Lech Chmielewski, "A Guide to Warsaw", Warsaw 1987
- "Stanisław Lorenz, "Natolin", PWN, Warsaw 1970
- "Zbigniew Sałek "Ursynów-Natolin, a monograph of Warsaw-Ursynów, the city's newest district", Warsaw 1988
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