Partners
The Municipality
Office of Sokoły
18-218
Sokoły
ul. Rynek Mickiewicza 10
tel.: (085) 476 30 10
fax: (085) 476 30 12
mail:
ugsokoly@poczta.onet.pl
Area of municipality: 156 km²
Population: 6 144
Number of transactors: 173
The village of
Sokoły was formed in the 14th century on the territory of Bielskie
lands in the crossing point of old trading routes. In 1546 a parish
was established there. In the years 1659-1815 the village possessed
constantly renewed and broadened privileges concerning fairs. In the
19th and 20th century, when it was inhabited mainly by the Jews
occupying themselves with trade, it received the city rights two
times but eventually they were lost in 1950. During the II World War
most of the residents of the Hebrew origin were transported to a
concentration camp in Treblinka. Most of the historic monuments that
survived in the village of Sokoły come from the 19th century. The
most interesting ones are a now gothic brick parish granary from
about 1830, a wooden parish building of a stromal construction and a
characteristic roof, a cemetery church of the Exaltation of the
Cross and a bell tower situated nearby but originally transported
here from Tykocin. On the Roman-Catholic cemetery one can find a
grave of Karol Glover, an office of Polish troops during the
November Uprising, who was a cousin of Zygmunt Glover – a famous
ethnographer and excursionist. The current parish church built in
the years 1906-12 is characterised by a homogeneous new gothic
style. The territory of the Sokoły municipality is extremely varied
in the respect of nature what is caused by its location on the area
of the Narwiański National Park. One can observe rare animal species
here such as a vacuole, corncrake, black stork, teal, lesser spotted
eagle, European mole, stoat, weasel, velvet shrew, newt,
fire-bellied toad, common spade foot. A walk along a lime alley
leading to a Farming Secondary School in Krzyżewo can provide
visitors with unforgettable experience.
The authorities of
the municipality of Sokoły want to preserve the natural and
ecological values so they undertake numerous initiatives. Among
those activities there are for example the modernisation of the
sewage plant is Sokoły, the construction of a sewage system in 4
villages, the exchange of the coal boiler rooms into oil ones, which
results in the reduction of the harmful substance emission into the
atmosphere. Whereas in 2004, 11 pilot sewage plants were built in
farming enclosures. Their technology is based on floral filters and
denitrifying ponds. The sewage from the house gets into a
sedimentation tank where initial purifying takes place and then it
reaches a pumping station where it is forced onto the floral filters
where the main cleansing processes are performed. The sewage from
the filters is transported by drainage into a denitrifying pond
where it is additionally cleaned. A part of the clean sewage is
absorbed by the ground and the rest vaporizes into the air. Until
the year 2010 there will have been 1000 such plants built on the
territory of Sokoły municipality. Furthermore, in the year 2007 the
modernization of the dumping ground is planned to be completed. The
concern about the environment’s condition is visible not only in the
activities of the local authorities but also in the actions
performed by the inhabitants. Actually, in September, a happening
called ‘Cleaning of the World’ is organised, which involves 300
students of the local primary and secondary schools. Additionally,
the project ‘Local Agenda 21 – Narew’ is also put into practice on
the territory of the municipality; its main aim is to provide a
balanced development for the areas located over the Narew River. In
also involves the introduction of litter selection, avoidance and
reduction of its production as well as raising of the ecological
awareness.
The village of
Waniewo was established in the place of an old passage across the
Narew in the 15th century. Due to the fact that the village was the
centre of the territories that belonged to the family of Radziwiłów,
it was granted city rights for almost 200 years, which entitled the
owner of those lands to collect taxes from those who wanted to cross
the river using the bridge. The Waniewo estates changed their owners
quite often: the village fell into decay and at the beginning of the
20th century it differed from the surrounding villages only by the
presence of the church. The old, city-like character has been long
forgotten. Today the remaining parts of the old Waniewo serve as a
historic attraction. The things that survived till the present day
are for example a church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary built in 1887 in new roman style together with a bell tower and
a wooden parish house, a Catholic cemetery dating back to the turn
of the 18th and 19th century with numerous interesting graves and a
chapel from the second half of the 19th century, two historic road
chapels of Christ the Worried and Madonna, and a 19th century
granary in the enclosure no 8.
Near Waniewo there
is an unexamined settlement called ‘Zamczysko’; it is claimed to be
a legendary place where the castle of Radziwiłowie used to stand and
guard the passage across the river. The Narew Lowland, due to a
small difference of water levels, and in consequence slow water
flow, forms numerous wimples, arms and backwaters that linger
throughout the year. One of such very broad and picturesque
backwaters is situated near Waniewo on the territory of the
Narwiański National Park. A water route, which leads through the
entangled arms of Narew, joins Waniewo and Kurowo in that place.
Everyone who dreams of a holiday far from the hustle and bustle of a
city as well as crowded resorts can find peace and quiet here
accompanied by unforgettable landscapes and the possibility of being
close to unspoilt nature. In the Waniewo harbour the holiday-makers
can find the carriers of punt boats, which are boats with flat
bottoms and are moved by pushing the boat off from the bottom of the
river with the use of a long pole.
The Sokoły
municipality possesses on its territory an object of extraordinary
importance, namely a Farming Secondary School named after Stefania
Karpowicz in Krzyżewo. The uniqueness of this educational
institution comes from its unusual past; the tragic end of the
January Uprising resulted in closing down of lower agricultural
schools on the territory of the Polish Kingdom. Thanks to the
efforts of the inheritress of Krzyżewo Stefanii Karpowicz, who
devoted all her fortune and most of her life to reach her goal, it
became possible to open such a school in 1913. Although the
institution was established in such adverse times of annexations,
the school in Krzyżewo managed to survive and it functions till the
present day. Periodic cultural and sports festivals organised for a
number of years and popular among the inhabitants of the
municipality include for example ‘The Welcoming of Summer’, ‘Waniewo
- Church Fair - Nature’, combined with ‘Podlaskie Musical
Encounters’ called ‘Franciszkiada’, which is an unconventional
competition involving music playing on the gifts of nature, ‘Goodbye
to the Summer’ or a sports festival ’Independence Race’.
Newly opened
institutions include:
-
meat processing enterprise
‘Smakowita’ in Sokoły which was formed on the grounds of a closed
dairy plant;
-
a private caring institution
‘Podlasie’ in Dworaki Staśki established on the grounds of an old
primary school;
-
a clothes
sorting enterprise in Rzące also housed in the old primary school
buildings.
