The spatial layout of the homesteads (especially of the houses with their gables facing the road) has not changed much to this day. A large number of traditional wooden buildings (from the late 19th and first half of the 20th century) have been very well preserved, with many richly embellished houses - beautifully decorated, painted in bright colors shutters, roof planks, corners, as well as elevations and gables. This ornamentation does not occur in other regions of Poland and refers to the ornamentation used in Russian folk architecture. In the centre of the village, on the northern side of the road leading to Gieczynko is the chrch of St Michael the Archangel build in 1864-1866. It is the architectural dominant structure of the village. The village is one of the tourist attractions along the Land of Open Shutters trail.

History of the object

The village of Trześcianka was founded in the 16th century during the great economic and settlement reform known as Volok Reform. Volok Reform was revolutionary in terms of changing economic and social relations and determined the appearance of the cultural landscape for the next several hundred years. It liquidated the original scattered settlement and created regular linear settlements surrounded by areas of arable land. The villages built according to Volok Reform, due to their particularly compact and regular layout of dwellings, are often referred to as a row villages: the street in a row village ran in straight line, the homesteads had not only the same shape, but also the same size and a similar or even identical layout of buildings. A characteristic feature of their appearance was the way the cottages were positioned - with their gables towards the main road of the village. Residential buildings were erected on adjacent narrow plots. Their narrow width forced the positioning of individual buildings along the farm plot. The farm structures, i.e. pigsties, stables and cowsheds were placed right behind the house, And behind these farm structures were vegetable gardens and orchards Behind the garden, would be a barn set perpendicular to the farm plot, and behind it a dirt road. In a row village, homesteads could be located on one or both sides of the road. The regular layout of arable land corresponded to the regular layout of buildings. Breaking out of this interconnected system was impossible in the 16th to 18th centuries, and later also very difficult. The durability of the system was secured by the so-called field compulsion related to the three-field system. It consisted in the annual rotation of crops in individual fields, which prevented scattered development. In the second half of the 17th century the Uniate church was built in the middle of the village, and in the 1860s the present temple.

Description of the village 

The village is situated latitudinally, along the province road No. 685 leading from Narew to Zabłudów, with homesteads on both sides.   Behind the homesteads (north and south of them) are dirt roads. The homesteads in the shape of a narrow, elongated rectangle are situated between the main road running through the middle of the village and a dirt road. Most of the houses have their gables facing the road. They have richly decorated shutters, gables, roof planks and corners. Farm buildings are located in narrow farm plots. In the middle of the village, in its northern part there is the cemetery, enclosed by a wall with gates, on which a wooden Orthodox church was erected in the years 1864-1866. It is a log structure, on a rectangular plan, with a tower-belfry on a square plan, timbered.

Visitor access. The village is open to visitors.

Author of the note: Grzegorz Ryżewski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Białystok, 24-10-2014

Bibliography

• http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trze%C5%9Bcianka
• Cybulko Z., Trześcianka. Dokumentacja historyczno-przestrzenna wsi, Białystok 1985, mps., pp. 14-30, Archives of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Białystok Branch.