Labowa, Krynica and Svidnik

Yesterday we made our way back to Poland for a visit to the village of Labowa.  My DNA matches several people from this village so I was anxious to see it, the cemetery and the church there and perhaps make some sort of connection.

Natalia Halecka and Damian Nowak met us at the church.  Natalia's parents are tour guides for Lemkos in Poland and Damian is her fiance.  They had helped Nina in the past when we visited Ozenna.

The church is quite stunning, old (built in 1794) but has been abandoned for quite some time and in poor condition.

The cemetery isn't in any better shape either.

Here are a few interior shots of the church.

We left Labowa with a wonderful gift from Damian...old maps of the village and listing of inhabitants.  From the names it sounds like a lot of the same names in the Cleveland and Campbell, Ohio area.

We then stopped in Krynica for lunch and a quick preview of this quaint Rusyn city.  It is also home to the Nikifor Museum.  Nikifor was a famous Lemko artist who lived there.  He was quite poor and sold his paintings for food, clothing and shelter.  They are now a very much sought after commodity.  the museum featured a lot of his personal photographs, many paintings and his personal effects. 

Our next stop was in Svidnik to visit with Nina's second cousin Maria, her daughter Angela and granddaughter Klarka.  But before we stopped there we needed to make a Tesco run as now with the addition of the kroj we needed another suitcase to get everything home!

We had a lovely visit with Nina's other relatives.  But the best surprise of all was that Klarka was going to be coming to the US as an exchange student this coming fall!  Even more surprising was the fact that the company she is working through is located in downtown Minneapolis and it appears that most likely she will be placed in a school somewhere in Minnesota!  We were all very excited for her.

They said their tearful goodbyes and we returned to the pension at a halfway decent time.  A good night's sleep and tomorrow we are off to Litmanova where supposedly the Rusinak people are from.

I am having more technical difficulties posting photos...will try again tomorrow.