ARCHITECTURE OF POLISH TATARS - LOCAL IDENTITY AND HERITAGE

Abstract

Poland has very few historical architectural structures representing the culture of Islam. Islamic influences, especially reflected in the clothing and armament of the 17th century, and the existence of few but very well integrated communities of assimilated Tatars (the Lipka Tatars or the Lipkas) contributed to the creation of unique urban development and sacral development in the east of Poland. The villages of Kruszyniany and Bohoniki are places of special importance where works of art and architecture of religious and social values were created. The most important structures were mosques whose form synthesised Islamic architecture, local building traditions and the culture of Poland’s Eastern Borderlands. That architecture combined various cultures but retained its identity. Being also well adapted to the local climate, it is considered part of the landscape and, in a broader context, part of the cultural landscape. Houses of worship and mosques erected in Tatar villages were much less noticeable and constructed in a smaller scale than Catholic and Orthodox churches from the same period. However, Tatar architecture constitutes an integral, even if not very wellknown, part of the multi-cultural tradition of Poland’s old Eastern Borderlands. The article attempts to analyse the role of architecture in shaping and supporting the local identity of Polish Tatars. It also verifies whether elements of that architecture are re-interpreted in present-day projects. Furthermore, the article seeks an answer to the question whether local architecture offers an alternative to dynamic changes transforming both the landscape and the people.