tourpoland

25.05.2015 Nowadays, for all chapels, they are just ordinary small buildings near roads, or paintings hung in strange places for us. We usually bypass them without paying attention or notice them. This is probably because they are everywhere: in villages and on their outskirts, in forests, in fields and meadows, at road intersections and crossroads, in home gardens, on rivers and streams. They have different looks. Some simple and modest, others colorful and full of splendor. Carved in wood and stone, painted on wood, nailed to a tree, built of field stone, set in small wooden or brick houses. According to the definition: a small cult building, erected along roads or crossroads for votive, thanksgiving, ritual purposes, etc., in the simplest form a wooden box with a picture or sculpture - the feast of Jesus, Mother of God or Saint, hung on a tree or pole. In its extended form, it is a small wooden or stone architectural form, sometimes a small chapel, For us, however, it is a sign of the faith of our ancestors, our history, the past that is worth remembering, and even should be. It is thanks to this that it is as it is, because in the end it all created the past. No exact time is set for starting the construction of chapels in any sources. This can only be guessed. By entering the password "shrines" on the Internet, there are pages where you can read many different versions on the subject. One of them says that they have Greek-Roman origin. This is supposed to occur because they appear in the Greek novel Longos, who lived in the second century. In the Roman world they were referred to as "lar aria", which in Latin meant the souls of the dead, worshiped in Rome as guardian deities of the home and home happiness, protecting against misfortunes. They were placed in the shrines as doll figurines. Prayed to them and offered sacrifices. This is a very similar picture of creating the place and significance of this type of object in the Polish landscape, as we have now. People erect chapels, pray to them, hope that they will bring the happiness that man desires and save him from unhappiness. According to another version, the name "chapel" is derived from the Latin word ~ ​​cappa, or coat. It is presumed that this is a coat of St. Marcin (born between 316 and 317), a bishop from Tours, who was kept in a special cell - a room inside a special, small iconic building with characteristic shapes, known as the "chapel". According to other assumptions, already Saint. Ambroży, bishop of Milan from the second half Fourth century mentioned chapels as places of worship. There are also hypotheses regarding pre-Christian origins of chapels. According to them, e.g. the type of pole shrines rarely seen in Warmia (shrines placed on wooden or brick high poles) is extremely similar to pagan cult poles. Even Nestor wrote about "pagan shrines" in the 9th century. As you can see, they have a long and interesting history. They could have arisen in the ninth century, the end or the beginning of the fourth century, or even as early as the second century. It is possible that their origin goes further, after all, no one knows the exact date. The photo shows one of the chapels in Jodłówka. It is located at the edge of the village on the road on one of the trees. Unfortunately nailed to the trunk is not very visible. In the spring, when everything begins to bloom, unfortunately the leaves are slowly beginning to cover it. This beautiful memento of history is forgotten. Perhaps for many it is not special, because it is only a picture in a wooden frame with a roof and a cross on top showing in golden colors, in a golden coat, the Mother of God with the Child in her arms. In addition, there are plenty of chapels in the village and especially in the commune. This, however, is unique. She was probably hanged there to worship God, because that was how it was done when it was far to church. It is also possible that it hangs there to show them the right way. Exactly nobody knows it because their history has long been forgotten, like so many others. People forget or don't want to remember because they want to be "modern". But is that correct? In a sense, it's our culture, that's what most of us believe. There is one plus the stories of this wonderful place forgotten by everyone - now anyone can visit and just look for it. This is a great attraction for people who like to travel, discover old truths and monuments. That is why it is worth visiting this place, as well as many others similar in the area, even passing through.