Spoon carvers from Nowica – a film about their history

In the old times, some villages in Lemkovyna were known for the inhabitants’ various professions. Nowadays we could name them as people who provided services. The village of Łosie (near Gorlice) was famous for liniment production, in Bartne stonemasons ruled, and in the remote, western parts of Lemkovyna, the Szlachtowa Rus’, tinkers were having their journeys, walking from one village to another. Unfortunately, the professions and what is worse, the people that were dealing with them, have passed away. The traditional masons from Bartne passed away most recently, as the last Lemko master from Bartne was bid farewell not so long ago. However, one village in Lemkovyna survived, where until today the profession is being cared of, profession that the inhabitants, as well as the rest of Lemkovyna, are proud of. It is Nowica, nowadays often visited by tourists, famous in the world, as it is inhabited by people from big Polish cities.

At the beginning of January 2017, a new film appeared in the Internet, produced by Regina Pazdur. The film’s main aim was to present the history of carving wooden spoons. Members of the Michniak family perform in the film who nowadays, probably as the only ones in Nowica, continue the tradition of the profession. You can see there Piotr Michniak, Margareta Michniak, Dymitr Michniak and Stefan Michniak. Apart from the process of spoon carving, the film also shows beautiful mountain lansdcapes that were saved by drones thanks to the modern technology.

The film was produced within Nowica-Przysłup Archive project. It was realized thanks to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage,

phot. screen from the film