Wieś Moczydło

While choosing a place to live, I deliberately chose a part of Ursynów with soul, climate and traces of the past scattered around modern development. I am to feel affinity with a place, I need be familiar with its history. Over years I found probably all historical photos of my neighbourhood available online, most on impressive Ursynow.org.pl site. Nevertheless I believed the local history had some unexplored areas and hence signed up for an open-air seminar on the history of Moczydło, which took part last Saturday.

Areas of Ursynów until 1970s were countryside and then, while plans of building a huge housing estate came into effect, development brutally took over, depriving the rural areas its character. I must here remind boundaries of Warsaw were enlarged in 1951 and most of contemporary Ursynów was incorporated into the capital back then. Yet in spite of being formally a city area, in practice until mid-1970 those were purely rural zones. 

Close to there I live for many decades until late 1940s there was a folwark (a grange), which in the early years of the communist era was converted into a PGR (a state-owned farm) and then torn down in late 1970s, as construction of Natolin housing estate was drawing near.

An old stable by ul. Moczydłowska serves as  remnant of the bygone farm infrastructure. The only building left is rundown, its windows and doors are bricked over to protect its interior from unwanted guests. Its roof was replaced after a fire in late 1990s. The building is under care of a konserwator zabytków (a heritage conservationist), its future fate remains as a puzzle, but on a grapevine it can be heard one day it might be converted into a community centre.

West of ul. Moczydłowska one can still spot three run-down houses, two of which have not been inhabited for years, the last one was emptied some two years ago. Oddly enough, in the area where properties cost zillions, that house lacked running water and sewage until its last days in use, its dwellers brought water from a well and used a portable loo put up on their backyard. During the walk I learnt there was a seasonal shop in the 1980s and early 1990s and a private garage, where pioneer dwellers of Ursynów could have their cars repaired.

The houses in the distance are a part of posh Kabacki Zakątek estate, built just on the verge of forest. As the construction was completed in 2016, they do not categorise as part of historical development. I bring them up here, since one of those houses is currently up for sale, at asking price of whopping PLN 14.5 million.

Ul. Wełniana used to serve as a backbone of the village. Most of old houses have been torn down to give way to new developments, but not the house to the right which used to be set on fire by locals vandals many times, until 2022 when all door and window holes were bricked over. During the seminar I learnt (from a man who was born and brought up here) the property is an inheritance three sister argued about and eventually did not dispose of it. The plot is worth some three to four millions of Polish zloty and frankly speaking quarrelling about it goes beyond my comprehension.

North of ul. Wełniana one can come across arable fields which remain cultivated by a local farmer and have not been sold. Someone's determination to grow vegetables on a land which could be sold for an 8-digit amount of PLN is remarkable, but mind-boggling. Passing it by, I consider myself lucky to have been able to buy a flat in this area when properties were relatively more affordable. At that time I had 8 years of professional experience and my net-of-tax salary (average over a year) could buy 0.8 sqm of a flat. These days, after 16 years of well-developing career and on a managerial stool, my net-of-tax salary can buy around 1.0 sqm of a flat (in the same standard as I bought) here. And note property prices have not gone up, or even marginally fell over last two years, so in 2024 properties were even less affordable.