Supraśl (ca. 5,000 inhabitants) lies on a wide clearing in the heart of the Knyszyn Forest (Puszcza Knyszyńska), 15 km (9 miles) from Bialystok. It has a 500-year-long history, in which various cultural and religious influences interweave – Catholic, Orthodox and Uniate.
A legend has it that the town’s most valuable monument – the Monastery of the Annunciation (1511) – was built on a site pointed by a wooden cross, which stopped there after being floated down the Supraśl river by praying monks. A part of the Monastery is occupied by the Icon Museum (Muzeum Ikon), which delights the visitors with an air of mysticism, which combines modernity (multimedia shows, light and sound effects) with stylization of the museum rooms (a hermit’s cave, Orthodox church interior, a peasant’s cabin). The Orthodox church music in the background transfers the visitor to a spiritual world, far from their everyday life. A significant portion of the collection of icons (ca. 1,200 in total, the oldest ones painted in the 18th century) has been donated by customs officers after successfully prevented attempts to smuggle these religious works of art into Poland across the eastern border.
You may also feel the town’s unique atmosphere as you walk down the 3 Maja street, with low wooden houses squatting on both sides. At the end of the street there is an eclectic palace of the Buchholz family, German factory owners who turned Supraśl into one of the most buoyant textile centres of the late 19th century. Nowadays, it is the seat of a local graphic arts high school.
Theatrical reality is represented by Supraśl’s excellent Wierszalin Theatre, comparable with Tadeusz Kantor’s Cricot 2 or the American Bread and Puppet Theatre.
Having appeased the hunger of their spirit and mind, the visitors may expect unique nature experience. The Knyszyn Forest Landscape Park is Poland’s largest protected area of this kind. This postglacial area, crisscrossed by streams and springs, is the home of wolves, deer, European bison, roe deer, foxes, lynx, badgers. If you are lucky, you may catch a glimpse of rare bird species – the black stork, crane or lesser spotted eagle.
The best method to admire the natural wonders is in a kayak, on bike or horseback. In 2001, Supraśl was granted the official spa status.
After active leisure, you will surely enjoy one of the regional dishes: kartacze (potato dumplings stuffed with meat or cottage cheese) or kiszka ziemniaczana (a sausage stuffed with ground potatoes).
www.um.suprasl.wrotapodlasia.pl
www.monaster-suprasl.pl /Deutsch/
