Motal

Motal is a large village in the Polesie with a reputation for meat: motalski prysmaki, the local ham, sausage and cured pork, are made by households and small producers and sold across the country, and the village has built its identity on them. A festival, Motalskiya Prysmaki, is held every second year in late summer, with households competing, cooking in the street, tastings, folk music and craft stalls, drawing large numbers for the weekend. A museum of folk art in the village covers Polesie weaving, costume and household life. Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, was born in Motal in 1874, and the village records the connection.

History

Queen Bona Sforza founded Motal as a royal town in 1554, part of the royal lands around Pinsk, and after the partitions of Poland it belonged to the Russian Empire, in the Kobrin district of the Grodno Governorate, until 1917; between the world wars it was part of Poland's Polesie Voivodeship. It was a shtetl, and in 1937 it had 4,297 inhabitants, 1,354 of them Jewish (Wikipedia, Motal).

Highlights

• The meat producers - the household ham and sausage the village is known for.
• The Motalskiya Prysmaki festival - the biennial cooking and tasting event.
• The folk art museum - the Polesie weaving and household collection.
• The Weizmann connection - the marker of the birthplace in the village.

When to go

The festival weekend in late summer, held every second year, is when the village is at its fullest; check whether it falls in a given year. Otherwise the museum and the producers are there year round.

What to expect

The festival runs only every other year and the village is quiet otherwise. Buying direct from producers is informal. The museum is small with Belarusian and Russian labelling. Facilities are minimal.

Nearby

Ivanava lies south; Pinsk is east.

Key facts