Szczebrzeszyn

Every Polish child knows the line: W Szczebrzeszynie chrzaszcz brzmi w trzcinie - in Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reeds - the opening of a poem by Jan Brzechwa and the standard test of Polish pronunciation, chosen because the town's name is itself nearly unpronounceable. The town has leaned into this with a bronze beetle playing a violin in the market square and an annual festival. Beyond the joke it is an old and layered place: a Renaissance synagogue of the early seventeenth century, restored and used as a cultural centre; an Orthodox church of the 1610s, now Roman Catholic, with rare exterior decoration; a Gothic parish church; and a Jewish cemetery on a hill above the town with several hundred stones, one of the older ones in the region. It sits at the edge of Roztocze, so the countryside around is loess gorges and beech forest.

History

The town's history can be traced to 1352, under Casimir III, though the area was settled long before, beside a trade route running from south to north. By 1492 its trade warranted a special act of King John I Albert setting the roads its merchants could use, and in 1555 King Sigismund Augustus ended a long dispute over its inheritance by assigning the town to the Górka family (Wikipedia, Szczebrzeszyn).

What you'll find

• The beetle statue - bronze, playing a violin, for the tongue-twister.
• A seventeenth-century synagogue - restored and used as a cultural centre.
• An early Orthodox church - of the 1610s, with unusual exterior decoration.
• A hillside Jewish cemetery - several hundred stones above the town.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

Things to know

It is a small town and half a day is plenty. Buildings open irregularly outside the season. The tongue-twister is genuinely the main thing most Poles associate with it. Services are limited.

Nearby

Zwierzyniec and Roztocze National Park are south; Zamosc is east.

Key facts