The event’s honorary patron was Zenon Piątkowski, the son of Leon Piątkowski—an outstanding Bolesławiec regionalist, local-history enthusiast and pioneer of hiking, kayaking and cycling tourism, who created the yellow tourist trail around Bolesławiec, later named after him.
Despite the rainy morning and pessimistic weather forecasts, more than 30 people arrived at the rally’s starting point by the Tourist Information Point in Bolesławiec’s market square. At 10:00 a.m., the cyclists set off on a 30-kilometer route along the southern section of the L. Piątkowski Tourist Trail. In addition to providing an opportunity to spend leisure time actively, the rally also offered a chance to discover interesting places, monuments and natural landmarks in the region. Stops were planned at the most interesting points along the route, where participants could listen to brief historical talks delivered by museum employee Tadeusz Orawiec. Participants also received quiz task cards featuring photographs of details from the visited sites, which they had to find “in the field.”
At the beginning, the group headed toward Kruszyn and then followed a cycle path to Warta Bolesławiecka, where they made their first stop at the parish church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Participants had the opportunity to briefly visit the church, whose high altar contains a painting of the Madonna and Child, also known as Our Lady of Warta. The painting was created in 1821 by Karl Joseph Raabe, an artist from Lower Silesia who at the time held the distinguished position of court painter to the King of Saxony. Interestingly, before the image was placed in the church, it had been blessed in Rome by Pope Pius VII.
The next stop for the cyclists taking part in the rally was Stare Jaroszowice. Here, the first break was organized at the ruins of the beautiful former Protestant Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1842–1844 according to a design by Bolesławiec builder Friedrich Engelhardt Gansel. The next point on the excursion was the Gothic Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which preserves a late-Gothic stone sacrament house and remnants of wall paintings from the late 15th century. The final stop was a 16th-century penitential cross carved with a sword motif representing the instrument of the crime. In Suszki, the guide drew the cyclists’ attention to the ruins of the stone body of a 19th-century Dutch-style windmill standing on a hill, originally topped with a wooden head mounted on a bearing and fitted with sails.
The next stop for the cyclists taking part in the rally was Stare Jaroszowice. Here, the first break was organized at the ruins of the beautiful former Protestant Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1842–1844 according to a design by Bolesławiec builder Friedrich Engelhardt Gansel. The next point on the excursion was the Gothic Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which preserves a late-Gothic stone sacrament house and remnants of wall paintings from the late 15th century.
The final stop was a 16th-century penitential cross carved with a sword motif representing the instrument of the crime. In Suszki, the guide drew the cyclists’ attention to the ruins of the stone body of a 19th-century Dutch-style windmill standing on a hill, originally topped with a wooden head mounted on a bearing and fitted with sails.
Unfortunately, the weather worsened with every hour of the rally. For this reason, the group made a brief stop in Kraszowice at the “Alina” pedunculate oak—a natural monument inventoried and named by L. Piątkowski—and at the Gothic filial Church of St. Hedwig, which contains the epitaph of the founder of the nearby Renaissance palace, Valentina Ladislausa von Bibran the Younger, as well as epitaphs and tombstones of later owners of the estate. The changing weather conditions ultimately forced the group to decide to shorten the original route and return to Bolesławiec via Otok and Rakowice.
The group of cyclists, soaked but in excellent spirits, reached the rally finish at the Water and Sports Centre on Spacerowa Street shortly after 2:00 p.m. Refreshments awaited everyone: grilled sausages, hot coffee and tea. The final part of the rally was a summary of the event and the presentation of commemorative badges and certificates to all participants, as well as prizes funded by the organizers: cycling accessories, books and magnets published by the Museum of Ceramics. Special statuettes were also awarded to the youngest and oldest participants, aged 7 and 75 respectively.
The date of this year’s third edition of the rally was not chosen by chance: two days earlier, on August 3, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Cycling Rally Around Poland had passed. Leon Piątkowski was its co-organizer and manager. Held from July 6 to August 3, 1952, the rally was most likely the first successfully completed initiative of this kind in Poland. Seven participants completed it. Over 28 days, they covered 2,304 kilometers, riding along the country’s borders and deviating only from Siemiatycze toward Warsaw, where they arrived for the celebrations of the National Rebirth of Poland on July 22. They traveled on bicycles now considered historic, which they had to maintain and service themselves. They usually slept in barns or haystacks and bought food mainly from farmers, as shops were poorly supplied. Throughout the event, they could rely only on themselves and their organizational abilities; they received no external logistical or technical support. For this reason, the pioneering expedition led by L. Piątkowski should serve as an example to everyone that determination and perseverance are indispensable elements on the road to success.