Gmina Węgierska Górka enriched its offer for tourists with yet another attraction: The Avenue of Brigands. It is the outcome of the open air sculpture exhibition that took place in June, 2009. The aim of this undertaking was to use the wooden sculptures to show the brief review of the people and the history of brigandage on the Żywiec region. This phenomenon became an important part of local traditions and is regarded as an essential aspect of the highland culture. The brigandage can be currently seen in the dance, songs, clothes as well as in other forms of rituals and folk works.
The brigandage was repeatedly mentioned in the folk works as well as the modern cinematography or biographies and historical researches. The creation of the avenue related to this specific phenomenon will encourage people to familiarize themselves with the brigandage and look at its both positive and negative aspects. It will also help to contrast it with legends, tales and oral traditions. They all portray the brigandage as the long-lasting part of the local culture. Its influence on the shape of the society can be seen in social life, religion, law-making, folklore and tradition inherited form previous generations. During the making of the sculptures in the open air, the youth and the children could get to know the techniques of carving and get a look at how it is done by local artists, who were invited.
There will also be the possibility to listen to the tales and stories about the people who became famous on our lands by their brigandage. There is also a brochure that shows the sculptures from the avenue of the brigands. There are also information about the history and the people who were involved in the brigandage on our lands. The history of the brigandage on Żywiec region dates back to 15th century and it continued until the end of the 19th century. It reached its apogee in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the time of brigands or rather “thieves-knights” called robber knights. In the beginning of the 17th century the brigandage reached a status of a serious problem. Therefore, the following passage was written in the constitution of the Warsaw Sejm in 1620: “(…) there are so many robbers in the duchy, not only on the roads but also in villages, towns and royal courts where the people are not safe.”
The 19th century is the time of the end of the brigandage. Only individuals appeared, but the brigandage ceased to be such a serious problem as it had been in the 17th and 18th centuries. The acts of brigandage happened only occasionally at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but they had nothing in common with the traditionally understood brigandage. They can be considered as the echoes of old traditions at most. The Avenue of the Brigands was created by the support of the Marshal’s Office of the Silesian Voivodeship. It was created in 2009 as the outcome of the open air sculpture workshop. The aim of this undertaking was to show the brief review of the people and the history of brigandage on the Żywiec region by the wooden sculptures. There are six sculptures about five meters high on the Avenue.
