Polish Heritage Center in Panna Maria

We came back to Panna Maria after nine years, to participate in the opening ceremony of the Polish Heritage Center. On the day of the first visit there, during our honeymoon, we met very few people, maybe four. The second visit was very different as quite a crowd gathered for the opening day celebrations.

 

The event and the call were quite meaningful to us, and they did appear to be full of coincidences or some kind of messages from above. Well, we knew nothing about the origins of the Center besides the fact that the first Polish Silesian settlers in Texas founded Panna Maria. During the opening ceremony, we learned that it was Bishop Emeritus John Yanta who had given the idea of creating the Polish Heritage place. The thought came to him nine years ago - at the same time, when I was still in Poland, we started preparing for our life together and initiated the legal procedure of my coming here.

After the official part, there was sightseeing and looking around time, and the artistic program presented by the Polish folk group from Dallas. Quite accidentally, we met an old acquaintance, who was that group member. The three of us had used to be part of the original Polish-American Dance Ensemble which had its base in the Dallas area.

We also re-experienced the places that we visited during our first Panna Maria call - the old Pilarczyk store and visitors center, the old church, and the school that years ago, was the only museum place there.

 

Some things have changed within those years. New statues near the church had been founded. We also noticed many changes in the Panna Maria area, including the oil rigs that had emerged around.

I like that part of the Heritage display. However, it is a bit confusing. The nun is pointing at the word "słoń" (=elephant). The word "koń" (=horse) is next to it, to the left. Was it meant to be like that?

The Polish Heritage Center is quite an impressive and interesting place. We were glad we could be in Panna Maria on that special day. Another coincidence was that I had not looked for the information about the place/event. I simply did not know it was being built. It found me on its own, by chance. Or maybe not. Maybe we were meant to be there.

More about our first visit to Panna Maria, years ago, in the old post here.