Today we will not visit either church, museum nor palace/castle but something different, maybe bit random, but still worth to see, the place is...
Janów Podlaski Horse Stud
Janów Podlaski Horse Stud - the oldest state-owned Arabian horse stud in the small village of Wygoda near Janów Podlaski, existing since 1817. The stud specializes in breeding Arabian and Anglo-Arabian horses. Annual horse auctions take place there, attracting breeders and exhibitors from Poland and abroad. The seat of the stud is in Wygoda near Janów Podlaski, in a complex of classicist stables founded in 1817. It covers an area of 2,500 ha, which is approximately 18% of the area of Janów Podlaski municipality.
The history of the stud goes back to the Napoleonic Wars, as a result of which the number of horses in Poland dropped sharply. The horses were too valuable to the army and the economy to be overlooked by the rulers of the time. In order to regain the slowly lost position of horse power, at the request of the Administrative Council of the Kingdom of Poland, a government herd of horses was established in 1817 by a decree of Emperor Alexander I, which became the foundation of the later stud. The decision to locate the state herd there was determined by the existence of a large Wygoda farm near Janów and a large post-Austrian stud. The organizer and the first manager of the Janów stud in 1816–1826 was veterinarian Jan Ritz. He created the actual foundations for future breeding - by obtaining, with the permission of Alexander I, breeding material from imperial studs and by purchasing it from private Russian and English breeders. In December 1817 he imported 54 stallions (25 English, 9 Arab, 4 Danish, 2 Mecklenburg, 2 Caucasian and 1 Italian), 100 mares and 33 foals.
In the 30s-40s In the nineteenth century, the Janów stud became a serious hypological center in the central parts of Poland. Thanks to the help of a horse lover, Iwan Paskiewicz, the Russian governor of the Kingdom of Poland, the Janów stud was going through a golden period. In 1841, according to the plans of the architect Henryk Marconi, the first brick stable, "Czołowa", was erected, and in 1848, the second "Clock" with a neo-Gothic tower was built, for which a clock was bought at that time for a huge sum of 363 rubles (2400 Polish złoty's at that time). In addition to the government herd of horses, there was also a veterinary school and a practical school of equestrianism and dressage (from 1824). The herd management owned, inter alia, cups and medals as well as other decorations of horses bought in Europe (like silver cups of the famous mare Armida, heroine of the track in the Kingdom of Poland, multiple winner in races held in Warsaw, numerous horse paintings, a hippology library with a number of Polish and German magazines).
During this period, the stud was managed by Filip Eberhardt as a government herd supervisor until the end of the 1870s. From July 1861, the titular function of the herd director was performed by the actual councilor of state, equestrian at the imperial court, Janusz Rostworowski (1811-1891). In 1885, Aleksander Nierodka, was built to build a brick stable called "Woroncewa" with 85 boxes. He also bought a number of valuable horses in Western Europe, including English and Arab thoroughbreds. It was then that the first Arabians appeared in Janów. In 1887, the count designated one racing stable for racing horses. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Janów Podlaski was the most important center for breeding and hippology knowledge in the western part of the Russian Empire.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Janów preserved the characteristic Janów horse, as it is described in the professional literature - "with a correct, strong build and a firm and resistant constitution". Two own lines of female families were also educated. All these achievements were ruined by the First World War. In February 1915, the herd was taken to the East and almost all of them died there. The idea of recreating the stud in Janów from scratch was taken after 1918 by a group of Polish enthusiasts and hippologists. In April 1919, pure Arabian mares were brought to the empty and destroyed Janów stables. Already in the 1920s, horses were bought by foreign studs (e.g. Czech and German). In 1924 the Janów stud began to specialize in breeding pure Arabian horses. The heyday of the stud took place at the end of the 1950s, when a man associated with the stud from December 1939, Andrzej Krzyształowicz, became the director. He was responsible for taking care of the horses exported by the Germans, and he also arranged for the organization of the first Arabian horse auction in the fall of 1969. Since then, nearly 1,000 Arabs have been sold abroad, providing the country with many foreign currencies.