Płock. The oldest school in Poland turns 845 years old. Jubilee of “Małachowianka”

The oldest school in Poland and one of the oldest in Europe – the current Secondary School. Marshal Stanisław Małachowski in Płock – will celebrate its 845th anniversary. On this occasion, its graduates will meet for the 20th time. Their reunion is planned for June 2025.

The oldest school in Poland is colloquially called “Małachowianka”, after the name of its current patron. It has existed continuously in the same place since 1180. Its graduates meet regularly, every five years. Their first congress took place in 1894 and the last one in 2019.

Katarzyna Góralska, director of “Małachowianka”, said that the anniversary celebrations planned for 2025, together with a meeting of graduates, will last from June 13 to 15. Typically, the anniversary celebration will be organized by the school, while the reunion will be organized by the Society of Pupils, Educators and Friends of the Junior High School and Secondary School. Marshal Stanisław Małachowski.

845th anniversary of “Małachowianka”

– In 2025, we will celebrate the 845th anniversary of our school. Therefore, we are planning a series of anniversary events that will accompany the graduates' meeting. It is worth emphasizing that the reunion of pupils will be organized for the 20th time. It is an extremely beautiful and touching tradition when students of the school meet within its walls after many years. In many cases, they arrive at the long-awaited reunion from distant corners of not only Poland and Europe, but also from other continents – said Góralska in an interview with the Polish Press Agency.

She emphasized that the oldest years of students always come in large numbers to the anniversary celebrations of “Małachowianka” combined with the graduates' reunion. She also recalled that in September this year, Jan Chojnacki celebrated his 101st birthday – a graduate of the school, the creator of its anthem, an architect by education, a poet and composer by passion, and a scout by vocation.

Events related to the anniversary of “Małachowianka” and the meeting of its pupils include occasional exhibitions, including in the school museum and a concert of the Scout Song and Dance Ensemble “Children of Płock”, the first of its kind in Poland, founded in 1946 by scoutmaster Wacław Milke (1914 – 2008), the initial team consisted of a dozen or so people belonging to the Scout Team Artistic, operating at the Płock Secondary School. Marshal Stanisław Małachowski.

Preserved fragments of medieval walls

The school was established in 1180 as a foundation of Dobiechna, the widow of Wojsław, the guardian of Bolesław III Wrymouth, the medieval ruler of Poland, who is buried in the cathedral in Płock. Fragments of the walls of the medieval collegiate church of St. have survived to this day. Michael, where the school was founded, as well as the 15th-century tower and the 17th-century building of the then Jesuit College.

The school received its current name in June 1921. In the organizational document, the then Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment, Antoni Ponikowski, wrote, among other things: “The Polish State took back possession of the men's secondary school that had existed in the city of Płock for seven centuries, and which during the years of the Great World War remained under the care of the local Circle of the Polish School Motherhood. . I hereby recognize this school as a state school and name it: State Junior High School named after Marshal Stanisław Małachowski.

The organizational document of “Małachowianka” also emphasized: “May the venerable figure of the Polish Aristides, illuminated by the halo of the Great Sejm and the May Constitution, become a model of integrity and purity of soul and deeds, civic virtue and always willing readiness for Polish youth growing up within the ancient walls of the ancient university. to serve the homeland.”

Its graduates included the president of the Second Polish Republic, the prime minister and the commander of Squadron 303

In the years 2012 – 2014, renovation and renovation works were carried out in “Małachowianka”. These included, among others: roof, facades and foundations as well as interiors of historic buildings. The cost of the works, approximately PLN 29.9 million, was mostly covered by European Union funds, with the remaining part contributed by the Płock City Hall. In September 2021, a monument to its current patron was unveiled in front of the school building with the inscription: “Stanisław Dzierżykraj Nałęcz, Count Małachowski 1736 – 1809 – Marshal of the Great Sejm, Co-Creator of the Constitution of May 3”. The initiators of the construction of the monument were graduates of one class who took the high school leaving exam in 1963.

In the past, the school's lecturers included: professor of rhetoric, St. Andrzej Bobola (ca. 1591 – 1657) and the first rector of the University of Warsaw, Wojciech Szweykowski (1773 – 1838), and its graduates: the teacher of Adam Mickiewicz's children – Hieronim Napoleon Bońkowski (1807 – 1886); Honorat Koźmiński (1829 – 1916) was proclaimed blessed; president of the Second Polish Republic and professor of the Lviv University of Technology, Ignacy Mościcki (1867 – 1946); participant of the Battle of Britain, commander of the Polish wing and the famous 303 Squadron, Colonel Jan Zumbach (1915 – 1986), traveler, writer and journalist Tony Halik (1921 – 1998), as well as the first Prime Minister of the Third Polish Republic, Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1927 – 2013).

In the basement of the oldest buildings of “Małachowianka” there is a school museum with an exhibition presenting its history and artifacts discovered during archaeological works carried out during the last renovation.

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