Białkowo

Fryderyk Chopin often visited the village of Białkowo by taking a route through the village of Płonko. Chopin even published a note in „Kurier Szafarski” saying that „in Białkowo the Cat smothered the Hen, which everyone regrets now”.

During Chopin’s stay in Szafarnia, the village of Białkowo belonged to Katarzyna Monika Białobłocka nee Zbijewska (Wybraniecka by second marriage) and since 1825 it belonged to Jan Nepomucen Białobłocki (†1828), her son and a close friend to Fryderyk Chopin from the boarding school kept by the Chopin family in Warsaw. According to the other version, the village was previously owned by Antoni Wybraniewski, Jan’s step father. The manor house in Białkowo was located near the Drwęca river and it was dismantled at the beginning of the 60s of the 20th century. All that remained of the manor house is a four-flat building and a reconstructed barn and dairy now inhabited by local families. The house No. 3 with its lisenes and rustication in the corners and the house No. 12  used for purposes of a border guard house before the First World War dating back to the beginning of the 20th century belong to the oldest buildings in the village. Approximately 800 m further to the east and at the fork of the road, choosing the right fork we will see buildings of the village of Płonko in the short distance (former Małe Płonne). Going up the road we will see an interesting panorama of the fragment of the Drwęca river valley, however, with no river to be seen in the distance.