Rościszewo

Rościszewo is 10 km north of Sierpc, in Mazovia voivodeship, on the boundary of Mazovia and Dobrzyń Land. The village takes its name from the distinguished Rościszewski family (Junosza coat of arms). In 1728, Józef Jeżewski, the Płock esquire carver, became the owner by marrying Katarzyna Rościszewska. It was through Jeżewski’s initiative that King Augustus III (1696–1763) granted a municipal charter in 1752, although no town was ever built.

Chopin and Count Ksawery Zboiński visited the Rościszewo property on their way to Pomerania in the summer of 1827. Zboiński’s mother, Józefa Jeżewska, married the royal chamberlain Jan Nepomucen Zboiński in the local church in 1789.

Rościszewo parish dates back to the fourteenth century. A brick church is first mentioned in 1598. The extant Church of the Care of St Joseph was built 1779–1781 thanks to an endowment from Benedykt Jeżewski, General of the Crown Army. This is a brick building with two side chapels and a porch. A chancel and a sacristy were added in 1932. There is a pulpit built in the latter half of the eighteenth century and a monstrance made in the middle of the seventeenth century.

In 1827, 308 people lived on the Rościszewo estate. Still standing today is the erstwhile residence of the Jeżewskis, a single-storey brick manor house (eighteenth century) with two annexes (nineteenth and twentieth century).

The building was recently restored and now houses the local government office, as well as a library, police station and internet centre. One room has been specially furnished in memory of Fryderyk Chopin.