Kruszyniany Mosque
Kruszyniany Mosque is a wooden mosque located in the village of Kruszyniany, in Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland. The building is the oldest Lipka Tatar mosque in Poland, built on the plan of a rectangle, in specifications of 10 by 13 metres.History
The village of Kruszyniany was assigned by King John III Sobieski to the Tatars who had participated on the side of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the war against the Ottoman Empire. After the Lipka Tatar populace settled in the area, the Tatars built the mosque, which was first mentioned in a document dating back to 1717. The present mosque was most likely built in the second half of the eighteenth-century, or in the first half of the nineteenth-century, on the site of the former mosque. In 1846, the building underwent renovation, information about which is found on a stone plaque, next to the women's entrance.
After World War II, the area was settled by repatriates and Muslims from modern-day Belarus. In 2008, with funding provided by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the wooden building was fitted with a safety system.
Kruszyniany village was designated one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments on November 20, 2012. Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland.
In 2014, during a surge of Islamophobic attacks in Poland, the wall of the mosque was defaced with the drawing of a pig and the adjacent cemetery was vandalized with abusive graffiti.
