Hello! I very much appreciate your research. It makes me feel more connected to my Polish roots. I have family from Rudnik nad Sanem. Could you help me identify what type of folk costume they wear? Thank you, Kristin Sowers
Hello Kristin! Generally speaking Rudnik nad Sanem is located in the ethnographic area of Lasowiacy. However, I have troubles finding any specific example of their costume variant that would come directly from the town, and it’s likely that the ethnic costume in that particular area didn’t survive the era of industrial revolution.
Lasowiacy make a large ethnographic group living mostly in the wooden lands between the rivers Wisła (Vistula) in the west and San in the east, reaching the rivers Wisłok and Wisłoka in the south. Major towns and cities in the area where the dialect of Lasowiacy was used are: Tarnobrzeg, Stalowa Wola, Nisko, Rudnik nad Sanem, Mielec, Baranów Sandomierski, Nowa Dęba, Kolbuszowa, Głogów Małopolski, Sokołów Małopolski, and Leżajsk.
Rudnik nad Sanem is located in the eastern sphere of that ethnographic region, on the banks of the San river. However, the costume of Lasowiacy was documented mostly in the western parts of the region, between the rivers of Wisła and Łęg (see the map below). The major documented subtypes of the Lasowiacy clothing come from Grębów, Kolbuszowa, Raniżów, and Leżajsk. The costumes survived the longest around Kolbuszowa and Raniżów, and clothing from vicinities of those two towns is what we know nowadays as the Lasowiacy costume. In other areas including Rudnik nad Sanem the costume died out most likely already by the beginning of 20th century, before it was documented.
A helpful map that I found in the internet, with two schools evaluating the reach of Lasowiacy’s dialect (not the costume):
