Plauka

Plauka is a coach typical for the Cieszyn Silesia region. The vehicle dates from the late 19th century. It was manufactured by an unknown producer from Silesia. Purchased by the Castle Museum in Łańcut for the Museum Vehicle Collection, it underwent a thorough renovation in the renowned company run by the Bogajewicz family in Pniewy Szamotulskie, operating in the years 1890–2015. Plaukas were vehicles for both long trips and local journeys and were used quite commonly in the Cieszyn Silesia region (as late as in the 1970s. This type of vehicle was also common in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Western Europe, particularly in Germany. The plauka kept in Łańcut has the coupѐ-shaped, four-seater body most common to this type of vehicle, with doors in the side walls – but unlike the coupѐ with unstrapped windows and a two-seater, upholstered seat, which is enlarged at the front in the flat part by a narrow section with two side, narrow windows – it has a two-seater, back-to-back seat which is narrower than the main upholstered one. Above the back of the front seat, there are twin wooden-framed windows. The coachman seat adheres directly to the front wall of the plauka – which also serves (below the windows) as its support. The seat is roofed and has solid side walls, at the front, below the roof, plauka has an additional leather umbra; at the front of the footstool, there is a low wooden front mudguard. Plauka is painted black; the upper part of the body in the part of the main seat and the side walls of the coachman seat is upholstered with black leather with brass strips on the edges. The roof is also upholstered in black leather. Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska