On February 24 at 6:00 p.m., the Śródmieście Cultural Center in Białystok will host a unique meeting devoted to one of the most fascinating and yet forgotten chapters in the city’s history. Free entrance!
Few people know that in 1913–1914, a modern air base operated in what is now Pietrasze Forest. Its heart was a huge hangar over 123 meters long and almost 34 meters high. It was there that the sky giants – the Astra II and Albatros airships, armed with bombs
and machine guns, capable of flying 1,000 km – were stationed. The airship missions were commanded by outstanding designers and officers, including Robert Niżewski, a Russian with Polish roots. During the meeting, the speaker will give an insight into the reconnaissance missions and the technical aspects of the base, which had its own workshops, cranes, and equipment for filling the airships with gas. A special highlight of the event will be the presentation of the results of work undertaken in 2024 in collaboration with Dr. Marcin Gryniewicz and Krzysztof Słoma from the Department of Building Structures and Mechanics at the Białystok University of Technology. Thanks to advanced field measurements and analysis of archival documents, a digital reconstruction of the tsarist hangar was created. This research also yielded surprising historical discoveries – it turned out that the foundations of the hangar gates were designed based on solutions identical to those used in the construction of the Warsaw Gate in Białystok from the Branicki era. The meeting will be a unique opportunity to see what the former base looked like in its heyday and to learn more about plans to create a historical trail that will permanently inscribe this place in the consciousness of Białystok residents.
Piotr Szutkiewicz is the creator of the Sterowce, Pietrasze i Wiatr (Airships, Pietrasze, and Wind) website, an amateur historian who researches local history related to Białystok and the surrounding area. He is involved in efforts to create a historical trail in the Pietrasze Forest. He publishes his work on YouTube
and Facebook. For 16 years, he has been researching the former airship base in Pietrasze Forest, which was used during World War I. In 2009, he began analyzing the concrete structures located in the forest. Piotr Szutkiewicz obtained source materials concerning the design and construction of the hangar, as well as the combat and reconnaissance missions in which airships operating from the Pietrasze base took part. Since 2024, he has been involved in work aimed at the digital reconstruction of the hangar, which was located in what is now the Pietrasze Forest.
Marcin Gryniewicz, PhD, Eng. – Assistant professor at the Department of Building Structures at the Faculty of Civil Engineering
and Environmental Engineering at the Białystok University of Technology, expert at the Polish Federation of Engineering Associations (NOT)
in the field of construction. He deals with issues related to the design and analysis of building structures, with particular emphasis on modern calculation methods, numerical modeling (MES), and the use of BIM technology in the design process. In his scientific work, he combines issues related to metal, reinforced concrete, and light enclosure structures, analyzing their behavior in both typical and complex conditions.
He is the author of numerous publications on structural mechanics, building element connections, spatial modeling of objects, and engineering design issues. He has led research projects on new methods of structural analysis and calibration of engineering models. For many years, he has also been involved in design practice, working on a wide range of construction projects, from industrial and infrastructure structures to elements of functional architecture.
He is involved in teaching activities, conducting classes on structural design, calculation methods, BIM, and computer-aided design. He actively cooperates with the engineering industry and professional organizations, including the Polish Association of Construction Engineers and Technicians, co-organizing training courses and technical events. His scientific interests include the development of modern calculation methods, structural instability, multi-material analysis, and programming tools supporting civil engineering.
Krzysztof Słoma, Engineer – Second-cycle student in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Białystok University of Technology. For two years, he has been the president of the “Konstruktor” Student Research Club, successfully combining organizational activities with scientific development. Currently, he is an ambassador for Budimex, acting as a liaison between the academic community – students – and external entities that are future employers of students.
His greatest design achievement is winning the BRICO 2024 International Steel Bridge Competition. As a member of the STEEL RANGERS team, he won first place in the overall classification, as well as awards for innovation and presentation. The structure designed by the team, weighing only 38 kg, carried a load of 1000 kg, which earned the team the award for the best weight-to-load ratio.
He is scientifically interested in reverse engineering and the history of construction. In his engineering thesis (under the supervision of Dr. Marcin Gryniewicz), he completed a project to reconstruct a military hangar for airships from World War I in the Pietrasze Forest in Białystok. Currently, as part of his master’s thesis, he is continuing this topic, focusing on the detailed reconstruction of the base using the original construction material – wood.
