A wooden mosque in Poland which has been around 200 years old, in the village of Kruszyniany, Podlaskie Province (northeast Poland), is a proof of Poland's closeness to the Muslim community.

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – A 200-year-old mosque made of wood in Kruszyniany Village, Podlaskie Province (northeast Poland), which borders Belarus, is a proof of Poland's closeness to the Muslim community.

“We don't have many buildings like this. This building is very unique because it is made of wood. We know that wood is highly flammable or crumbling. But this wooden mosque has remained standing for 200 years," Deputy Head of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency in Jakarta, Cezary Filipek, said in an interview with Indonesia Window here on Wednesday.

He added that the existence of the wooden mosque, which is still used by the minority Muslim community in the area, shows that Poland, where more than 90 percent of the population is Catholic, is an open and tolerant society.

“In its 200 years of existence, no one has attacked this mosque or tried to destroy it. This is happening in Poland, which is predominantly Catholic,” Filipek said, adding, “We have a very long tradition of wealth. We are Catholic but we are very diverse.”

The cultural diversity of Poland, according to the Head of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency in Jakarta, Jacek Kołomyjec, is one of the similarities with Indonesia, which consists of various tribes with a large area.

To promote Polish culture and economy in Indonesia, the Polish Embassy in Jakarta is holding the Poland Festival 2022 in four cities, namely capital city Jakarta, Bandung in West Java province, Surabaya in East Java province, and Sanur in Bali province, from Oct. 17 to Nov. 6, 2022.

“Regarding people-to-people contact, during the Poland Festival we promoted Polish specialties by presenting Polish cooks to Indonesians, holding short courses to learn Polish in collaboration with Indonesian universities, and student exchange programs that have been going on for several years," Kołomyjec explained.

He further said that the people to people relations between Indonesia and Poland also include technology exchange, with collaboration between the Polish Institute of Technology and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

In addition, Kołomyjec said, cultural relations between the two countries are also getting stronger with the increasing number of Polish tourists visiting a number of regions in Indonesia.

“Bali has certainly become a very popular tourist destination among Polish people. However, recently when we were in Bandung, we met a group of Polish tourists who were exploring Java by train, starting from Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta, and so on,” he said.

He added that his side also wanted to introduce Poland to the Indonesian people as a tourist destination, especially in Central Europe.

Reporting by Indonesia Window