On the 13th of September 2003, in a delightful corner of the landscaped Solejów Park, on the placid and clear river Czarna, over 75 people met once again. Some attended for the first time. A chart hung on a wall displayed the family?s genealogical tree, thus helping in establishing family connections. It was indeed a sunny Indian summer. Our hosts took us to an enormous, several hundred years old oak tree, which we christened Felix, then along the river bank to a newly built weir, where a small electric power station would stand one day. For the past 130 years Pila village formed part of the Konopacki Family estate, full of charming wooded scenery, Piła village was frequently chosen as a preferred location for making feature films. Christian Albert told us about Piła?s early days. The name Pila probably comes from a forest clearing where the Solejów Cistercian monks planted trees (in Polish, piła is a saw for cutting wood). We know that in the middle of the XIX century a wooden mill stood in this clearing , however, it burned down in 1876. Franciszek Konopacki, a miller, bought Piła in 1877. The first weir was built at the end of the XIX century and probably the old wooden mill was rebuilt as well. The first mill to be built of bricks, and a family house standing to this day, were built at the beginning of the XX century.

Great care was taken in choosing the location for the family group photograph showing us all resting in the shadow of old huge trees. Next to the group photograph we can see further photographs of our hosts, guests resting in the veranda, Alicja with her dachshund Fanta, walking under the oak tree, returning home along the river bank and wall-charts showing the genealogical tree .