Anyone in the Sącz region who says they are going “to Bryjów” is heading for Stary Sącz. Wiktionary records the word as dialect, from around Podegrodzie, with a lovely example: „Lezę do Bryjowa na baciarkę” (roughly: “I’m heading to Bryjów”). The inhabitants, for their part, were known as Bryjowiaks.
Bryjka, the poor man’s soup
The nickname comes from bryjka – a thick soup, almost a porridge, of wholemeal flour, topped with crackling. Radio Kraków, describing the regional cuisine, recalls that the dish is officially called cyr, but locals prefer to say bryjka or “góralski budyń” – “highlanders’ pudding”. In the 19th century it was a staple food for many families in the Sącz region, and because it was especially beloved in Stary Sącz, the people of the Sącz Beskids christened the little town Bryjów.
A nickname with a sting
It was not a flattering name. While Nowy Sącz grew and prospered, Stary Sącz dozed in the shadow of the convent walls – hence, as one Sącz blogger puts it, “a slightly ironic epithet, used colloquially among malcontents”. Few people remember it today, and some residents might even find it offensive.
We use it with fondness. For what could be finer than a town that has survived seven centuries, fires, plagues and wars – and was never ashamed of a soup made from wholemeal flour?
So what was the town really called?
The true old name of Stary Sącz is Sącz – in Latin Sandech, Sandecz, Sandec. The oldest records date from 1224–1252. The name is possessive: it derives from the personal name Sądek or Sądko – the founder of the stronghold, about whom nothing is known beyond his name. When a new town was founded on the Kamienica in 1292, the old centre began to be called Antiqua Civitas – the Old Town, and later Stary Sącz (“Old Sącz”). There is more about this in the chapter The land and its name.