Józefów and Michałów-Grabina

Józefów was founded on 30 March 1788 and is the oldest colony in what is now Nieporęt Municipality. The first settlers leased land belonging to the Jabłonna estate, cleared the forests and drained the marshy ground. Mennonites connected with the congregation in Nowy Kazuń also lived in the village.

Archaeological finds show that people were present in this area thousands of years earlier. The registered sites include traces from the Neolithic and Bronze Age to the period of Roman influence and the Middle Ages. No clearly identifiable cemetery of the former Protestant community has survived.

The once scattered settlement gradually turned into a large residential village with a network of streets. Józefów is now one of the most populous villages in Nieporęt Municipality, while its layout and local memorial sites still bear traces of its colonial past.

Michałów-Grabina was founded as a colony settled in the first half of the 19th century by settlers of German and Protestant origin. In 1824–1826 Michałów had 18 houses and 65 inhabitants. The colonists farmed, raised livestock and worked in the forest, and drained the marshy land by digging drainage ditches.

A trace of the former community is the 19th-century cemetery on ul. Kwiatowa, cleared in 2015 by a historical society, local residents and scouts. On the border with Józefów there is also a wayside shrine with a statue of Our Lady from 1911.

The former village, with houses strung out along the road, has developed into a settlement with a network of streets. Today Michałów-Grabina is mainly residential and belongs to the fast-growing southern part of Nieporęt Municipality.