Jadwiga Toeplitz-Mrozowska – On Top of the World
A multi-faceted artist: star of the theatre stage, hardy traveller, valued writer, hostess of Milan’s artist salon, a recognised gardener and the first woman who traversed the forever-snow-capped Roof of the World.
Amateur actress
Jadwiga Mrozowska is raised in a manor in the vicinity of Kielce. Her love for theatre is born in Kraków where, as an adolescent, she commences education at a school for girls. She attends theatre shows in secret, closely observes the actors and notes everything. She wants to perform on the stage too!
However, Jadwiga’s family does not fancy her desired career as an actress. The girl obediently begins studies at a musical conservatory in Warsaw but she will not miss the opportunity that arises in front of her.
Kazimierz Tetmajer, an acquainted poet, introduces her to the director of the Municipal Theatre in Lviv. This is the chance she’s been waiting for. Mrozowska must have given a good impression because gains employment right away: even though she is a complete amateur!
She débuts on the stage as a 20-year-old by playing the role of Muszka in Jan Kasprowicz’s Baśń Nocy Świętojańskiej (A Midsummer’s Night Tale). She quickly compensates for her lack of experience: over two seasons, she performs in Lviv in over 30 roles. Later she repeats her success on the stages of Kraków and Warsaw.
She combines diligence and commitment with her talent, beauty and natural charm, quickly becoming a popular and esteemed actress. She feels the best in the roles of sensual heroines of Polish modernist dramas.
The young, capable and charming actress grabs the attention of men. Her first marriage quickly falls apart, however. After a few years, Jadwiga becomes involved with Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński who immortalises their shared moments in some of his erotic poetry.
In the meantime, Mrozowska tries her chances as an original narrator: she recites fragments of poetry, freely moving from melorecitation to song. Sometimes she also performs as a dancer. Her interest in musical theatre leads her to Italy in 1907.
In Rome, she takes her first singing lessons and, after some time, she starts performing in minor Italian operas. However, it is not the fame she had hoped for. She is still more popular in Poland where she returns with new roles.
Traveller under the Italian flag
Mrozowska’s life changes when she goes to Milan. There, she meets a wealthy banker of Polish descent, Józef Toeplitz. The marriage with the director of Banca Commerciale Italiana allows Jadwiga to throw herself into a new whirl of adventure.
As Madame Toeplitz-Mrozowska, she runs an artist salon where Milan’s writers and musicians meet. She develops her academic interests: she learns new languages, reads about geography, history and astronomy.
She quickly discovers her biggest passion: travel. She used to go on holidays abroad before, but now she can travel on a bigger scale. First, she tours Europe, but after that, as early as 1919, she departs for Asia. She will systematically visit it for a decade.
She starts with South India, Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) and Burma (Myanmar). Next is Asia Minor (Turkey), the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and Persia. After eight years she returns to India to get through to Kashmir and Tibet.
At first, she travels as a tourist but soon enough discovering foreign countries becomes her second profession. She brings back piles of notes, maps and souvenirs: she will hand over many of these to the National Museum in Warsaw.
Her journey to Pamir in 1929 is the crowning of her ambitions as a traveller. Toeplitz-Mrozowska is now a member of the Italian Geographical Society (Reale Società Geografica Italiana) which gives her an offer to organise a scientific expedition.
The goal: study the mountains on the borders of today’s Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and China. The Pole secures funding for the expedition and, with the help of her husband, handles the paperwork connected with crossing through the Soviet Union.
The team embarks on a two-month-long journey which turns out to be extremely exhausting. They are hampered by low temperatures, endangered by bandit assaults, low on food and water and weakened by high altitudes (over 4,000 metres above sea level). However, in the end, they succeed: they create a map of territories which were unknown before and trace new mountain trails.
Writer or gardener?
After her return to Poland, Toeplitz-Mrozowska receives the medal of the Italian Geographical Society as the first woman in history. A newly discovered mountain pass is named after the expedition’s guide: from now on it will be known as Passo Edvige Toeplitz-Mrozowska.
In the 1930s, Toeplitz-Mrozowska is invited to give lectures on her expeditions by universities and geographical societies from across Europe. The press interviews her and publishes photographs from her trips: Jadwiga riding a camel, with an exotic landscape in the background, in the jungle.
In 1930, an Italian publishing house publishes her first book: La Prima Spedizione Italiana Attraverso i Pamiri. Polish readers will have to wait four more years for a translation.
Toeplitz-Mrozowska turns out to be a talented writer. In the following years, she publishes two more popular travel books along with some other articles: all of them in Italian!
When the political situation in Italy becomes more and more complicated, Jadwiga spends more time in the countryside. She decorates the Villa Toeplitz in Varese, near Milan. The manor becomes the apple of her eye. The guests are astonished by the vast park decorated with fountains and mosaics, resembling Oriental gardens.
Toeplitz-Mrozowska does nothing half-heartedly: now she explores the depths of horticulture and gardening. The fruits she grows are awarded in agricultural shows. It is yet another role in her life…
Originally written in Polish by Karolina Dzimira-Zarzycka, translated to English by Patryk Grabowski, Dec 2018
Jadwiga Toeplitz-Mrozowska