Residence & Remembrance: Sites of Polish Romanticism
Each of Poland’s national bards led a slightly different kind of life. These poets travelled the world and drew inspiration from a wide variety of places and events. Wandering in their footsteps, is it possible to reconstruct the path along which their sensibilities were formed? Do the spaces associated with them really emanate the spirit of Romanticism?
Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński are three Polish poets of the Romantic era whose achievements reach far beyond the world of literature. Their work, which was written during the partition period, was of great importance for preserving Polish identity and forming patriotic attitudes. It is for this reason that these writers are considered national bards whose writings had an impact not only on Polish culture, but also on social attitudes and political movements. Not surprisingly, when the achievements of these three poets are analysed, attention is given not only to their literary legacy, but also to the places they visited, where they lived and where they situated their literary works. Following in the footsteps of the bards can help to better understand their artistic choices because, after all, surroundings, spaces, buildings and landscapes can have a great impact on artistic creativity. And the choice of a setting for a poem or play can carry additional meaning for readers. It’s impossible to trace all the places associated with the Polish bards, but the following examples can serve as an excuse to look at their work through the prism of cities, buildings and places.
Mickiewicz: is Mir a myth?
Hundreds of places are associated with Adam Mickiewicz, the most important Polish poet, and over the years dozens of trails have been created to allow people to follow in his footsteps. Mickiewicz travelled a lot and often changed his place of residence – his life’s trajectory led him to dozens of cities scattered throughout two continents. From Moscow to Paris, from Odessa to Rome, from Crimea to Dresden and from Lausanne to St. Petersburg and Istanbul – following in the footsteps of this writer who was born on the territory of present-day Belarus, one can travel thousands of kilometres. Is it possible to choose those from which the poet drew the most inspiration, and which made the greatest impression on him?
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Zrekonstruowany dworek Adama Mickiewicza w Nowogródku na Białorusi, fot. Dawid Lasociński/Forum
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It’s a fairly common belief that a person’s fate can be greatly influenced by the place where he spent the first years of his life. In the case of Adam Mickiewicz, this would be Nowogródek, a town located in what is now Belarus. It was here that the poet’s parents settled when he was eight years old; here the future author of Ballady i romanse (Ballads and Romances) was baptised in the same church where King Władysław Jagiełło married Princess Sofia Holszańska in 1422. Mickiewicz attended school in Nowogródek and from there set out to study in Vilnius. The historic town (which today has a population of less than 30,000) played an important role in the region, being the first capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the site of regional councils. Nowogródek experienced its greatest prosperity during the First Republic, but it also suffered significantly, first during the Swedish invasion and then during the Great Fire in 1751. Monuments dating from those times associated with the various communities living in the city – Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim – have survived to this day. The local parish church still contains an image of Our Lady of Nowogródek, to whom the future poet’s mother is said to have prayed during his long recovery after a fall from a window, and to whom the poet himself also appealed in his invocation at the beginning of Pan Tadeusz:
Our Lady! You safeguard Częstochowa; shine
In Ostra Brama; shield the castled town
Of Nowogródek and the faithful there!
When I was small and placed in your care
By my poor weeping mother, wondrously
You cured me. Opening a lifeless eye,
I could at once walk to your temple door
To thank the Lord that I would live once more.
You’ll bring us back by such a miracle
To the Homeland. Meanwhile, transport my yearning soul
Back to those wooded hills, those meadows wide
And green, that line the pale blue Niemen’s side;
Those fields adorned with many-colored grain
Where golden wheat and silvery rye both shine.
The most significant memento of the Polish bard’s life in Nowogródek is a museum named after him. It was created in a house that was built in the late 19th century on the site of the Mickiewicz family’s manor house, which burned down, and was donated for museum purposes in 1937.
There’s another museum dedicated to Mickiewicz in Śmiełów, southeast of Poznań. The Greater Poland Voivodeship is the only area now within Poland’s borders that Adam Mickiewicz visited, as from here he tried – unsuccessfully – to enter the Kingdom of Poland in 1831. Built at the end of the 18th century according to a design by one of the most important architects of Polish classicism, Stanisław Zawadzki, the palace in Śmiełów was one of the places where the poet stayed. The palace has a semicircular layout consisting of a main section featuring a column portico with a triangular dome and two side sections connected to it by arcaded galleries. Its interiors are decorated with paintings by such artists as Antoni and Franciszek Smuglewicz.
Since 1970, the palace in Śmiełów has been one of the branches of the National Museum in Poznań. The exhibition presented there isn’t focused solely on Adam Mickiewicz and his life, but also the history of 18th-century residential buildings.
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Zamek w Mirze w obwodzie grodzieńskim na Białorusi, fot. Veresovich/Getty Images
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While learning about writers’ works, readers often wonder whether the places where the plots are set really exist. Near the town of Mir in Belarus, on the road connecting the towns of Mińsk and Baranavichy, there is a castle complex which, according to some accounts, was the prototype of the Horeszko castle in Pan Tadeusz. Even if this is just a myth, the historic site in Mir is worthy of attention. This UNESCO World Heritage Site has been restored and expanded many times (as well as destroyed by wars and rebuilt) – but it is precisely because of this that it is nowadays an exceptionally interesting and surprisingly consistent collection of architectural forms and styles. It is an unusual record of the turbulent history of these lands.
The Polish poet Juliusz Słowacki, 10 years younger than Mickiewicz, studied in Vilnius just like his older compatriot, and similarly led a nomadic lifestyle, moving repeatedly between European cities: he lived in London and Geneva, and travelled for many months in Italy, Palestine, Egypt and Greece. However, he spent most of his time in Paris (where he also met Mickiewicz several times, and the mutual dislike or peculiar rivalry between the two Polish bards that was revealed there has become legend). From the biographies of these poets, one could conclude that Vilnius and Paris are the most important points on the map of Polish Romanticism, because both cities had a great influence on the lives and works of these two Polish bards.
Pomnik Juliusza Słowackiego w Krzemieńcu, 1927, fot. Biblioteka Narodowa/Polona
Juliusz Słowacki was born in Kremenets, a town now in Ukraine, located 120 kilometres east of Lviv. It was here that the author of Kordian spent his childhood, and after he moved with his mother to Vilnius, he regularly visited his grandparents in Kremenets. Some literary scholars believe that Słowacki considered his hometown to be the place where his poetic sensibility was formed – perhaps because Vilnius was too strongly associated with his rival, Adam Mickiewicz. Nowadays, there’s a museum in Kremenets dedicated to Słowacki. The street where he was born is named after him, and on the 100th anniversary of the poet’s birth a bas-relief of him chiselled by Wacław Szymanowski was unveiled in the local church.
That I’ve often brooded over catacombs,
That I’ve barely known my native home,
That I was like a weary pilgrim who roams
When lightning sears the sky’s dome
That I don’t know in what grave
I’ll linger I’m sad, Savior!
These words from Słowacki’s poem Hymn o zachodzie słońca na morzu (Hymn for a Sunset at Sea), written in 1849, can be considered prophetic. The artist died of tuberculosis in Paris in 1849 and was buried there, at the Montmartre Cemetery. Through the efforts of his friends, one year later a monument in the form of a pile of stones topped with a cross was erected on the grave; the tombstone itself was designed by the French artist Charles Pétiniaud-Dubos, while the medallion on it presenting Słowacki’s portrait is the work of Władysław Oleszczyński.
Cmentarz Montmartre przed ekshumacja Juliusza Słowackiego, fot. Piotr Mecik /Forum
In 1909, the first unsuccessful attempt was made to transfer Słowacki’s remains to Poland. It was finally accomplished nearly 20 years later. In 1927, the poet’s corpse was exhumed and transported to Poland. A paddle steamer named ‘The Mickiewicz’ that carried the coffin containing Słowacki’s body from Gdańsk to Warsaw stopped at many ports on the Vistula River, and crowds of people celebrated the occasion. Słowacki’s funeral in Poland was one of the largest such commemorations in Polish history. In Warsaw, the coffin was greeted by President Ignacy Mościcki; it was also on display in the cathedral for 24 hours. The next day, to the sounds of Chopin’s Funeral March, it was transferred to a train, on which it departed for Kraków – the bard was finally laid to rest in the crypt at Wawel Castle. Słowacki’s grave in Paris, although empty, wasn’t removed – poetry lovers can still visit the modest tombstone
To this day, the figures of Polish bards often appear in works of popular culture. Monuments, parks, streets, schools and theatres are also named after them. One of the more unusual places bearing the name of a Polish bard is the Juliusz Słowacki Chamber in the Wieliczka salt mine. It is located 125 metres underground, on the third level of the mine. It’s possible to stay in the Słowacki Chamber (check their website to plan an overnight stay underground including food and a guided tour); on the third level there is a plaque commemorating the bard’s funeral at Wawel Castle, as well as a bust of him made of salt (of course). The author of Balladyna is also among those particularly honoured in Wieliczka because the music at his funeral at Wawel was performed by the Wieliczka Salt Mine Representative Brass Band.
Komora Juliusza Słowackiego i jego popiersie z soli na III poziomie w Kopalni Soli w Wieliczce, fot. Kopalnia Soli w Wieliczce/www.kopalnia.pl
And those who would like to see a building with corridors through which the author of Anhelli surely strolled can visit Warsaw’s Bankowy Square. The building that once housed the headquarters of the Government Commission of Revenue and Treasury, where Juliusz Słowacki worked as an apprentice in 1830, is still located here.
Krasiński: on the trail of the neo-gothic
For those who track down places associated with the Polish bards, the third one is challenging because he also travelled a lot and often changed his place of residence, so it’s not easy to follow his routes. Zygmunt Krasiński, the author of Irydion, was born and died in Paris, lived in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, and met Adam Mickiewicz in Geneva and Juliusz Słowacki in Rome.
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Neogotycki pałac Krasińskich w Opinogórze Górnej, fot. Semu/Wikimedia.org
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Unlike the other two poets of the Romantic era, Krasiński came from a wealthy family and didn’t have to worry about making a living. When he married Eliza Branicka in 1843, as a wedding gift he received from his father a neo-Gothic palace in Opinogóra, near Ciechanów. And this place remains most closely associated with the poet; since 1961, the Museum of Romanticism has been housed here, focused primarily on Krasiński’s work. While it’s uncertain who designed this stylish building with a tower, located in a park, the fact remains that the castle in Opinogóra is one of the most interesting examples of the neo-Gothic style in Polish architecture. If we mention that the first literary attempts of young Zygmunt were works classified today as Gothic novels, the architectural form of the Opinogóra residence seems justified. Zygmunt Kasiński was buried on the grounds of the Opinogóra estate – after his death in 1859, his remains were brought here from Paris.
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Wzgórze Krasińskiego w Wierzenicy, fot. MOs810/Wikimedia.org
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Not all literary scholars of the Romantic era highly value the work of Zygmunt Krasiński, and the poet himself had many doubts about the quality of his own work. However, the letters that Krasiński wrote over the years to his beloved, Delfina Potocka (over 600 of which have survived to this day), are an extremely valuable monument of epistolary art. In these letters, Krasiński described, among other things, his visits to the manor house of the Cieszkowski family in Wierzenica near Swarzędz and his walks along the Avenue of Philosophers. Krasiński used to lead his distinguished guests along this picturesque path and hold debates with them on philosophy and culture. To commemorate these visits, which Krasiński described as important and inspiring, a hill on the estate was named after him.
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Brama Lwowska, Okopy Świętej Trójcy, Ukraina, fot. Крочак Ігор Якович/Wikimedia.org
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The places created by poets are sometimes more vivid than ones that can actually be visited. The Holy Trinity Trenches, the symbolic last stronghold of Christianity in a crumbling world, can probably be counted among such places. The trenches in The Undivine Comedy are desperately defended by the play’s protagonist, Henryk, in an effort to protect the world of tradition and the old order against revolutionaries. Did similar thoughts enter the minds of the soldiers stationed in the fortress built in the late 17th century to protect European culture against the invaders from the Ottoman Empire? The literary Holy Trinity Trenches were most likely inspired by the defensive structure erected near Kamianets-Podilskyi and Khotyn on the initiative of Hetman Stanisław Jabłonowski, which played a significant role in the recapture of the fortress at Kamianets-Podilskyi from Turkish hands.
Blocks of flats named after the bards
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Krypta Wieszczów Narodowych na Wawelu, Kraków, fot. Tsadee/Wikimedia.org
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Despite leading rather itinerant lives, two of the bards eventually came to rest together in a city where neither of them had ever been. In 1890, one of the crypts under the floor of Wawel Cathedral was allocated for Adam Mickiewicz (the idea of transferring the bard’s body to Kraków arose immediately after his death but couldn’t be realized until 35 years later). On 4th July, 1890, the poet was laid to rest in a sarcophagus designed by Sławomir Odrzywolski beneath the cathedral’s floor, where Polish kings and the most important historical figures were buried (such as Prince Józef Poniatowski and Tadeusz Kościuszko). On 28th June, 1927, Mickiewicz was joined by Juliusz Słowacki, whose body was transferred to Wawel from Paris on the initiative of Józef Piłsudski (who eight years later was himself laid to rest in one of the crypts at Wawel). In 1993, an epitaph dedicated to the memory of Cyprian Kamil Norwid was added to the sarcophagi of the two Polish bards. This poet had died in poverty and was buried in an anonymous grave. Soil from the mass grave in Montmorency, near Paris, where he was buried in 1883 was inserted into the tomb at Wawel. In 2010, a composer joined the poets in the crypt: on the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, a medallion bearing the composer’s portrait was unveiled there.
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Aleje Trzech Wieszczów, Kraków, fot. Robert Neumann /Forum
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It’s slightly more of a challenge to feel the mood of romantic poetry in another place associated with the Polish bards – namely, the bustling and crowded ‘Aleje Trzech Wieszczów’ (Avenue of the Three Bards) – one of the most important streets in Krakow. It was designed in the interwar years as a key urban thoroughfare to stimulate the city’s development. Along this busy avenue circling Kraków’s centre, there are a large number of the city’s most important edifices, such as the National Museum and academic buildings (for example, the AGH University of Science and Technology, the University of Agriculture and the Jagiellonian Library), and it is lined by many majestic tenement houses and stylish government offices. On this street, which is the urban backbone of Kraków, one can also find buildings from eras other than the interwar period, such as the late-modernist Hotel Cracovia and the post-modern headquarters of Radio Krakow.
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Dzielnica Trzech Wieszczów w Częstochowie z lotu ptaka, fot. dzięki uprzejmości www.jurazlotuptaka.pl
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Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński are the patrons of countless buildings, but they themselves would probably be surprised to learn that their names also appear on housing estates. In the late 1950s, on rolling terrain spanning 360 hectares, the Lublin Housing Cooperative began construction of a large housing complex intended for 50,000 residents. As early as 1959, the first tenants moved into blocks of flats in the Adam Mickiewicz Housing Estate; in the next decade, the remarkable blocks of the Juliusz Słowacki Housing Estate were built (with a renowned design by Zofia and Oskar Hansen), and in 1970 construction began on the Zygmunt Krasiński Housing Estate. In subsequent years, buildings bearing the names of other Polish writers such as Bolesław Prus, Maria Konopnicka and Henryk Sienkiewicz sprang up in the neighbourhood. All three of the most important writers of Polish Romanticism were also simultaneously honoured in the town of Częstochowa, where one of the neighbourhoods bordering the city centre is named Trzech Wieszczów (The Three Bards).
