DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29195#0059
The Palace’s history
TO STANISLAW KOSTKA COUNT POTOCKI, CHAIRMAN OF THE
SENATE OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND, IN THE PLACE HE FOUND-
ED AND DECORATED, AND WHERE IN HIS LONG AND GRAVE SUF-
FERING HE LIKED TO SEEK COMFORT AND RELIEF, HIS WIFE AI.F.X-
ANDRA POTOCKA NEE LUBOMIRSKA ERECTED THIS MONUMENT,
IN GRATITUDE FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS OF SWEET AND HAPPY
MARRIED LIFE. GUCIN, ON THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER 1821
Stanislaw Kostka and his wife Aleksandra, who was probably the Princess Mar-
shal’s favourite daughter, were the ones who inherited the Palace in hard times for
Warsaw. Following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 the city fell into the hands
of the Prussians and suffered very substantial impoverishment; it was degraded from
the status of capital city to that of a provincial town. Fryderyk Skarbek described its
condition in his memoirs, writing that he had, never been to Herculaneum and Pompeii,
but he could imagine them on visiting Warsaw under Prussian rule and seeing the edifices
in which the nation’s life had once been concentrated, the houses which had been the do-
main ofthe upper strata ofPolish society. Now those houses stood in gloomy silence amid
the noise ofthe streets. The entrance gates into their courts were either strewn with refuse or
cluttered up with ungainly street stalls. When onepassed through a halfrotten wicket-gate
and entered into one ofthese courts one seemed to have crossed the threshold beyond which
there stretched a dead city, a city ofthe past and its recollections, the Polish Herculaneum
(Skarbek 1959, p. 101). We should add that right until the 1820s the access roads to
Herculaneum led through tunnels gouged out in the lava, hence Herculaneum ap-
peared to be an “underground city.” Excavating Pompeii, which had been covered
with ash and pumice-stone, was much simpler, but evidently Skarbek was not aware
of this, since as he wrote, he had never been to the Vesuvian cities.
The situation in Warsaw changed dramatically on the arrival of the Napoleonic army
in late 1806. Stanislaw Kostka’s daughter-in-law recorded the tremendous eruption of
joy, describing the festivities. Tables laden with fare were set up even in the streets and
squares. Many a toast was raisedto theforthcoming independence, to the valiant army, to the
great Napoleon!... People embraced each other and fraternised, carousing, maybe a bit too
much, for there were a few incidents of soldierly licence, which led to a temporary attenua-
tion in the warm enthusiasm ofthe welcome (Memoirs ofthe Countess Potocka 1901, p. 63).
Skarbek seconded her account, describing the extraordinary atmosphere of those times
in his memorable book on the history of the Duchy of Warsaw: In those days the chief
feature ofthe Nations life was its purely civic, noble spirit,free of allpersonal incentive, de-
termined by the good of the country and offering it all the moral and material sacrifices that
only a good citizen may give his country. For this reason the history of the few years of the
Duchy’s existencepresentedan example ofgeneralcivic commitmentso rare in the history of
mankind, and manifested with a fullness of heart which may perhaps be matched only by
the relations between virtuous children and theirparents (Skarbek, 1860, Vol. 1, p. VIII).
The inevitable inference to be drawn from Skarbek’s observation is that the Polish
people of the time were capable of singular sacrifice and collective effort for the com-
mon good — just as they had been many times before and would often be again in
the future. But the Polish people of those times, especially the young, also knew how
to express their emotions enjoying themselves at numerous social events and balls.
The Polish
Herculaneum,
Warsaw's
Revival, and
A Specification
of Rooms
63
TO STANISLAW KOSTKA COUNT POTOCKI, CHAIRMAN OF THE
SENATE OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND, IN THE PLACE HE FOUND-
ED AND DECORATED, AND WHERE IN HIS LONG AND GRAVE SUF-
FERING HE LIKED TO SEEK COMFORT AND RELIEF, HIS WIFE AI.F.X-
ANDRA POTOCKA NEE LUBOMIRSKA ERECTED THIS MONUMENT,
IN GRATITUDE FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS OF SWEET AND HAPPY
MARRIED LIFE. GUCIN, ON THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER 1821
Stanislaw Kostka and his wife Aleksandra, who was probably the Princess Mar-
shal’s favourite daughter, were the ones who inherited the Palace in hard times for
Warsaw. Following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 the city fell into the hands
of the Prussians and suffered very substantial impoverishment; it was degraded from
the status of capital city to that of a provincial town. Fryderyk Skarbek described its
condition in his memoirs, writing that he had, never been to Herculaneum and Pompeii,
but he could imagine them on visiting Warsaw under Prussian rule and seeing the edifices
in which the nation’s life had once been concentrated, the houses which had been the do-
main ofthe upper strata ofPolish society. Now those houses stood in gloomy silence amid
the noise ofthe streets. The entrance gates into their courts were either strewn with refuse or
cluttered up with ungainly street stalls. When onepassed through a halfrotten wicket-gate
and entered into one ofthese courts one seemed to have crossed the threshold beyond which
there stretched a dead city, a city ofthe past and its recollections, the Polish Herculaneum
(Skarbek 1959, p. 101). We should add that right until the 1820s the access roads to
Herculaneum led through tunnels gouged out in the lava, hence Herculaneum ap-
peared to be an “underground city.” Excavating Pompeii, which had been covered
with ash and pumice-stone, was much simpler, but evidently Skarbek was not aware
of this, since as he wrote, he had never been to the Vesuvian cities.
The situation in Warsaw changed dramatically on the arrival of the Napoleonic army
in late 1806. Stanislaw Kostka’s daughter-in-law recorded the tremendous eruption of
joy, describing the festivities. Tables laden with fare were set up even in the streets and
squares. Many a toast was raisedto theforthcoming independence, to the valiant army, to the
great Napoleon!... People embraced each other and fraternised, carousing, maybe a bit too
much, for there were a few incidents of soldierly licence, which led to a temporary attenua-
tion in the warm enthusiasm ofthe welcome (Memoirs ofthe Countess Potocka 1901, p. 63).
Skarbek seconded her account, describing the extraordinary atmosphere of those times
in his memorable book on the history of the Duchy of Warsaw: In those days the chief
feature ofthe Nations life was its purely civic, noble spirit,free of allpersonal incentive, de-
termined by the good of the country and offering it all the moral and material sacrifices that
only a good citizen may give his country. For this reason the history of the few years of the
Duchy’s existencepresentedan example ofgeneralcivic commitmentso rare in the history of
mankind, and manifested with a fullness of heart which may perhaps be matched only by
the relations between virtuous children and theirparents (Skarbek, 1860, Vol. 1, p. VIII).
The inevitable inference to be drawn from Skarbek’s observation is that the Polish
people of the time were capable of singular sacrifice and collective effort for the com-
mon good — just as they had been many times before and would often be again in
the future. But the Polish people of those times, especially the young, also knew how
to express their emotions enjoying themselves at numerous social events and balls.
The Polish
Herculaneum,
Warsaw's
Revival, and
A Specification
of Rooms
63