Żygulski, Zdzisław: Dzieje zbiorów puławskich: Świątynia Sybilli i Dom Gotycki (Kraków, 2009)

SUMMARY i 339

Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr

A HI STORY OF THE PUŁAWY COLLECTION
(The Tempie of the Sibyl and the Gothic House)

Summary

This book, originally written in 1958, as a doctoral thesis, deals with the history of the famous
Czartoryski Museum in Cracow. In fact, the Museum was founded in the first years of the 19th
century at Puławy, a smali village on the Yistula River in Central Poland, where the residential
palące of the Czartoryskis, a rich and influential aristocratic family, was situated.

In 1795, the old Polish-Lithuanian State, once rich and powerful, collapsed, and was oc-
cupied and partitioned by its neighbours Russia, Prussia and Austria. The invaders set themselves
to destroy or capture trophies, all signs and symbols of Poland. One of their most barbarie deeds
was the pillage and destruction of Polish crown jewels, kept for centuries in the Royal Treasury of
the Wawel Castle in Cracow. There appeared at that time a group of Poles who of their own initia-
tive started the campaign for the salvation of objects of national importance. First place among
them must be given to Princess Izabela Czartoryska, a lady gifted with charm, intelligence, and
character. She was the daughter of Georg Flemming, Treasurer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania,
and Antonina Czartoryska. In 1761, at the age of fifteen, Izabela married a cousin of her mothers,
Prince Adam Casimir Czartoryski, who was eleven years her senior. This young man, the son of
Augustus Alexander, Voivode of Ruthenia, and of Maria Sophia Sieniawska, heiress to an immense
fortunę, was intended by his parents for a great career. Nominated as a candidate to the Polish
throne after the death of King Augustus III, in 1764 he lost the election to Stanislas Augustus Poni-
atowski, who was protected by Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia. Prince Adam Casimir
soon ąuarreled with King Poniatowski and withdrew from political life, to follow his scholarly
and bibliophilic pursuits. In Puławy Palące, he assembled an impressive library, invited artists and
poets, and promoted musical and theatrical events. Soon Puławy was named the Polish Athens.
In these surroundings Princess Izabela founded the first Polish museums: the Tempie of the Sibyl
and the Gothic House.

The Tempie oj the Sibyl

The Tempie of the Sibyl was destined for housing Polish mementos and artifaets. It was the
first museum in Poland, at that time rare even in Western Europę. It was modeled after an ancient
Roman tempie at Tivoli, the seat of the famous oracie of Sibilla Tiburtina, and designed by the
architect Christian Piotr Aigner. The building has survived at Puławy as a colonnaded domed ro-
tunda (peripteros). Double doors were set in the portal with the museums motto inscribed above:
"PRZESZŁOŚĆ PRZYSZŁOŚCI" ("THE PAST FOR THE FUTURĘ"). Sibilla, as a good fairy, took
care of Polish mementos in order to return them to the liberated nation.

Thanks to her energy, and the assistance of many friends, Princess Izabela deposited in
the building numerous mementos of kings, ąueens and princesses, particularly banners captured
by Poles in wars against the Germans, Austrians, Russians, Swedes and the Turks; armour and