Thursday - a day without films and theme meetings!
We use the day and go touring the region which does not end in Kazimierz. We chose places that are not well-known and not often visited by tourists, but have their own special attractions.
Lukasz, an Opoleian who has extensive knowledge about the region, facilitated the visit to us. He is an opera singer (counter-tenor) and a collector of art - not only regional!
Opole Lubelskie - a small city has its own history, monuments and legends.
We start from the palace whose owners were among others the Lubomirski. Their palace (apparently the first Polish residence in this style) now houses a comprehensive high school and still impresses with its power.
And that without a legend, there is not a real palace, so here it is:
"In 1787, Prince Aleksander Lubomirski married Rozalia, daughter of count Jan Mikołaj Chodkiewicz, marshal and staroste of Samogitia and Maria Rzewuska. A year later, their daughter Alexander Franciszka was born, with whom Rozalia went to France. There, the duchess was accused of plotting against the revolution and contacts with the royal court of Marie Antoinette of Habsburg. The punishment for these accusations was cruel - Rozalia was killed on a guillotine. Apparently, when the duchess was dying under the guillotine, all the doors opened in the Opole palace and there was a shrill cry. The local legend says that to this day the apparition dressed in white with the head under his arm appears in the surroundings of the palace."
Near Opole, in Niezdów there is a summer or rural residence of Aleksander Lubomirski’s who permanently resided in nearby Opole.
"A rectangular building in the classical style with a large portico in the front façade was created, referring to the French buildings from this period.
Rozalia Rzewuska, daughter of Aleksander Lubomirski before her death in 1865, testamented the properties to Kazimierz Wydrychiewicz.
Among others Bolesław Prus, Władysław Reymont and Stefan Żeromski – Polish authors periodically resided in the palace. The Kleniewskis had thirteen children, of whom Władysław received the palace as a result of the division of property after his father's death. He did not want to live in Niezdów, so he exchanged the inheritance with his sisters who were nuns in the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Virgin Mary. After their death, the residence became the property of the order.
After World War II, the estate was parcelled out, and the order was allowed to keep two outbuildings. In 1967, a vocational school was created in the palace, which functioned here until the building was recovered by the religious congregation.
Currently, the palace is privately owned."
The owners do not carry out any renovation work, which may lead to the devastation of this monument. The lack of intervention by local or provincial authorities is astonishing!
Next we went to Piotrawin which from the Middle Ages was a well-known pilgrimage centre associated with the miracle of resurrecting the knight Piotr Strzemieńczyk, which supposedly in 1079 was made by Saint Stanisław.
"According to the message, Bishop Stanisław bought the village of Piotrawin from the knight Piotr Strzemieńczyk. Piotr's heirs questioned the legality of the acquisition of goods. Bolesław Śmiały, unfriendly to the bishop, supported the heirs, so to prove the legality of the purchase, Bishop Stanisław resurrected the deceased Piotr, who had been resting in the grave for over two years, and he testified about the proper course of the transaction. In connection with this event, in the area of Piotrawin, on the initiative of the Bishop of Kraków, Zbigniew Oleśnicki, around 1440, the Sanctuary of St. Stanisława with a gothic church and chapel."
Beautifully situated on a hill with very well-kept streets and squares, the large village of Solec on the Wisła River impresses with its monuments and beautiful, truly Polish landscape of the meadows and the Wisła valley.
Isn't impressive such costruction?:
It's beautiful with the Tuscan columns!
It is beautiful in Poland. Less beautiful things are happening here, though ...
