Muzeum Narodowa w Wrocławiu- More fun than the Louvre? Also, Panorama Racławice.

I am not really a museum person, I think. I feel like I should be, so I walk around museums trying to feel mature, and grave and arty. Even though I don't have a drive, exactly, to attend museums on my wanderings, I do feel a certain level of interest, if only through obligation, to see what is on offer.
Of course, at the Louvre, there is the exceptionally small Mona Lisa that you must elbow your way up to through a sea of humanity also experiencing the same inclination. At the Rijks Museum, the Nachtwacht is a must, and I have enjoyed both those experiences, to some degree. A Vermeer, a Rembrandt, a Van Gogh. All lovely, and they seem important. So, while in Wrocław I found myself of an afternoon making my way to the National Museum of Wrocław.

It was after managing to purchase a ticket, in Polish, at the Panorama Racławice and seeing the wonderous exhibit there. The Panorama is a giant painting, in the round. It wraps around the walls of a circular building designed to showcase the painting. The painting was created in the 1890's to commemorate a victory in battle of the Polish insurrectionist army and peasants who routed the Russian troops at Racłowice, near Kraków, in 1794. It didn't end well, in that the Russians eventually squashed the Poles, and Poland didn't exist as a nation again until after WWI. But, the Polish were still proud of the victory on that day.
The huge painting was on display in Wrocław until 1944 when it was getting damaged by bombing. So, it went into protective custody until the end of WWII, when it was shipped back to Wrocław. The art is not "fine art", so I suppose the Nazis weren't tempted to obtain the painting. Still, after my short and unsatisfying explanation of Project Riese in the last blog, I would've thought the Nazis would claim it, just because it was a giant painting. In any case, when it was sent back to Wrocław, the Soviets were in possession of Poland, and did not care for a painting that depicted a Russian defeat. So, the painting stayed rolled up until 1985 when it was displayed again!

This round structure was built specifically for the painting in the 1960's, but was left unused and empty until 1985.

The set up is pretty cool, the idea is you feel like you are standing on a hill, observing the battle happening in front of you, and it did, indeed come to life for me.

So, there is real sand and scrubby bushes, and abandoned armament surrounding the area you stand on, and this real stuff blends into the painting.
I managed to find a docent and plead for a headset "Po angielsku" In English, so I really did get what was being said.

After my time observing the great battle of Racławice, I turned in the direction of the Muzeum Narodowa. I walked through a park, nearly empty, but was drawn to this dark and dramatic monument in the center.

 I know I am ignorant of many of the atrocities suffered in the last century at the hands of the megalomaniacs filled with power and hate, but there are just so many.
This monument was erected to remember the spring of 1940.
While the bees started their duties and the grasses turned green, Stalin ordered 22,000 Polish Army officers, policemen and other prisoners of war held at three of the detention camps to be shot in the back of the head.
It is a good reason to know your history. How could this happen? How could any of it happen? Well, be vigilant for hatred, and megalomaniacs obsessed with power and themselves. History repeats. Will it do so while we watch? There are places all over the world, even today, where crazy, murderous power mongers murder without restriction.

After a skin-crawling, bilious reflection on the dregs of humanity, I squared my shoulders and turned to face the beautiful day before me in a nation reborn, with an eye on the past.

I redirected towards the beautiful, stately building covered in green. Entering into the cool lobby, I found the ticket office and asked for " Jeden bilet," one ticket, and was asked a question, that in the words I understood " Bilet Racławice?" So, I said "Tak", and showed him my ticket purchased at the panorama. It turned out that gave me admission to the museum as well!
So, I walked up the staircase to have the atrium open in front of me.

Lovely. When I got to the next landing, arrows directed me down the corridor to early Polish art. This was many rooms of mostly sacred art and statues, many it seems, from the churches of Wrocław itself. I don't know when or why the art was taken from the churches, nor how it came to be back in Wrocław, but it was largely grave, dark and somber.
Except this piece. I liked this because it was full of color! Well, except for the curious black-clad people at the bottom, who also seemed to be featured in many

other works with less color. The ghostly people whose mouths are covered were also in a lot of paintings. Fashion? Plague-cover? Bad breath fixers? Don't know.

After this long tour of dark paintings, I entered a section of the museum that I truly enjoyed. If all museums were this cool, I'd really feel driven to see them.

First off was this excellent item I'd only seen before in Scooby Doo cartoons in the early 1970's.

 No Kidding. The eyes are cut out and follow you!

Now, the museum had two things of particular note. #1- the corridors to the art were blocked by big, old, heavy doors that were closed, unmarked, and you had to be truly determined to get in or out. #2- there was a silent docent in every room I entered. A LOT of people, watching. But in the hallway where this painting was displayed, a docent noticed my great interest.  He came over, smiling and put his hand below the painting and moved a lever the made the eyes move back and forth. Awesomely creepy!

And, a cheeky if morbid sense of humor in the Polish art displays continued.

Like this doll.

Beautifully hand made and displayed in her very own casket. Comes with a puce silk gown, a death-bouquet to clutch and a blood-less porcelain face. Casket features claw feet and it's very own crucified Jesus.
It makes me wonder why American Girl Dolls hasn't cashed in on this craze.

I also was impressed by this little set of child's armor. For the young master headed into battle. The shelf on the top has an adult arm armor, and the one below this little covering for a child's chest, with a jaunty peplum. In addition, a 5" dagger for jabbing at folks.

But, perhaps, my favorite piece in the whole place was a enormous battle scene. It is painted on wood planks, pieced together. It is one of the only paintings I can recall seeing that features knights in battle. The amazing-ness of the painting, for me, was that all the knights are in black. Both sides. Black armor. Some have red sashes on the waist. How is that enough identification when your peering through a armor slit with sweaty eyeballs?
Wait, that's not the amazing part.  What was so cool was that no one had a face. No one, except for the horses. The entire tale of the battle is being told in the faces of the great steeds. 

 Look at this black horse.  He seems a little disappointed in the knight on the flaxen-maned horse opposing him. His eyes seem to be saying "Really ? You didn't see this coming?" And the riderless palomino horse behind them is evidently done with the dashing about and taking a breather. Humans can be senseless and exhausting.  The whole huge painting is thus. Wonderful!


Now, to be fair, there was plenty of fine art at the museum. This boy making shade was most excellent. And, I liked those sections well enough.

But, for me, the real treasures of the Muzeum Narodowa w Wrocławiu were the little bits of surprise and black humor. I can imagine I missed a whole lot of cheeky bits. It is worth another trip.

Zamek Książ- Come storm the castle!

Zamek Książ .
History, mystery, romance, great wealth, skill and pillaging... a castle sets the scene for all sorts of our imaginings, on a grand scale.
The majestic Zamek Książ perfoms these tasks beautifully.

Książ , as seen above, is a massive place, built in three different eras over 700 years  on a hill top in Lower Silesia in what is now Poland. For a thousand years or more, the area was snatched up and claimed by different powers at a dizzying pace.  Bohemian, Piast, Czech, Hungarian, Silesian Prussian, Nazi, Soviet, who knows, maybe some Viking in there...the history of this area seems to be a tangle of ownership.
Earliest record show the hilltop was a strategic holding and fortification that protected trade routes. Around 1288 the fortification was replaced by a castle fortress. This was done by Bolko The Strict. Oh, the history has some rich, rich names.  I think that oldest part is the part with the three great arches and stone topped with the Tudor-style beam framework. For the next 250 years the ownership bounced around until the early 1500's when it came into the ownership of the Hochberg family. They owned it until the 20th century. During that period they ended up with a bunch of different titles, including "Prince" and "Archduke" and a good bit of wealth. By the 18th century, the Hochbergs found the castle to be too small and wanted a more modern representation of their wealth. So they, shall we say, "added- on." They made the moat and defense areas into terraced formal gardens, put on massive baroque  living space- there are some 480 rooms now- and added the whole free-standing gate, baths, library structure. And, The Stud. I can't wait to show you The Stud!
Eventually, they lost most of the fortune, and the Nazis were dancing around, Hitler wanted it (greed-driven crazy bird), so took it and it became a Nazi sleep-away camp until the Soviets bashed them up and moved in, determined to scrape off any beauty as you would attack a scratch-and-sniff.
In the last 50 years the Soviets got tossed out. They left the castle in rough shape, and thus Książ has been under repair (as with the rest of Poland) since.
As for the Mystery, there is mystery everywhere as centuries of humans made decisions about the place. It oozes mystery.
 Like, who is this woman?

 I've no idea. I just didn't have the patience to wait for her to get out of the shot. But there are real mysteries here. Such as;

Is this Hagrid's Hut?

 They called it the Gunpowder Tower, but since that is a translation into English from Polish, I'm retaining hope.

 This is the "Black Courtyard". Mystery? Why is it called that? I never figured it out. Because it is hidden in the center of the castle and it's dark?

 There is a functional well in the Black Courtyard. I guess it is helpful to have water on a hill top. From the castle you can hear a waterfall, so there is water nearby, but a hike for sure. Who used this well? The wall on the left of the photo is covered in crests. Each one is a crest of an owner of Książ.

 Did Rapunzel ever let down her hair from that window? Did anyone ever recite a sonnet from the rounded stone balcony?

This is where many ideas come together. The older fortress-type castle on the right, the newer Renaissance Revival addition on the left. With this crevasse between the two. Does this not cause drainage problems? Where does the water go?

 How many faces looked out this glass to see who was coming through the gates and to the entrance of the castle?

 Did this statue of a baby ever have a head? Where is it now?

Was the wall around the castle, with the guard stands and arrow windows ever useful? Who spent hours walking around this wall, peering out into the wood?

Here, Huz is touching a large exposed portion of the mountain on which the castle is built. The mystery is why were the Polish tourists kissing the rock? Ew. It is hand worn from thousands of touchers, or, I suppose kissers? And when you put your hand to it (or presumably, your lips) a little box above makes a harp sound and flashes some colored lights.

But the biggest mystery, perhaps is the mystery of the Project Riese.
In 1941, the Nazis confiscated the castle from the Hochbergs. Then, because the Nazis were, well, Nazis, they started a maniacal (another maniacal) project. The so called "Riese", which, in German, means "Giant".
Riese is a sprawling series of tunnels under the castle, extending into the Góry Sowie mountain range. Naturally, the work was done with slave labor, and due to it's massive scale, drained Nazi resources. As Albert Speer later wrote in his memoirs, the project consumed more concrete than the entire population used for air raid shelters. And, here is the mystery...
No one knows what purpose the tunnels were to serve. They were never completed, and there is no record as to why they built miles of tunnels.

The tour of the castle is a bit sad. There are some photos and renderings from the history of the place, which means there is some record of what was once there, but much of the splendour is gone, and then patched up. The grandest room in the house, just at the front of the castle, is the Maximilian Room.  The soaring ballroom is the jewel of the center of the grand addition added by Maximilian Ernst Conrad Hochberg in the early 1700's. It seems to have mostly survived the Nazi and Soviet occupations.

The friezes that used to be in the oval above the fireplaces are gone, but the rest of the marble and ormolu remain. Unlike the other rooms, in which most of the decoration was removed.

Much of the castle is still closed and under repair. But, you do wend your way around the place, following a series of photographs, mostly centered around Princess Daisy. She is the romanticized young English wife who married John Henry Hochberg at the age of 18. There are pictures of Daisy, John Henry and their three sons. Daisy with her sons in the snow, wearing an ermine wrap. Daisy with a son, posing on the terraces. On what used to be a part of the estate is the Palm House, a Victorian greenhouse built by John Henry for his seemingly unhappy English wife. But, the story presented at Książ is not complete! There are teasing bits of facts that are left unexplained. Daisy was beautiful, English, and unhappy. The couple were divorced, and as I read about the time (yes, I had to find a biography of Daisy) is seems divorce was amazingly commonplace at the time! And then the story becomes the stuff of "Days of Our Lives", or another soap opera, missing only a return from the dead and a multiple personality disorder.
Here is what I gathered. Daisy and JHH divorce. JHH remarries a young Italian Countess. Italian Countess falls in love with the youngest son of JHH and Daisy. JHH and Italian Countess divorce, and she marries youngest son, Bolko. They have two children. But Bolko's date of demise is two years after their marriage, when Bolko was in his mid-twenties. See how I am intrigued?
And, I can't tune in tomorrow, but must read what I can find.
The history told in the tour centers mostly on the early days of Daisy. But that would be like touring Buckingham Palace and only hearing about Diana.
I did find one little tidbit that needs further exploration. On the side of a painting was a long Polish paragraph that had been translated into English. And, boy, do I want to find out more about these folks. Sadly, my Polish may have to improve greatly in order to read the history of Lower Silesia.

IN about 700-ish, the area was ruled by the first Bohemian Dynasty, begun by Premysl the Plowman. His wife, Princess Libula founded Prague. Their grandson, or maybe great grandson, Vratislav I, founded Wrocław( so, here is where I first start questioning translation, as Wrocław was supposedly founded in 1000 ad., and that is 300 years of life from The Plowman to Vratislav I...so...). Anyway, Vratislav I had two sons- and we can hope the nicknames were hindsight and not a childhood designation- Vaclav I The Saint and Boleslaus I The Cruel. Now, there was a dust-up between Boleslaus I The Cruel, and Henry I The Fowler, and that, somehow, led to Boleslaus offing his brother, Vaclav. Now, Boleslaus had a daughter, Dobrava, and he married her to a Polish Prince and they had a son, Boleslaus The Brave, who became the first king of Poland. They also had a daughter, Świętosława, who had some connection to Queen Sigrid The Haughty and Gunhild of Welden who may have been a consort, and a wife of King Sweyn The Forkbeard and mother of Cnut The Great.

If you have read Game of Thrones, it doesn't seem so far fetched now. There are probably dragons in this story too.

 Huz below the castle, on one of the terrace gardens.

 The terraces wind around one side of the castle, and then to the back of the massive structure.

This is the back of the Zamek. Imposing and impressive!

Huz, looking back at the castle, contemplating being the Lord. On the plus side, there isn't much grass to mow on the top of the mountain. On the negative side, cleaning the gutters looks tough.

A blog about a beautiful city, Wrocław Poland.

Cześć! Odwiedziłem do Polski

Or, "Hello! I visited Poland."

Witaj moja przyjacioł i rodzina, zazwyczai moje rodzice, poniewaz ja nich dostarczam. 
Welcome my friends and family, normally my parents, because I deliver to them.
Dla nasz wakacje, uczę się mowić po polsku. Raczej zły.  Do Ksiąz, nasz kierowca mówi "Znasz dożo słowa do polsku."
For our vacation, I learn to speak in polish. Rather bad. To Ksiąz, our driver says "You know a lot of words in Polish. " 
 Note, he did not say, "Mówisz po polsku." or "You speak Polish."
He spoke English much better than I speak Polish.  
In fact, I probably would've done just fine in Poland without knowing any Polish, but it does make it more interesting to know some of what is going on around you. And, there were places I ventured into that I did not find English speakers. For instance, the post office, where I went to purchase znaczki postkart do Stany Zjednoczone: postcard stamps to the United States. The sales person seemed a bit irritated before I even got to the desk. Then, I try English, and as someone who went through her schooling during Soviet occupation of Poland, she did not learn English, she learned Russian. So, I went about butchering Polish to get the job accomplished, and she ended up laughing with me, correcting my horrible pronunciation of "znaczki" and, maybe, pretended not to know ten held up fingers to her question of " Ile?" (How many?) meant ten. So I had to go with "dziesięć", and make her smile again. It got more complicated when I decided to ask if the stamps would work for a letter as well. I think I talk too much. 
One of the reasons I decided to learn some Polish is that this trip, as is with most of them , was because Huz was speaking at a conference- this one in Wrocław, Poland. So, I am alone during the days, and have to make plans and decisions with no one to help other than the kindness of strangers. And, the Poles are very kind, helpful and welcoming. The older people I interacted with, that had little English, were fun to talk to, as they liked to correct my Polish, and were amused. The younger people all switched directly to English, which is very nice, as I often felt linguistically challenged enough. 
I was helped, before our departure, by a God Moment. About 3 weeks before we left, I delivered Youngest to morning marching band practice. Atypically, I had brought my breakfast, so sat for a moment in the parking lot, having my sniadanie. I was about to leave when a car pulled up facing mine, to deliver their own band kid. The license plate on the car read "Wrocław", well, truly it said "WROCLAW", but I made the leap, and did so, out of my car, waving wildly at the driver. Undoubtedly, I terrified her, but she obligingly wound down her window and would you believe that here in rural Ohio, I now have friends who are from Wrocław, Poland? Wspaniały! Wonderful!

Okay, the only Polish pronunciation lesson I will share is that "Wrocław" is pronounced
"Vrots-wahf".  And, roll the "r" a bit. Much prettier than what how we would say it in English.

Now,  Huz is working and I'm playing, all the way in Europe,  thus we wanted to have a bit of vacation for him too. So, we flew into Berlin, Germany, and spent the day there, then traveled to Wrocław by bus and then after our week in Poland, went back to Berlin for a few days.
I don't sleep on planes. I wish I could, but it doesn't happen. So, the first day is a zombie-blur of uncomfortably tiredness. I do best with a 15 hour awake-day. This was a 32 hour one. But, not as bad as all that as I had two cat naps in the train station in Berlin, and a few hours of blessed sleep on the bus.

I slept in the Berlin Haupbahnhof, hobo life.

I do remember figuring out the tram in Berlin to Oranienberger Strasse for some food (I also can't eat anything they serve on planes)  and making it to our gorgeous hotel in  Wrocław and rallying for a small plate dinner on the hotel roof- one of the top meals I've ever enjoyed.
 Okay, so although much is a blur,  I remember the food.

Huz was speaking at the EVDI conference, European Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging. He did a bunch of other important stuff too. He's famous. I was told so at another roof party that week. Huz was at the buffet (I ate a shrimp, but wasn't secure enough in the ingredients to try two)  and I was hanging out with my glass of wine. I introduced myself to the nearest pair, and then, as a connection point mentioned I was the wife of Huz, maybe you know him. And this is what was said
"OF Course I Know Him, He's Very Famous." Yep. Like if Sting read x-rays. Like if Ryan Reynolds used CT to image cat intestines. Hugh Jackman made giddy by Dorso-Palmar Lateral Obliques.

Famous.

And, I was a turysta. Lucky me! I never have thought to myself "Boy, I'd really like to see Poland." But, that was because I didn't know any better. It's beautiful. And a busy place. The modern history is still palpable if you look around- WWII was disastrous, and Soviet Occupation was a mess. So, really, in my lifetime, Poland has become Poland again. They are still constantly fixing and rebuilding. Much of what was destroyed has been restored, some completely new, but a lot in the original tenor. And, if you weren't paying attention, you may not even notice, but the resilience is fascinating.
The center of Wrocław is the Rynek, or square. It is very large, and has buildings in the middle of the square, with passages through them. It is a popular tourist destination, with buskers, sidewalk restaurants galore, nightclubs and beautiful architecture. The centerpiece is the old Town Hall, which managed to survive the bombs in good stead.

The Town Hall has several different building styles, and the clock on the front is an Astronomical Clock made in 1580.

The buildings surrounding the Rynek are decorative, and mostly painted stucco in cheery colors. Throughout the town, there is a stark contrast between the old buildings in pinks and greens and the Soviet era block apartment structures, all plain concrete.

Pre and post Soviet buildings.

The cities of Poland were pounded by Soviet forces in April 1945. If you look around, there are photos of Wrocław from that time posted in the area they were taken. An estimated 50%  of the city was destroyed. Warsaw was 85% flattened. Here a photo of the Rynek, then and a few from now.

In the background of the photo, you can see the toppled spires of the churches on Cathedral Isle.

Wrocław was founded in 1000.

 The church named it as a bishopry? I think that's right... so, it was built around Cathedral Island, which features the cathedral, several other ancient catholic churches and, incidentally, a nice botanical garden. There are nuns. Lots. But way more cobblestones. Sensibly the nuns do not wear heels. I tried it once on the cobblestones. Hard on the heels.
You get to Cathedral Island, Ostrów Tumski, by crossing a bridge. The most picturesque of these is Most Tumski. It is a "lock bridge" so called because people purchase locks and attach them to the bridge. Also, the bridge is painted a turquoise color, and the locks are in colors too. Bardzo kolorowe. Very colorful.

On the other side of the Most Tumski, you can see the cathedral rising above the buildings. 

Twin spires mark the biggest of the churches on Ostrów Tumski, but the cathedral looked very different in 1945. Remodeled by bombs 700 years into it's run. 

Today the spires are back. But you can see in the photo below, taken from a boat on the river cruise, that the towers were fixed to be almost identical to original. 

 But the signs of repair are all around. There are buildings covered in scaffolding and netting, in current repair. If you get away from the main center, there are buildings still crumbled into a shell awaiting repair. And the ones already repaired- new brick replacing what was blasted out.

This is the tower of St. Elizabeth's church. Directly next to the Rynek, this church has been restored into a beautiful light-filled place to worship. I assume many of the large clear glass windows were not original to the building, but an adaptation after destruction of the original windows and walls. There is even a window built from little black and grey and white glass tiles, that doesn't make sense until you see it from inside, and it is a close up of a pope's face. Pop art, church style.
Since the town is so steep in church history,  even I got a selfie with a pope!

Almost famous.

A real-deal moat.

Because it is a medieval town, there is also parts remaining of the original city walls, and a MOAT. Marauding tribes beware! This place harkens back to a time when walls and a moat kept out invading parties. Didn't work so well in the 20th century, so they are just a bit of charm now. I guess the moat and walls didn't help much against the Prussians in the 1500's either, because they gobbled up the area called "Silesia", which included Wrocław, and renamed the town "Breslau".

Which is particularly interesting to me, as the Germans still call Wrocław, "Breslau." The guidebooks and postcards made for the German visitors do not call the town Wrocław. I find that intriguing. Is it not like British tourists carrying around a guidebook to "Chesapeake Colony" when touring Washington DC? There must be more of an explanation here, but I have not heard one.

We had the opportunity to explore the Prussian/Silesian history a bit more with a trip to a fantastical Zamek, or castle... Ksiąz. Plus, a bardzo pięknego, very pretty Stud! For another blog. Another place in time when Queen Sigrid "The Haughty" was afoot!