The History of Montrésor in Poland

The Polish chapter in the history of Montrésor dates back to 1849, when Róża Branicka, née Potocka of Władysławów, purchased the dilapidated medieval castle along with the surrounding estates. She did not acquire the property for herself, but with her son, Ksawery, in mind. It was he, as the first Polish owner, who restored the castle to its former glory and created a unique Polish enclave in France.

Count Ksawery Branicki (1816–1879) donated 45 ares of land to the town with a view to establishing a future Polish cemetery. The cemetery in Montrésor is situated just 750 metres from the famous castle ( described as the ‘Polish landmark of the week’) , which towers over the town. The main street leading to the cemetery bears the telling name Rue Xavier Branicki, or Ksawery Branicki Street (1816–1879). He is laid to rest, along with his descendants and relatives, in a family chapel at the local cemetery.

The Branicki Family Chapel

In 1863, Ksawery Branicki commissioned a chapel on the cemetery hill, designed by the French architects Vion, Oudet and Moreau. It was an imposing, domed building in the Neo-Gothic style, beneath which underground catacombs were situated. The chapel was built entirely from local cream-coloured limestone with an admixture of clay minerals, which was quarried from underground quarries in the village of Mauvières. This stone is relatively soft and not very resistant to weathering.

The first to be laid to rest in the tomb was the estate’s founder, Ksawery’s mother, Róża. She was followed by Ksawery and others associated with the related Branicki, Rey and Potocki families.

After 1831, Montrésor became a refuge for the November Uprising fighters. They were laid to rest in the local cemetery, near the chapel. The graves of several of them, including those of Rudolf Domaradzki and Witold Okryński, have survived to this day. Polish funerals are still held here today. For example, in 2019, Jadwiga Prewysz-Kwinto (née Kwilecka, born 1935), a relative of the Montrésor families, was buried within the cemetery; she had spent most of her life in France and had close ties to Montrésor. Currently, around 60 people of Polish nationality are buried in the Montrésor cemetery, 30 of whom lie in the chapel.

Almost all those buried here were connected to the Branicki and Rey families. They are descendants of Piotr Branicki of the Korczak coat of arms, who died in Lviv (1762).

Conservation work on the chapel

Documentation has survived attesting to the care with which the chapel was maintained. The first renovation took place in 1898 under the supervision of the architect Busaur, who produced, amongst other things, drawings of the chapel’s dome. The next phase of renovation work took place in 1909, funded half by the Branicki family and half by Mikołaj Potocki. Both families entered into an agreement on the joint use of the chapel. Another major renovation was carried out in 1928.

The chapel remains a focus of attention for Polish cultural institutions, including the Polonika Institute. In 2016, conservation work began in the chapel and in the cemetery. The first phase of the work focused on the south-western gable of the Branicki, Potocki and Rey chapel. Among other things, the bas-relief cartouche surrounding the Pilawa coat of arms of the Potocki family within a trefoil panel was restored. In 2017, the bas-relief of the Pilawa family coat of arms, situated on the triangular finial of the south-western wall of the chapel, was reconstructed. The cornice of the church’s gable was also restored, including the floral finial crowning it.

The work was carried out by Jakub Kurkiewicz, a Polish art conservator living in Montrésor and a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, under the supervision of Prof. Janusz Smaza. The project was carried out thanks to funding from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage awarded to the Society for Academic Tradition as part of the ‘Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad’ programme.

Notable figures buried in the chapel:

Ksawery Branicki (1816–1879), the first owner of the Montrésor estate and founder of the cemetery and chapel. Marked by his descent from his infamous Targowica-affiliated grandparents—Hetman Branicki on his father’s side and Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki on his mother’s—he bore witness to his patriotism and devotion to the Polish cause throughout his life. It even reached the point where Tsar Nicholas I ordered him to travel from Warsaw to St Petersburg so that he could keep an eye on him. He remarked at the time: ‘He is infected with the worst kind of spirit; it is revolutionary France, grafted onto old Polishness’. In the mid-19th century, he settled in Montrésor, where he successfully managed the estate bequeathed to him by his mother, sparing no expense on either artistic patronage or political activity. He supported the conservatives led by Andrzej Zamoyski and the socialists led by Adam Mickiewicz. He financed *Trybuna Ludu* and Polish troops during the Spring of Nations in 1848. He issued military instructions to the insurgents of 1863. After the fall of the uprising, he took the poor veterans under his wing, whilst during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 he planned to raise a Polish battalion.

He was also active as a financier: in 1851, together with Ludwik Wołowski and two French economists, he founded the banking institution ‘Crédit Foncier de France’, modelled on the Warsaw Land Credit Society.

Henryk Potocki (1868–1958) was for many years a member of conservative political groups: the Realist Party (chairman from 1917), the Constitutional Labour Party, the National Right Party, the Real National Labour Party, and the Non-Partisan Bloc for Cooperation with the Government.

In 1907, he was a member of the Polish Circle in the State Duma (the parliament of the Russian Empire); in 1917, a candidate put forward by the Regency Council for the post of Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Poland, though he was not approved by the German occupation authorities; subsequently, a member of the Provisional Council of State. During the interwar period, he was active within the Polish Red Cross. In 1927, he travelled with his wife on a safari to Africa; he described the expedition in his book *In the Land of the Maasai*. During the Second World War, he stayed at his family estate in Chrząstów; after losing it as a result of communist expropriations, he left for France and died in Montrésor.

Stanisław Rey (1923–1999) is buried in an unmarked grave, on which a terracotta bust has been placed. The owner of Montrésor, married to Maria née Potocka (1929–2020). Montrésor is currently managed by his son, Konstanty Rey (born 1953).

Seweryn Morawski (1923–1968), husband of Jadwiga Countess Rey, daughter of Stanisław and Jadwiga née Branicka, was the director of the manganese mines in Imini in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. He was buried in Rabat, where his gravestone is located. Consequently, a notable feature of the chapel is a commemorative plaque dedicated to someone buried elsewhere. The plaque in the tomb at Montrésor bears the following inscriptions:

‘IN RABAT ON THE DAY THE TIQUINE MINE WAS OPENED / FOR THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE THAN TO LAY DOWN ONE’S LIFE FOR ONE’S NEIGHBOUR. / MANETE IN ME ET EGO IN VOBIS SEVERYN MORAWSKI”.