Zbigniew Herbert was born on 29 October 1924 in Lviv, to a family with multicultural roots and strong patriotic traditions. Its 150-year history was reconstructed by Rafał Żebrowski in his book 'Zbigniew Herbert. The Stone on which I was Born', depicting the Herbert family's fate from Francis Herbert's arrival in Lviv in the early 19th century. These issues were also taken up by Andrzej Franaszek in his monograph 'Herbert. A Biography'. The issue of the Lviv period in Herbert's biography has also been the subject of interest for other researchers of his life and work.

Family and childhood in Lviv
Herbert spoke of his ancestors in one of his interviews in this way:

"Although my family came from England, it was through Austria that they ended up in Poland, strictly - in that part of Poland which was then called Galicia. My great-grandfather, who could not speak a word of Polish, was an English teacher. His grandson, and my father, was a legionary and a patriot, as if we had lived here since Rzepicha and Piast."

The poet's father, Boleslaw Herbert, was a lawyer, served as director of the Malopolska Merchants' Bank and, from 1938, was also director of the Lviv branch of the "Vesta" Poznań Insurance Companies Concern. He was also a legionnaire who took part in the Polish-Bolshevik war and in the battles for Lviv, for which he was awarded the Medal of Independence and the "Orlata" Badge. Żebrowski sheds interesting light on his character. He contradicts earlier interpretations depicting Bolesław as a harsh and unfeeling father. He portrays him as a charismatic, responsible and sociable person who established an intellectual understanding with his children early on and was a guide for them in the world of literature. As Zbigniew Herbert recalled in a conversation with Mark Orams published in 1994, 'Dad used to tell me the Odyssey when I was three years old. I didn't have to look up in the dictionary who Polyphemus was - it was clear to me, I just grew into it."

The poet's mother, Maria, née Kaniak (1900-1980), came from the Lviv intelligentsia probably with Polish-German roots. She graduated from a teachers' seminary and worked briefly at the National Reconstruction Office dealing with the effects of the First World War. After her marriage, she devoted herself to bringing up her children and running the household, fostering an atmosphere of patriotism and attachment to tradition in her family.

Herbert's childhood was spent in multicultural, vibrant Lviv, which was a melting pot of diverse traditions and religions - Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish and Armenian. The city was distinguished by its fervent religiosity and unique intellectual atmosphere. Interwar Lviv became the space where Herbert shaped his sense of aesthetics, his love of literature and patriotism, but also his openness to multiculturalism. Lviv's streets were full of diversity - sounds of languages, temples and artistic initiatives. Herbert, now an adult poet, often returned to this diversity in his poems, creating universal images of human destiny, history and culture that are firmly rooted in his memories of Lviv.

Places associated with Herbert's life in Lviv
In the interwar period, Lviv was thus a cultural melting pot where different nationalities, religions and traditions met. Herbert grew up in an environment full of Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish and Armenian influences. The Herbert family changed their places of residence several times. Herbert's earliest address was 55 Łyczakowska St., later the family lived at 18 Tarnowskiego St., 10 Piekarska St. and 5 Obozowa St. Each of these Lviv addresses formed the landscape of the poet's youth, which returned to him in his work. The view from the window described in 'Martwa natura z wędzidłem' is just such a memory:
"My primary painting experience was (...) the view from the window of the tenement (...) on the wall, which was most beautiful when the sun went down. (...) this is where some kind of issue of the inexpressibility of the world began for me. I knew that this wall was most beautiful only for a few minutes - in the sunlight. Usually unimpressive, greyish - in the sun it took on the colour of hot ochre. You could travel with your eyes (...), discovering what is the essence of painting: sensitivity to half-tones. Here a crack, here something green, some green spot that isn't actually there but should be."

The long walks Herbert took led, among other places, to the High Castle - the symbolic hill of Lviv, associated with its history and foundation. Over time Lviv, described and remembered, began to function as a metaphor for life and transience. Herbert undoubtedly took numerous walks around Lviv, but as Rafał Żebrowski has shown, the route depicted in the poem "My City":

. I dreamt that I was walking
from my parents' house to school
I know which way I'm going

on the left the Paszanda shop
third middle school bookshop
you can even see through the glass
old Bodeka's head

does not correspond to the real route to school, becoming rather an imaginary map on which the Bodek bookshop on Batory Street or the Paszanda shop on Kochanowskiego Street appear. The shop where the young Herbert worked as a shop assistant during the occupation. Besides, Herbert himself referred to this game between memory, idealisation and reality - when asked in the aforementioned conversation with Marek Oramus, he said: "No, I am defending myself from going back, because I no longer find what I once, long ago loved. Besides, the idealising power of memory is at work. Probably the tenement where I lived is not as beautiful as in my memories." Although he also adds, "I try not to cultivate feelings for my city in myself, because I will trigger new nostalgias - and these nostalgias have already multiplied in abundance."

Herbert's Lviv place was also the family's suburban summer estate in the Brzuchowice forest, where the poet's father built a house to allow the family to relax in the summer. It is about him that Andrzej Franaszek recalls "Moments spent in Brzuchowice, where "ah this air. You can eat with spoons", also became the plot of the short story "The beginning of a novel", published by Herbert in 1951. Dedicated to his parents, the prose begins with an image that has just spoken to us from an archive photograph: "I am sitting on the stone steps leading up to the house, to our white house sunk in the woods". Arguably, the area around Stryysky Park was also a landscape of daily strolls after moving to a larger flat. Lviv's Lychakiv Cemetery, the burial place of the poet's ancestors, the place where he also wished to be buried and where the family tomb was located, also has a symbolic significance in Herbert's Lviv story."

In 1939, meanwhile, the family spent the last pre-war summer on the Hel Peninsula in Jastarnia, visiting Warsaw among other places on the way back.

Education
Between 1931 and 1937, Herbert attended the Public Common Men's School No. 2 under the name of Saint Anthony, located at 2 Głowińskiego Street. A poem recalling this period is:

Only once in his life
Mr Cogito managed to reach
heights of mastery
in the first grade
primary school
Saint Anthony's
seventy years ago
in Lviv
calligraphy competition
Mr Cogito breaks the record
the most beautifully written
the letter b.

In 1937, he began his education at the King Stefan Batory Gymnasium, which was first turned into a secondary school by the Soviet authorities. where lessons started at 6 a.m. and were closed after the Germans entered. He completed his education in secret classes in 1944. A picture of this school is quoted, after Herbert, by Andrzej Franaszek:

"It stood on a hill. It was a white, three-storey edifice with large windows and a red, sloping roof. If it stood out for anything, it was its austere simplicity. The façade was unadorned, only at the top was a bas-relief depicting an eagle. Beneath the bas-relief, there seemed to be space for an inscription. The most appropriate would have been a Latin maxim such as "Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas" [Happy one who has managed to learn the causes of things] or, if we were asked for our opinion, but no one asked us for our opinion - Juvenalis' instruction to the educators of youth - "Maxima debetur puero reverentia" [The greatest respect is due to the child]. One entered through a heavy gate. A staircase, and at the top of the stairs a massive statue of our school's patron saint. The plaster-pale king had his left shoe protruding, and this seemingly unimportant detail became the material cause of a pupil custom that was not in keeping with the solemnity of the educational establishment. In the dignified whiteness of the patron, this left shoe was disturbingly black and polished from the many touches that would protect us from the evil charms, the inadequate notes known as baniacs and the terrible wrath of our preceptors. Nothing helped the strict prohibitions; we indulged in these magical practices with dark peasant obstinacy. In the gymnasium the cult of reason prevailed, but, as we know, nothing affects the development of occultism more than official rationalism."

At the gymnasium he met a Latin teacher, Gregory Jasilkowski. As Jozef Maria Ruszar wrote, it is to his tragic and not entirely clear death in September 1939 that Herbert refers, writing "where to look for his grave: in the land of the Goths or the Huns". He is not the only Lviv figure evoked by the poet. In the poem "Pan od przyrody" he commemorates Dr. Fortunat Stroński, about whose death he writes:

in the second year of the war
they killed the master of nature
rascals from history

Herbert, in his poem "Song", also refers to the murder by the NKVD of his schoolmate Zbigniew "Bynia" Kuźmiak .

Again, however, it is worth referring here to Żebrowski's research, who points out that in his works the poet idealises his school years, portraying teachers in a more positive way than what they actually were. Żebrowski confronts these descriptions with the accounts of other students and historical facts.

World War II and underground activity
World War II was a time of great hardship for the Herbert family. After the capture of Lviv by the Soviets, Herbert's father was interrogated by the NKVD, but happily returned home - contrary to some information, he was not arrested either. However, not long afterwards - when he finished his job as liquidator of the bank he ran, he was employed as a corpse porter in the university dissecting room. From 1943 to 1944, he worked as a lice feeder at Professor Weigl's Lviv Institute for the Study of Plague Typhus and Viruses - feeding by means of cages with lice specially attached to his shins. However, this work enabled him to avoid being forcibly deported to Germany for labour. During the war period, he also worked as a salesman in a metal shop - first at the aforementioned Paszenda bookshop, and later at the company "S. Skomorowski Eisenwaren".

Herbert, as he himself recalled in a published interview with Marek Oramus, tried to be active from the beginning, "it was my first activity, because I founded such a political party, which was quickly caught. It was called the White Eagle". He also spoke about his participation in this organisation earlier in several interviews, and even mentioned being arrested by the NKVD. However, the actual existence of this organisation, and especially Zbigniew Herbert's participation in it, raises serious doubts and the question of how far this is a myth created by him. Undoubtedly, however, the ridiculous poem he actually wrote or the initiated action of sitting with his back to the portraits of the revolutionary leaders (depending on the version of the story) brings him serious trouble, which fortunately he eventually manages to alleviate. His only punishment is to be transferred to another school - the Secondary School No. 28 of the former Private Female Gymnasium of the Sisters of the Ursuline, located at 17 St. Jacek Street. Ursulines.

After passing his secondary school-leaving examinations in 1943, young Herbert began to study Polish philology at the clandestine Jan Kazimierz University, but this only lasted two months. It was also during this time that he made his first poetic attempts. In 1942, he was to graduate from a Home Army cadet course in Lviv, which prepared young people for armed action for Poland's independence. However, first Joanna Siedlecka, then the aforementioned Żebrowski, and finally Andrzej Franaszek question the veracity of this information. Due to a leg injury caused by a skiing accident, the poet was immobilised during this period, which makes participation in such training unlikely and is rather the result of Herbert's confabulation.

The year 1943 also brings another dramatic event in the Herbert family - the poet himself described it thus:

"when I was sixteen, my little brother became seriously ill. At the time I was the author of two poems, one of which, a long poem along the lines of The Drunken Ship, I considered brilliant. I knew that in order to save my brother, you had to sacrifice something you held most dear. I burned the poems and swore I would never write. The little one died in my arms, I remember: he had a high fever and I was telling a fairy tale that he liked. He died so I could be a lousy poet already"

Andrzej Franaszek's research indicates that the poet was almost 19 years old at the time, and while the painting itself undoubtedly captures the poet's dramatic experience, it is not necessarily true to the story in detail.

Leaving Lviv
The Herbert family left the city in 1944, when the front was approaching Lviv. For Zbigniew, a young man who witnessed the reality of war and the loss of his beloved city, this was a painful loss. In his later work, one can see a constant longing for Lviv and nostalgia for the lost city.

Symbolic presence in Lviv
Herbert's pre-death wish was to be buried in Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. Eventually, his coffin was sprinkled with earth from the grave of General Waclaw Iwaszkiewicz, which symbolically fulfilled his wish.

Although Herbert never returned to Lviv, his poems and prose are full of this place, smuggled in often without being explicitly named. Lviv remained in Herbert's work as a lost paradise, a place that formed his identity. "Lviv is everywhere," the poet wrote, realising that his Lviv already exists only in memory and imagination. Through traces in his poetry, Herbert returned to the city of his childhood, which, although inaccessible, was the foundation of his poetic vision of the world.

Lviv in the works of Zbigniew Herbert
In poems such as "My City", "Mr Cogito on his return to his hometown" and "In the City", Herbert expresses his longing for Lviv as a metaphor for identity and spiritual place. He uses archetypal images (stone, water, bread) to emphasise the emotional bond with this place, which becomes a symbol of a lost paradise, for the peace and stability of childhood and at the same time. She writes of it as a 'borderland city to which I will not return', describing it as a semi-mythical space, an inaccessible place - 'absent from any map'. However, he avoids direct references, as Adam Zagajewski wrote in Zeszyty Literackie:

"I understood that Herbert, like the figures in my parents' circle, belonged to the species of people I knew so well, disinherited from Lviv, deeply wounded by the loss of an unremarkable city. (...) He was, however, an extremely discreet exile: he never named Lviv in his poems, he spoke of the city as if there was something too painful in the name of the city; as if all other cities - and he had met so many of them - needed names, and only this one got along splendidly without one".

Lviv is not directly evoked in the poem "My City", but Herbert depicts a city of memory whose image blurs as the years pass.

The ocean lays at the bottom
a star of salt
the air distils
shining stones
flawed memory creates
city plan

And although he declares that he doesn't want any more nostalgia, Lviv becomes the symbol of an idealised place to which it is impossible to return, with its gates closed forever:

every night
I stand barefoot
in front of the locked gate
my city

However, if anyone has doubts that this is Lviv, they are dispelled by Andrzej Franaszek in his monograph on the poet, pointing out that the 1950s sketch for this poem was entitled "Lviv" and was accompanied by the dedication "to my city in which I will not die". Lviv appears as a place forever lost, which nevertheless does not allow itself to be forgotten. The city returns in the poet's dreams, and attempts to recall its topography turn into a nightmare. The city gate slams in front of him, symbolising the irreversibility of exile and the impossibility of return. He is an experience of emotional wandering, trying to retain fragments of topography in his memory, such as Paszanda's shop, the gymnasium or Lviv's bookshop.

The name Lviv appears in only two works: "Calligraphy Lesson" and "High Castle". The latter is one of Herbert's last poems. He dedicates the description of the High Castle to Lviv's Leszek Elektorowicz. The poem has the character of a return to origins - it describes a symbolic climb up the hill, which can be interpreted as a childhood memory and a metaphor for the poetic life. Herbert reflects on death and transience, with the High Castle symbolising the beginning of his life's journey.

Elsewhere, the poet evokes characteristic elements of Lviv's topography, such as the High Castle, the streets or places from his childhood. Lviv becomes a space of memory, symbolising a time of innocence and carefreeness, as well as an attempt to close the cycle of life and return to one's roots. He also refers to Lviv in the poems "Farewell to the City" and "Mr Cogito thinks of returning to his hometown", among others.

Lviv, especially in his later texts, is intertwined with the motif of a journey or Odyssean wandering; the poet emphasises that it is not a physical return - it is an internal, symbolic journey, recurring in memory and imagination.

Lviv was the city that shaped Zbigniew Herbert. Although he spent most of his life away from his hometown, Lviv remained in his memories and influenced his work until the end. In his poems, Herbert continually explored the relationship between man and his place of origin, making Lviv a universal symbol of a lost homeland and a personal Eden. Through poetry, he returned to the city of his childhood, which, although inaccessible, was the foundation of his poetic vision of the world.


Addresses directly related to Zbigniew Herbert
55 Łyczakowska Street, flat number 5
1924-1933
Zbigniew Herbert's birthplace and the first place of residence of his family in Lviv. A plaque commemorating the poet was unveiled there in 2002.

18 Tarnowskiego Street
1933
Another place of residence of the Herbert family in Lviv.

10 Piekarska Street
1937
Another place of residence of the Herbert family in Lviv.

5 Obozowa Street
1937-1944
Another place of residence of the Herbert family in Lviv.

King Casimir the Great State Gymnasium in Lviv
1938-1941
The school where Zbigniew Herbert received his education. He attended there until the school was closed by the Germans (the Soviets had previously renamed it Secondary School No. 14).

Secondary School No. 28 (formerly the Ursuline Sisters' Private Gymnasium)
1941-1942
Herbert was transferred to this school due to events at his previous school.

Suburban summer estate in the Brzuchowice Forest
before 1939
a house built by the poet's father in Brzuchowice, serving as a summer retreat for the family.

St Anthony's Church
1924 (the poet's baptism)
The place where Zbigniew Herbert was baptised. There is a plaque commemorating the poet, erected in 2002.

Kazimierz Paszanda's ironmonger's shop at 1 Kochanowskiego Street
circa 1942-1944 (Herbert's working years)
The shop is not only mentioned by Herbert in his poem 'My Town', but was also the place where the future poet worked as a subject during the German occupation.

Lviv Institute for the Study of Plague Typhus and Viruses under Prof. Rudolf Weigl
circa 1942-1944
Herbert's place of work during World War II as a lice feeder.

Places evoked in the poet's works
Stefan Batory Street - appears in Herbert's memoirs, especially Bodeka's bookshop. Actually, in Lviv the Bodek family ran several independent outlets. Probably the most famous of them is Dr Maximilian Bodek, who was an Lviv antiquarian, bookseller and publisher. He established his antiquarian bookshop in December 1918, and later also a bookshop on Batory Street. He was a shareholder in the 'Vita' publishing house, which published educational material, and ran the main typesetting of its publications in the 1930s. He also published books through the bookshop. He died in 1933, when Herbert was nine years old. Next door was the bookshop of his cousin Sigismund.
High Castle
Lychakiv Cemetery - the burial place of Herbert's ancestors, this is also where the poet wished to be buried.