The text describes the Potrybunalski house in Vilnius, associated among others with Adam Mickiewicz. The history of the building is recalled, as well as the people who managed this tenement house (including Andrzej Poznański). It is also mentioned that the tenement housed the tribunal courts, while later it was unoccupied but remained the property of the Polish treasury. In 1788 it was acquired by A. Skarbek-Ważyński (Source: 'Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany', Warsaw 1912, no. 20, pp. 4-6, no. 21, pp. 4-5, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text

Post-Tribunal House in Vilnius.

We would like to acquaint the readers of "Ziemia" with the history of a number of Vilnius memorial houses, with unknown and newly discovered information about them... We begin our investigations with the post-Tribunalna house under the former Town Hall, the house connected with the name of Adam Mickiewicz. Here lies before me a rare lithograph from Vilnius with a view of this, unfortunately recently reconstructed, building, which stands on the former Market Square, directly on the historically memorable Town Hall Square.

I have kept this memento in my abundant Vilnius possession. Made in the workshop of the artist Jozef Oziębłowski, an alumnus of the Vilnius University (of the physical-mathematical and liberal arts faculties), it is signed: "Poznański House in Vilnius" and Russian censorship by A. Muchina - 'lithogr. perm. Vilnius 13 May 1857." The sheet of rather thin paper, an elongated figure-of-eight larger, was an illustrated advertisement for the hotel, insofar as both sides of the view contain notices in Polish and Russian:

"The proprietors of the Poznański House in Vilnius, opposite the Town Hall on German Street, have the honour of notifying the incomers that in their House there are small and large flats for the day from 50 k. to 5 r. s." *) The French signboard on the ground floor indicates this honour to visitors, so far remembered by almost all the wine hotel factories of the existing "Wine Cellar" at the front.

The façade, neo-classical in outline, with poor Renaissance ornamentation, bears rather banal features of bourgeois architectural buildings in the Gucevičius-Smuglevicz town at the end of the 18th century. Galleries and balconies enliven the monotony of the linear floors. But the most beautiful decorations of the building are the coat of arms of the Lithuanian Pahon in the tympanum and the plaster statue of Themis in a niche below it. As recently as 10 years ago, Vilnius saw the Goddess of Justice on the frame of the building; people were aware of the origin of the statue.

And before the uprising of 1865, there was also a national coat of arms - "carved from the wall", as Kirkor explained in "Strolls around Vilnius". - Then, as a "dangerous" local reminiscence, it was walled up... Our house fathers were reminded of the tearful celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi from before 1864. Corpus Christi from before 1864 *) here one of the street altars for the processional feast was arranged, the unforgettable bishop Ad. Stanislaus Krasinski to the crowded procession. Krasiński led the crowded procession in a pontifical celebration...

Twelve years ago, the house was sold by Vilnius city councillor Andrzej Poznański to the banker Bunimovich, who still owns it, but with a changed physiognomy: 10 years ago the house was significantly reconstructed into a tall edifice with modernist decorations... All the features of the house - a souvenir, still in 1890, much resembling the original house from the end of the 18th century, were lost. The magistrate's delegates, Wad. Fiorentini and J. Suchecki, delegated by the magistrate, asked the Israelite Bunimowicz to give the statue of Themis to the city for safekeeping, which he did; however, during the removal of the large old statue of Themis, it crumbled considerably.

The statue was skilfully restored in 1904 by the artist Jan Noworytło (a Cracovian, settled in Vilnius), and then given to the Franciscan monastery for safekeeping; it is now placed in the beautiful hall of the former refectory, where S. J. Montwiłł organised a short-lived "Labour Exchange"... Thanks to Mr Noworytło's kindness, we can reproduce the statue of Themis from the post-Ribunal period in "Ziemia". "The Poznański House used to belong to a Lithuanian magnate, Grzegorz Ościko, who was beheaded on 18 June 1588 in front of his own tenement house on the Town Hall Square by order of Stef. Batory, - for he was proved to have betrayed the country before Ivan IV (Grozny), to have forged money ...

The placement of the goddess Themis on the edifice is justified by some with the legend of Ościko's punishing deity of justice, others that - this statue - is the emblem of the Ważyński family, later owners of the house. Kirkor thinks that one of the Ważyńskis had the statue erected and placed the Pogoń when, due to the ruin of the Main Lithuanian Tribunal building (which used to stand near the Castle Gate), the office moved to this house for some time. A dozen or so years ago, while researching places commemorating Mickiewicz's stay, I took an interest in the house I am discussing in this article. The owner, Mr Andrzej Poznański, a magistrate, was happy to provide me with documents. From them it turns out that this tenement house, in which the tribunal courts sat for some time, remained for a long time afterwards in ruins, uninhabited, and owned by the Polish Treasury.

It was not until the royal treasurer announced an auction from Grodno, at which he purchased the tenement for 80,000 Polish zlotys on 15 November 1788, that Antoni Skarbek-Ważyński, the judge of the court of justice, was able to buy it. Antoni Skarbek-Ważyński, judge from oszmiań. And from then on, for 59 years, the house remained in the Ważyński family. On d. 16 September 1827, Marcin Sk.-Ważyński, oszmiański marshal, sold the house for 20,000 roubles to Franciszek, son of Józef, Poznański, president of the city of Vilnius. From then on, the house, with the number 296, has been numbered by the magistrate to this day. It is listed under police no. 55 in Veľká Street; the back of the house faces Rudnicka Street, where the entrance gate is also located. The house was later owned by František Poznaňský's son, a doctor, graduate of Vilnius University, also named after František.

From 1889 onwards, for only 10 years, the historical house was owned by the son of the late doctor František Poznanski, Andrew. The post-Tribunal tenement house also suffered the same fate as many other tenement houses, often famous for their great incidents in the history of our country; it passed, not out of final necessity for the vendor, into the hands of a Jewish utilitarian... It is good that at least Themis survived, thanks to the good will of the banker. In the same house - it is worth mentioning in passing - a highly talented and highly regarded piano virtuoso was born: Zolla Rabcewiczowa, née Poznańska, once a pupil of Rubinstein, permanently resident in St Petersburg.

As for the changes to the building's construction that took place while Dr F. Poznański was still in office, we should add that the front gate, used for entrance from the Town Hall Square, was removed in the seventh decade of the 19th century, and replaced with an entrance door. Adam Mickiewicz lived in this house in Potrybunalski for some time in 1824; I offer evidence of this, while at the same time correcting an error made by the author of "Śladami wieszcza" in "Tygodnik Ilustrowanym" in 1898. In this nice, colourfully and skilfully sketched work, Mr Napoleon Rouba is not strictly accurate in these important details. In No. 14 of the Illustrated Weekly, Mr R. writes (on p. 275, in p. 3):

"After leaving prison in February 1824, Mickiewicz took up residence at Odyniec's, in the seventh house on the left, counting from German Street, on the Town Hall Square. This house was owned by the painter Wincenty Slendzinski".

etc. In No. 10 of the Weekly, an illustration of the square was given, together with the house in question, in the depths of the square visible. The recently deceased aged art. m. Winc. Ślendziński, who died recently, circulated this supposedly faithful detail, supposedly remembered from his early childhood, which, however, could have referred to another poet, not Mickiewicz. The house mentioned by Mr Sl. and Mr R. used to belong, at the beginning of the last century, to our painter's grandfather, Marcin (not Wincenty), and then to his father, Aleksander Ślendziński, also an artist, like the late Wincenty, educated at the Vilnius university under Rust. In his "Memories of the past", Odyniec mentions that Antoni Górecki, poet-legionary, lived in Vilnius on Plac Ratuszowy.

He probably lived in the tenement house of Marcin Śl.; he could also have been visited by Mickiewicz, who was so close to him later in Paris, where the Bard's daughter, still alive, married A. Górecki's son, Tadeusz, art. Górecki's son, Tadeusz, an artist painter. Neither Odyniec nor Mickiewicz lived in the Ślendziński home: neither in 1824 nor before. I have shown faithfully, in chronological order, where and when the author of "Grazyna" and "Dziady" lived in Vilnius. I was the first to discover the house and flat which Adam occupied in 1825 (at Piaseckiego Street, today Jałowcem in Literackie Lane, and others). As for the house depicted in the Tyg. Il. on the view of Plac Ratuszowy, if we, the readers, were to turn our backs to it, we would have in front of us, directly, the Ważyński house from Potrybunalski, in which Odyniec and Mickiewicz stayed in 1824.