In the Montmartre cemetery, sometimes referred to as the cemetery of the Polish Great Emigration, on avenue du Tunnel, rests a landowner born in Piatkówka, participant in the November Uprising in Podolia, second lieutenant, social and political activist in Switzerland and France, Count Izydor Sobański (1791-1847) of the Junosza coat of arms.

Sobański's activity in exile

In exile after 1831, Sobański became involved with the Hôtel Lambert party. In France, he was director of the Polish Club operating in Godot de Mauroy Street, a member of the Polish Literary Society, an episodic Towiańczyk, and founder of the "work and protection facility for the poor", intended for worse-off Polish emigrants, commonly known as the Workshop in Batignolles. A friend of Adam Mickiewicz, Zygmunt Krasiński and Fryderyk Chopin. In one of his letters to Fontana, Chopin described their new position after Sobański's departure as follows: 'You are a tetrad, a beast [...], in your soul somewhere you love me [...]. And perhaps even more so now, for we are both greater Polish orphans, and Wodziński, Witwicki, Platery and Sobański have gone".

Description of the gravestone

Sobański's burial place is marked by an amphora placed on a monumental sarcophagus. The amphora is marked with the monogram S, obscured by a veil, on its own single-stepped, cuboidal base. Referring to antiquity, the classical sarcophagus is covered by a lid with a two-step cornice with serrations, accented on four sides with acroterions with stylised acanthus leaves. On the sarcophagus are four rectangular panels with engraved inscriptions. Two coats of arms are engraved on the front - Junosza (coat of arms of the deceased) and Pilawa (of his wife). The sarcophagus is situated on a slab and multi-sided base, topped with a concave and quarter-slope.

Inscriptions:

On the front, an inscription in French: "Comte Sobański (Isidore)" [Prince Sobański Izydor].

On the side, inscriptions in French and Polish: "LA XVI ANNEÉ DE L'ÉMIGRATION POLONAISE [the 16th year of Polish emigration] / MARSHALEK SZLACHTY SZLACHTY POWIATU BAŁCKIEGO / UCZESTNIK POWSTANIA LISTOPADEGO / KAWALER ORDERU VIRTUTI MILITARI".

On the panel on the opposite side: "NÉ EN PODOLIE EN 1796 MORT A PARIS EN 1847 [born in Podolia in 1796 died in Paris in 1847] / SON OF MATEUSZ AND TEKLIA Z ORŁOWSKICH / DISCOVERED OF PROPERTY BY THE CARDS AUTHORITIES FOR INDEPENDENCE ACTIVITY".

Gravestone location: Quarter 23, row 1 avenue Carrières, grave 15 avenue du Tunnel