An issue of the periodical 'Polska' devoted entirely to Krzemieniec, already described in the title as 'the home town of J. Słowacki'. The history of Krzemieniec is recalled, connected with Bona Mountain, the issue of the Krzemieniec Lyceum is also mentioned, and of course the figure of Juliusz Słowacki. The issue is illustrated with, among other things, the building of the Krzemieniec Lyceum, as well as, for example, a statue of the Virgin Mary or the frontispiece of the Lyceum and parish church (Source: 'Polska', Warsaw 1936, R: 2, no. 16, after: Jagiellonian Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text

Krzemieniec, an ancient borderland town, the hometown and beloved city of poet Juliusz Słowacki and a famous scientific centre of post-partition Poland, takes its name from the flints found there in abundance. They were used by our prehistoric Stone Age ancestors as weapons and tools: javelins, axes and knives, which are still often unearthed in the ground today. Later, these flints were also used to make rocks - flints for shotguns called "rocks" and for lighting fires when matches, so common today, had not yet been invented.

The territory of the Krzemieniec poviat, located on the border of two areas so geographically different from each other, such as the highland Podole and the green lower part of Volhynia, which is why it is called by some "Volhynia Podole", consists of two geographically different lands: to the north, on the lower bank of the Ikva River, a flat, peaty, alternately sandy or rancorous valley, known as "Little Polesie", and a high threshold to the south-east, forming the chain of the steep Krzemieniec Mountains, formerly regarded as a splinter of the Polish Carpathians.

Thus, while the city itself, for its famous Lyceum, deservedly gained the name of the "Athens of Volhynia", its surroundings, for the exquisite relief of the surrounding hills, were just as rightly called the "Switzerland of Volhynia". Amidst the dreamy, flat landscape, it seems that some kind of fairies, woven out of wind, rain, frost and sun rays, conjured up a fantastic world of inaccessible, picturesque, majestic rocks, scraps and chasms, gilded on the slopes in summer by heavy heaps of cereals, scratched in winter on the fluffy snow cover by ski skis in some mysterious signs and arabesques, dispersed on the mountains with dark tops of pine forests, birch and oak woods.

Maiden Rocks, Sokola Góra, Syczowiecki Ravine, Słowacki Rocks, Okno na Ikva (Window on Ikva), Podleśiecky slopes, żołobska basin - these are the rich, further fringes of the Krzemieniec ravine, in whose secluded basin, at the foot of the reigning Bona Mountain and its sister the Devil's Cheresa Mountain from the east, and the Krzyżowa and Wołowica Mountains from the west, the city and its heart - the complex of buildings of the Krzemieniec High School.

This ravine stretches for several kilometres along its length, widening and narrowing and hiding in its interior a subtle ribbon of the Ikva, a tributary of the Ikva - a small and quiet river today, but with a lush past, during which, pushed by some powerful, impetuous current of youth, it tore the banks to shreds, With the impetus of its youth, it tore the banks to shreds, gurgling the sandy subsoil until, having reached the chalky strata and gouged out a deep, wide channel, satisfied with its goal, it lost its vigour at once, sinking somewhere into the abyssal depths of the subsoil, only the sound of its name recalls its turbulent but industrious past.

"...And here is the mountain of Bona, baptised with the name of Bona, greater than any other, ruling the city with its shadow, the old gloomy castle, which holds its forehead, looks with its blue eyes at daytime, and at night, like a crown covered with a cirette of grief, takes on various shapes, broken by a whirlwind of clouds...".

Impressive in its size, solemnity and shape with vertical walls, crowned at the top with the ruins of an old castle, "the city's dominant feature", Mount Bona is a magnificent, characteristic backdrop, its main decoration and ornament. One will not know Krzemieniec, who from its top does not look into the ravine and its surroundings. The delighted eyes of the viewer will see numerous picturesque terraces on the hills surrounding the ravine, and below them a whole sea of greenery, parks, gardens and orchards, among which, like colourful islands, stand the white walls of the lyceum, together with the colourful roofs of larger buildings and smaller old-fashioned manors and houses, Three-fourths of Krzemieniec is a garden-city, where, however, the human hand does not impede in any way the spontaneous development of nature, so that the architectural fragments together with nature create one harmonious whole, rich in pictorial motifs.

The history of Krzemieniec is closely connected with the history of Mount Bona, on which fortified settlements were erected in ancient times, since due to its size, height and steep slopes it was completely inaccessible from three sides and connected with the rest of the Podolia upland only through one long, narrow gorge. It is not known when the castle itself was built, but it seems to have existed as early as the 9th century, and there is close evidence that it became the property of the boyar family of Denyska in 1073. At that time it was built of wood, but it still successfully withstood enemy attacks, and even during the Batukhan raid in 1240 it was the only castle which the Tartars did not manage to conquer.

This was repeated during the second Tartar invasion, but when the whole of Ruthenia came under Tartar rule, Prince Daniel of Halych, as their fief, had to voluntarily demolish borderland fortresses on their orders, and among them also the castle in Krzemieniec, which was part of his estate. Rebuilt at the end of the 13th century, it passed into the hands of the Lithuanian and then Polish princes. Originally, the entire plane of the mountain was surrounded by a wall with loopholes, to the inner side of which adjoined buildings with flat, brick roofs, the so-called "horny houses", on which cannons were placed and from which the garrison defended itself. They also served as a shelter during raids for the surrounding population with their belongings. A separate house in the courtyard provided accommodation for the permanent staff and their commandant.

In the middle of the castle was the Church of St. Nicholas with the graves of the original owners of the castle - the boyars Denyska. The two towers, some of which still remain, together with drawbridges, guarded the security of the castle and its surroundings. During the reign of King Casimir the Great, Krzemieniec became a royal property, and in 1438 the town, established at the foot of the castle, was granted extensive self-government by the boyars Svidrygiello. The Jagiellonians took care of the welfare of its inhabitants, bestowing upon them numerous privileges.

In 1533, King Sigismund III gave the castle and the Krzemieniec starosty to Bishop Janusz of Vilnius, on condition that he renovate the castle and strengthen it with a strong garrison. However, after the bishop had been transferred to Poznan, it passed to Queen Bona, wife of Sigismund I, under the same conditions. As the starostess of Krzemieniec, she fulfilled her task perfectly, finishing the fortifications of the castle, located, as the granting document says, "before the jaws of the enemies of the Christian name", and even did more, as she built a parish church and a hospital at the foot of the mountain, endowing them with numerous privileges.

Since then, the castle and the mountain have borne the name of Queen Bona. After the Queen's departure for Italy, Krzemieniec became part of the Crown Estate and was granted a number of privileges, such as the right, the only one in Volhynia, to store white salt from the Russian salt mines, to hold fairs, to transport a thousand oxen a year duty-free to Lithuania and the Crown, and so on. Kings such as Sigismund III and Ladislaus IV often visited the town and took great care of it. This magnificent development lasted until the Khmelnytsky rebellion and the Cossack wars, during which in 1648 the castle was captured by one of Krzywonos's troops and completely demolished.

Since then, the castle, which has not been renovated by anyone, has been falling into ruin ever since. All that is left of it is a 13th century bastion with a sharp-arched gate on the side of Mount Cheresa, a fairly well-preserved bastion on the town side and two fragments of the side walls. The fame of Krzemieniec as a fortress fell irretrievably, while at the beginning of the 19th century the nimbus as a refuge of Polish education, radiating to the whole country, was spreading.

When, after the partitions, Wołyń came under Russian rule, Tadeusz Czacki, one of the most eminent educators of the Polish nation at the time, was appointed inspector, or in other words Minister of Education, of the Volhynia, Podolia and Kyiv regions. Together with Father Hugo Kołłątaj, co-founder of the 3rd May Constitution, he took up the idea of reforming the education of the district. The beautiful nature of Krzemieniec, the seclusion of the place and the already existing complex of massive Basilian-Jesuit buildings determined the choice of the site for the university.

Thanks to these two patriots, the Volhynian Gymnasium (Gymnasium Volynskie), later renamed as the Lyceum, was founded in 1803. The school was organised by the experienced Father Kołłątaj, while the funds were raised by T. Czacki, who brought about the extraordinary energy of the school. Czacki, and with extraordinary energy and enthusiasm led to the nobility and clergy voluntarily taxing themselves en masse for the upkeep of the Lyceum until the end of its existence. The Gymnasium was a combination of secondary and higher school with an almost academic level.

The most eminent scholars of the time were appointed to chairs, as: Feliński, creator of "Barbara Radziwiłłówna", Osiński, author of the "Dictionary of the Polish Language", W. Besser, father of Polish floristics and founder of the Lyceum's botanical garden, J. Lelewel, an excellent historian, E. Słowacki, father of Juliusz, and many others. The guiding idea of this higher-spirited school was:

"by respecting the human being in the student, by giving him or her the right conditions for mental and physical development - to bring up a good citizen, responsible for his or her actions, devoted to the public good".

The lofty intentions bore abundant fruit. A special, outstanding type of "Krzemieńczanin" was created - bold, courageous, righteous, full of a sense of honour, which produced a whole series of outstanding individuals, such as these: A. Malczewski, author of "Maria", Tymko Padura, bard of Ukraine, Korzeniowski, novelist, Dr Kaczkowski, organiser of the Polish sanitary service in 1831 and many others. The Lyceum soon had a very rich natural history and numismatic collection, a picture gallery, a library, a very valuable botanical garden with over 12,000 plant species, physics and chemistry rooms, separate courses for geometers and mechanics.

The fame of the "Athens of Volhynia" as a cultural centre attracts not only numerous young people, but also many older people eager to learn. Krzemieniec was vibrant with intellectual life, but unfortunately only for a short period of 25 years. After the fall of the November Uprising, the Muscovites closed the Lyceum, transported the valuable scientific collections to Kyiv, and destroyed and cut down the famous botanical garden. The city fell to the level of a small, forgotten town. It was not until the war that the city was freed from this stupor. While still amidst the clang of weapons, designs for a new work, based on the glorious tradition of the past, began to emerge.

On 27 May 1920, an order was issued by Commander-in-Chief J. Piłsudski resurrecting the Krzemieniec Lyceum and endowing it with extensive self-government and numerous state properties. The present Lyceum, unlike its predecessor, is not an institution of higher education, but a collection of secondary and lower secondary, general and special schools and educational institutions, whose task is to radiate Polish culture in Volhynia. It runs an exemplary agricultural, livestock and forestry farm on its vast estate, serving as an example to the local rural population, and its material and legal independence facilitates this work enormously.

The whole school system, numerous artistic and sports facilities, as well as natural terrain conditions, which made Krzemieniec a centre of winter sports in Volhynia, especially skiing, and there are well-known gliding areas in the neighbourhood, contribute to the development of the youth's sense of beauty and physical fitness. For its small area, limited by the narrowness of the ravine, Krzemieniec has a lot of historical buildings, in particular Empire-style houses and manor houses from the beginning of the 19th century with original Old Polish architecture, decorated with numerous cornices and balconies, which give the town an antique look.

It is as if it were one long street - named "Szeroka" - and its charm is mainly given by short blocks drowning in greenery, with an enchanting view of the mountains at their outlets. The most prominent feature is the massive complex of buildings of the Krzemieniec High School, with the magnificent pediment in the centre of the former Jesuit church, erected together with the monastery by the Wiśniowiecki princes in 1743. It housed a college and two convents where noble youth were educated. When T. Czacki founded the Lyceum, he used them and the neighbouring Basilian monastery as the basis for his university.

In front of the church is a terrace with a magnificent view of Mount Bona, surrounded by a balustrade with stone walls and amphorae, where in Czacki's time youth parties and school celebrations were held. The side wings house the high school library and the columned and theatrical halls with Empire ornaments. Not far from these buildings is the so-called "Słowacki enclave", i.e. the square where the house of the parents of the "Prince of Our Poets" stood and where he himself was born. Among the various projects to commemorate the place where the bard's cradle once stood, perhaps the most beautiful is the idea of creating a rosarium there, i.e. a garden of roses, of which he was an admirer and connoisseur.

In the Tunica cemetery, named after a suburb of Tunika, is the grave of Juliusz's beloved mother, Salomea née Januszewska Slovenska, who, after the death of her first husband, married Dr Becu, a professor at Vilnius University. Above the modest tomb, decorated with a stone obelisk with an urn, a "weeping" ash tree protects this memento, dear to every Pole's heart, from rain and wind.

The much-loved mother played a great role in Juliusz's life. He visits her several times, whether as a student at Vilnius University or after graduation, and above all he misses her always and everywhere from a distance, in exile. The memory of the beautiful nature of his home town of Krzemieniec, together with the memory of his dearest mother, combine to form a whole to which he keeps returning in his thoughts, and so he writes:

"I longed for your fields, for those forests, which, as a child there, by the Ikva of the waves, hummed".

In 1927, when the beloved poet's corpse was laid to rest in Wawel Cathedral, a handful of earth, removed from his mother's grave and enclosed in a black marble urn, was placed in a niche next to the coffin of her adored son. Almost all present Orthodox churches in Krzemieniec are former Catholic churches, built with Polish sacrifice, which the Muscovites took away and gave to the Orthodox clergy, but they have retained the beauty of their original origin. For a long period of time our population did not even have a single temple for themselves here and had to pray privately in their homes.

Therefore, when they managed to obtain permission from the Russian government in 1857, a new parish church was built. It houses a beautiful bronze statue of Slovenský, made in Paris to a design by W. Szymanowski, which was brought here and erected in 1909, on the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth, in secret from the authorities. Opposite the Lyceum, the Orthodox St. Nicholas Cathedral is the former parish church, wooden, built by Queen Bona, on the site of which in the 17th century the Wiśniowiecki and Zbaraski princes erected a brick church in the earlier Baroque style, together with a monastery for the imported Franciscans.

The former Reformed monastery building is now the seat of the Volyn ruler and an Orthodox seminary. It was built by Władysław Potocki in 1760, and T. Czacki, having taken the monastery of the Basilians for the needs of the Lyceum, gave them the monastery of the Reformati in return, whom he in turn transferred to the neighbouring town of Wielkie Dederkały. After the Union was abolished, the church was turned into an Orthodox church.

All that is left of the Reformers is a beautiful bell tower. In the Orthodox cemetery next door, numerous earlier Catholic and later Orthodox gravestones are mixed up, with many graves of professors of the former Lyceum in between. When we think of Krzemieniec, what comes to mind are poems by J. Słowacki, found in his posthumous papers, in which he seems to say goodbye to the city he loved, and the half-wild, half- idyllic landscape of the surrounding rocks becomes even more charming to us:

"If when in this land of mine, where my Ikva flows through the valleys, where my mountains are blue with mirth, and the city rings over the murmuring stream, where lily-scented levadas run to the rocks beneath cottages and orchards, - if you are there, soul of my womb, even if from rays to flesh returned, you will not forget this longing of mine, which stands there like the Archangel of gold, and sometimes the city like an eagle flies around and rests and shines again on the rocks!".