An issue of Polska magazine entirely devoted to Lutsk in Volhynia. The turbulent history of this city is recalled, as well as its geographical location. The illustrations in the issue feature, among others, the Vladych and Lubart towers, as well as a view of the city, the Catholic cathedral or the building of the province (formerly the Bernardine monastery). Also illustrated are, among others, the collections of the Volyn museum (Source: "Polska", Warsaw 1936, R: 2, no. 37, after: Jagiellonian Digital Library).

A modernised reading of the text

Lutsk is one of those borderland towns in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth whose history was full of moments of both great prosperity and total collapse.

It must be emphasised, however, that in spite of the many destructions and conflagrations, as it was located on a permanent war route - thanks to the favours and protection of Polish kings, like a phoenix from the ashes, it was constantly reborn, and only completely fell into decline in peacetime, during the Russian captivity.

The exact date of Lutsk's foundation is unknown; all we know is that it is one of the oldest Slavic towns. Legend has it that it existed as early as the 7th century, while historians give the date of its foundation as 1000. However, it was undoubtedly of major importance as a fortified and trading town already in the 11th century.

In the first period of its existence, i.e. until 1335, Lutsk had only a defensive wooden castle and was the residence of several Ruthenian princes of Lutsk. The last of these was Prince Lev, who died in battles with Lithuanian Prince Gediminas. Despite Rus' rule, the Polish influence was always very strong here - the Polish monarchs Bolesław Chrobry, Śmiały and Krzywousty also visited the city many times.

Duke Gediminas, having conquered Volhynia, made Lutsk the capital of the whole province, and put his son, Duke Lubart, on the ducal throne, who built a brick castle on the place of the former one, which was in ruins. His successor, Prince Vytautas, did much for the town's development, bringing in colonists of various nationalities, moving the Catholic cathedral from Vladimir Volynsky and granting a wide self-government. At that time, Lutsk grew so much that its suburbs reached far beyond the present-day borders, as far as the territory of the present-day numerous suburban villages. This development was largely influenced by the years of peace and continuous trade relations with Poland.

At that time, a congress of monarchs was held in Lutsk, which brought together: German Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg, Erik - King of Denmark, Vasyl - Grand Duke of Moscow, Hospodar of Wallachia, Grand Master of the Livonian Knights of Inflants, numerous princes of the German Reich, Piasts of Lignitz, Brest, Mazovia, Pomerania, magnates of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia, Austria, Russian boyars and khans of Tatarstan. In addition, the Pope, the Byzantine Emperor and the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights sent their representatives. On the Polish and Lithuanian sides, numerous lay and clerical magnates also came. This congress was like a small League of Nations and was intended to settle all the disputes of Central and Eastern Europe and to organise a crusade against the Turks.

During its seven-week duration, there was no end to tournaments, races, hunts and games, and, according to the chronicler Stryjkowski, 700 oxen, 1,400 rams, 100 bison and 700 barrels of mead were to be consumed daily.

The last Lithuanian duke of Lutsk, Svidrigelo, died in 1452, after which Volhynia was ruled by Lithuanian magnates for a number of years until it was incorporated into the Crown under the Union of Lublin. From then on Lutsk became the capital of the Volhynia Voivodeship, grateful to the numerous privileges and endowments of the Polish monarchs and their paternal concern for the fate of our borderlands. In spite of many adversities and disasters, it is now developing more and more impressively. However, situated within the easternmost border strip of the Royal Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and exposed to constant Tartar and Cossack assaults, it succumbed to violence during the Khmelnytsky rebellion, and the entire population of the town - without distinction of gender, religion or nationality - was felled.

Since that tragic moment, it has not been able to return to its former glory, and when it was annexed to Russia after the partitions, it lost its significance, as the new rulers, referring with hatred to everything Polish, tried to humiliate and destroy this beautiful borderland redoubt of ours, where the mementos of Polish rule and culture came to the fore everywhere.

Polish schools and monasteries were soon closed, and Uniate churches and Orthodox churches were turned into Orthodox churches, leaving only one temple for the Catholic population. The monasteries were converted into offices and prisons, and by surrounding the town all around with triple forts, it was turned into a fortress where military revues were often held.

During the World War, it was "host to" Austrians, Germans and Ukrainians, and Lutsk witnessed numerous battles and was the marching ground of various armies, and when Polish regiments entered it on 16 May 1919, all they found was hunger and misery.

In the reborn Poland, Lutsk regained its noble position, again becoming the capital of the Volhynia Voivodship. However, it was not completely adapted to its proper role. It was therefore necessary to proceed at a rapid pace to make up for more than a century of decline and neglect, to rebuild everything from scratch, to adapt the old town to the requirements of the present day.

The town had no modern facilities and was mostly made up of hovels, drowning in darkness and mud and surrounded by quagmires. There was a complete lack of accommodation for the numerous officials. So they set about paving and footpaths, regulating the river, draining the swamps, running water, sewerage and electricity. Each year, the town council demolished around 150 hovels, and in their place regulated the streets and erected new, aesthetically pleasing houses. The state, in turn, set about erecting numerous monumental edifices for public institutions and workers' and civil servants' houses.

This was a much more arduous and difficult undertaking than founding a new city in the desert. Year by year Lutsk changes its face, taking on a more and more European character. The creative element of Poland, pre-partition and post-partition, has given this borderland town of ours an attitude worthy of its position. Numerous magnificent buildings bear witness to this.Lutsk is situated on the right bank of the river Styr, flowing among wide meadows, flooded during floods. The surrounding river and vast marshes defended the city from attack, all the more so as the only isthmus leading to it was protected by an arm of the Styr, dug from the north, called Glushce, and forming a kind of fortress moat.

As a result of its naturally excellent defensive position, the hill overlooking the whole town was chosen by the Ruthenian princes for the construction of a wooden fortress, which, however, was repeatedly captured and burnt down by the Tatars. Prince Lubart transformed it into a mighty brick castle, and Princes Vytautas and Svidrigelo enlarged and embellished it further. It consisted of two parts: the upper and lower castle. The mighty walls and three towers of the first part have survived in good condition.

There used to be ten of them, and each of them was to be kept in good condition by one of the Volhynian principalities. In the middle of the courtyard there was a beautiful Gothic residential building, in which Prince Vytautas received his guests so magnificently during the congress of monarchs, but with the passing of time and the growth of needs, it became too small and inconvenient, so the starost of Lutsk, Prince Andrzej Koszyski, built a new, magnificent, Renaissance "ducal palace" with a beautiful attic around the roof, and when it burned down in 1781. When the palace burnt down in 1781, it was replaced by the last Polish alderman, Prince Józef Czartoryski, who built a brick one-storey "nobleman's house" with a high broken roof, following the example of the rich nobleman's mansions of that time, which has been rebuilt and disfigured to this day, and after restoration and restoration is to be turned into the seat of the "Museum of Volyn".

During Russian rule, the castle buildings fell into disrepair, so that only remnants of them have survived to the present day. The triangular castle walls, which surround the courtyard and are made of excellent old bricks cemented with lime so strongly that they cannot be broken, are extremely thick, more than 10 m high and reinforced from the inside with blind Gothic arches. One enters the castle through the Lubart tower, which formerly housed the archive of the Volyn voivodeship with records from 1560 onwards. The south-western tower of Svidrigelo, also called Styr's tower, formerly housed an ordinary prison on the ground floor, and the treasury, the nobility prison and the archive of municipal records on the upper floors. It is currently the best preserved and has a beautiful Polish Renaissance attic at the top, as other towers used to have.

On the north side, i.e. from the town, rises the Vladich Tower, named after the palace of the Vladichs, or Uniate bishops, which was built next to it. It still exists today, but has been disfigured by an annex and turned into a dwelling house. In the castle yard, in the place now marked by a cross, stood St John's Cathedral, built in the 13th century, whose vaults contained the tombs of the former Luck princes and of Prince Lubart and his sons. It was wooden, and when it burnt down in the 17th century, it was rebuilt as a brick building.

In 1776, the Uniate bishop Sylvester Rudnicki began to build a new, magnificent one, following the model of Lviv's contemporary Baroque St Jura. However, the partitions prevented it from being finished, and then the Russian government demolished the foundation walls that had been started but were falling apart. At the end of the 18th century, the cathedral was moved to the Basilian church, and after it burned down in 1803 to the church of St Pokrovna, where it existed until 1826, i.e. until the Uniate diocese was abolished by the Muscovites after the death of Bishop Krasowski. Only the ramparts remain of the Lower Castle, which was home to the Latin Cathedral, the Jesuit Church, the Poor Clares Monastery and dozens of noblemen's mansions, even though its walls were still in good condition at the end of the 18th century. By the wall stood the Brigidine Church, and opposite, among the manor houses, the St Dmitri Orthodox Church. The original wooden cathedral, founded in 1427 by Prince Vytautas, burned down, and a new stone cathedral was built in 1539.

In 1781, the cathedral was moved to the opposite Jesuit church, and the ruins were razed. Only the cathedral bell tower, still standing today, survived. The present Latin Cathedral is a magnificent three-nave edifice in early Baroque style with a cruciform ground plan, decorated with low towers at the front and a cupola in the middle, above the intersection of the naves. The church was erected in the early 17th century by Bishop Marcin Szyszkowski as a Jesuit church, who later expanded it. After the fire of 1781, it was rebuilt in classical style and turned into a cathedral, receiving its present external appearance.

The interior of the cathedral is in the style of the period of Stanislaus Augustus, and the altars have many beautiful paintings by Polish painters of the 18th and 19th centuries, partly transferred from other churches after they were closed down by the Russian government. The cathedral sacristy also contains paintings depicting these churches in their original appearance. The church treasury contains many valuable and commemorative items. Beneath the cathedral, there is a huge basement with several storeys. Adjacent to the cathedral is the chapter house, occupying the former Jesuit monastery, which also houses the chapter's extensive library with a valuable archive collection. There is also a large painting depicting the baptism of Fr Vytautas.

Formerly, the building housed the Jesuit College, a school for the youth of the nobility, where the sons of magnates were also educated, and where the first master was the famous Bible translator Fr St. Wujek. After the abolition of the Order in 1773, the Education Commission turned it into a sub-departmental school, which was later closed down by the Muscovites as a Polish school, and a Russian grammar school was opened in its place. On a hill above the River Styra stood the church of the Brigidines, to whom Prince Albrecht Radziwiłł of Ołyka had given his palace for a monastery.

The nuns ran a school for noble ladies. The Russian government confiscated the monastery in 1846, deported the nuns to Grodno, and turned the building into a prison. All that is left of the church is the chapel, which serves as a prison. Not far from the castle stands the building of the former Dominican monastery, which, together with the defunct church, was founded and richly endowed by King Vladislovas Jogaila and Prince Vytautas. This beautiful church was renovated several times, but after the last fire in 1845, it started to crumble and ruined, and was demolished. The monastery, which had been closed down, was taken over by the occupying powers as barracks.

When independence was restored and Lutsk was made the capital of the Catholic bishops again, it was given back to them as their headquarters. Further towards the city, there is an ancient synagogue, one of the most beautiful in Poland, built in 1629 with the permission of Sigismund III, but with the condition that it be defensive, as if it were a separate fort, where the Jews had to keep a cannon with service. This magnificent building in the Polish-Italian Renaissance style is decorated with a beautiful attic, and the weight of the vault rests on a single, richly decorated column.

Nearby also rises a wooden Karaite kenesa, or synagogue, which is an interesting specimen of Polish architecture with a double broken roof. It used to contain many valuable artefacts, looted during the war by Hungarian soldiers and local Jewish-Talmudists. The Karaites, of Turkic-Tatar origin and seemingly descendants of the Khazars, adopted the Mosaic religion with some variations, recognising only the Holy Scriptures and rejecting the Talmud. They hold their services in Hebrew or Tatar.

Their protector, who brought the Karaites to Lutsk, was Father Vytautas. To this day, there is still a small group of them, concentrating at their temple. They were always good sons of their adopted homeland. Nearby was the Carmelite church and monastery, founded in the 18th century and closed down after a fire in 1845. On its foundations and from its walls a modern neo-Gothic Evangelical church was built in the 19th century for the numerous German colonists here. On the outskirts of the old town are the ruins of the Armenian Church of St Stephen, dating from the 15th century, which the Russian government closed down in 1820 and turned into warehouses and sold to Jews after a fire as a hovel. Armenians arrived in Lutsk in the 14th century, and during the colonisation of Prince Vytautas, their numbers increased so much that they had their own bishop.

From the ecclesiastical union in the 17th century, they were under the authority of the archbishops of Lviv. The church and monastery of the Order of St. John of God, founded in the 17th century, also stood nearby, but crumbled into ruins after a fire in 1793. At the corner of the market square is the Pokrovskaya church, the oldest in Lutsk, which was considered old already in the 16th century. It was rebuilt as early as 1383, and in 1803 the Uniate cathedral was moved here after the Basilian church had been burnt down. Then, after the dissolution of the Union, the Muscovites took it and converted it into a parish Orthodox church. It still has an ancient Byzantine image of the Virgin Mary, much venerated by the local population.

The Basilian church, built in 1647 at the expense of the Volyn nobility, was a Uniate cathedral at the end of the 18th century. After a fire in 1803, the Basilians moved to the Pokrovna church, where they were suppressed after the abolition of the Union. From the ruins of their church and monastery, including the well-preserved apse, the Orthodox Brotherhood built a small church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross. The above-mentioned buildings rise in the old part of Lutsk, called "Glushec" and separated from the former suburb of Khmelnytskyi by a branch of the Styr, also called Glushec.

These two former suburbs are now connected by a stone bridge, decorated with busts of writers connected with Volhynia by their works, namely: J. Słowacki, T. Czacki, J. I. Kraszewski, H. Sienkiewicz. The rest of the town up to the railway station is formed by a long street called Jagiellońska, with short blocks on either side, at the ends of which are already meadows and marshes. The street is today's town centre, built up under Russian rule with barrack houses, which are only now slowly being restored to an aesthetically pleasing appearance. This street, a former guesthouse, has been home to a church and monastery of the Trinitarian Order since 1729, whose task was to ransom prisoners from the hands of infidels.

The church was also taken down and demolished by the Muscovites, and replaced by a small Orthodox chapel on the square, while the monastery was turned into a prison in 63, where the last Polish marshal of Lutsk, Erazm Stecki, was imprisoned. Later, the building became the seat of the district court. The last memorial building also stands in this street - the former Bernardine Church and Monastery, founded in 1643 as a wooden church, and later built of brick by Prince Karol Radziwill, Voivode of Volhynia, and St. Piuszyński, Castellan of Zhytomyr. It was a rococo, cruciform edifice, with a wide façade with a tower and cupola.

In 1853, the Russian government abolished the monastery and took the church to be a military church and then an Orthodox cathedral, removing the old Catholic facilities and the graves of the local nobility, while the monastery, which had a defensive character, was turned into a prison, a magistrate's office and finally a grammar school. Today it houses the Provincial Office. The building is a magnificent semi-circular building of the type of the old monasteries. Beautiful cross vaults have been preserved in it on the ground floor. In the surrounding garden there is a commemorative barrow. Lutsk used to be the seat of two bishops: a Latin and a Uniate one, and even for some time a third - an Armenian one.

Apart from the castle, almost all the historical and monumental buildings here are connected with the Christian religion. For this reason and for the number of churches located in it, it was sometimes called the "Eastern Rome". Lutsk is home to several very important cultural institutions. The first is the "J. Slowacki Theatre of Volhynia", which carries the flame of love for Polish art in Volhynia, touring its cities. It has also won for its services the hearts of the entire Polish population there.

Another such valuable institution will be the "Museum of Volhynia", which was established mainly thanks to the efforts of a number of dedicated individuals, and today boasts a first-rate collection showing how powerful the tradition of old Polish culture was and is, the fruit of which is all that remains of those ancient times. The beautiful examples of Volhynian ceramics, today valued at gold, are proof that we were able to use the natural treasures of this land of ours, turning them into works of art. There are also traces of our ancient history and reminders of a later historical period, as well as specimens illustrating both the life of the local people and their great artistic skills.

The Volhynian Society of the Friends of Science, having worked very prominently in the scientific field for a number of years, has taken upon itself the task of elaborating issues connected with this land, so rich in historical events and so interesting in ethnographic and natural aspects, The Volhynian Society for Sightseeing and Care of Monuments of the Past has developed a very fruitful activity, creating a wonderful photographic collection of outstanding scientific value and publishing a very valuable "Guide to Volhynia", indispensable for anyone wishing to become better acquainted with this dear corner of our homeland. The "Rocznik Wołyńskie" is also a first-rate publication about Volhynia, which, although published in Rivne, also has its roots in the capital of Volhynia.

As can be seen from the above, Lutsk is a Polish cultural centre, drawing its vital forces from the old days of the Royal Republic and working for the good and power of the whole Polish Motherland in the name of love for this land, soaked with sweat and blood of Polish sons. As the capital of a voivodship of over two million inhabitants, one of the agricultural granaries of the Polish state, and rich in fossil fuels which are now being increasingly exploited thanks to the initiative of governmental factors, it has a great future ahead of it.

Lutsk also entered the economic orbit of the whole country through its connection with Lviv by the newly established railway line. Whoever saw this dear border town of ours in 1919, when it was taken over by the Polish army, and then only saw it today, surely cannot recognise it. The shabby, muddy town has turned into a civilised, prosperous settlement. This gives us hope that, with further strenuous efforts, it will soon become a real capital of beautiful and rich, green Volhynia, worthy of the name.