The text describes the town of Olesko and, above all, the castle there. The history of Olesko dating back to the late Middle Ages is recalled in detail. The text is also accompanied by several photographs of, among others, the church in Olesko or the interior of the castle and the local temple. The article itself describes in some detail the individual elements of the church and castle's design. The manor house in Juśkowice near Olesko is also briefly described (Source: "Ziemia. Tygodnik Krajoznawczy Ilustrowany' Warsaw 1920, no. 3, pp. 8-14, after: Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa).

A modernised reading of the text

Olesko

After visiting the magnificent "castle-palace" in Podhorce, we go out along a nice hornbeam avenue to a byway leading west to Olesko. Soon, we pass the last buildings of the town and continue along the winding road on strongly rolling terrain. To the right, a not-too-long deciduous forest stands out in contrast to the stripped hills with sparse vegetation, which again sways deliciously in the wet valleys. But here is the summit of the highest hill here. The sun is already high in the sky, and in its golden rays the silver ribbon of the Strypa River glistens before us, rolling its gentle waters in numerous meanders across the densely populated coastal plain. In the grey distance one can see the outlines of Lviv, embellished with the shapely silhouette of the High Castle, while closer to it - as if on a hand - stands the not very big, but from its shape recognizable as Olesko's fortress, at the foot of which a poor town was situated.

To learn about the oldest history of the Olesko castle, one has to look into the distant past. It is said to have been inherited by Bolesław Trojdenowicz, Duke of Masovia, together with a part of Rus, in 1327. The first mention of the settlement dates back to 1366, when Casimir the Great conquered Olesko and, by treaty with the Lithuanian princes, annexed it to the Crown. Four years later, the newly elected Polish King Louis granted it, along with many towns in Red Ruthenia, to his nephew, Ladislaus, Duke of Opole, in whose dominion Olesko remained for seven years, until a Hungarian garrison settled there. And again, after five years, there was a change of ownership. The shrewd Hungarian who ruled the Olesko stronghold, foreseeing that with the death of King Ludwik he would not be able to hold his own among the hostile knights and local people, sold it to Prince Lubart, who ruled in Lutsk and from there, at the head of a Lithuanian band, raided and destroyed Polish estates in the Lviv region with fire and sword.

Despite numerous warnings from the king, the plundering did not stop even in the time of Svidrigelo, so that Vladislovas Jogaila ordered to take Olesko by force in 1482. After a long siege, the Poles succeeded in taking Olesko away from the Lithuanians and handing it over to Sigismund, Duke of Lithuania, which they did after a long siege, subsequently garrisoning the "castellum" with a strong garrison made up of local noblemen, still exposed to the attacks of the previous owner, whose claims were not fully overthrown until 1430 by Jan of Sienna, son of the Castellan of Wojnice. It was to him that Władysław Warneńczyk granted, in a privilege of 1441, ownership of Olesko and its vast domains to him for his numerous proofs of bravery and faithful devotion to his homeland, since he had been signing his name permanently as Jan of Sienna Olesko. His son Piotr, who built a parish church here in 1481, left the vast Olesko estate to his daughters, Anna, married to Friedrich Herburt, castellan of Bytom, and Jadwiga, wife of Marcin Kamieniecki, Voivode of Podolia, who had it divided into two equal parts, so that after a mutual agreement in 1512, each of them had half the castle and the town with all their belongings.

Shortly after this act, the Tartars fell upon the Ruthenian lands, spreading their devastating raids far beyond the Strypa valley, leaving only ruins and rubble behind. The Olesko castle also suffered considerably, as Sigismund I allowed, by a privilege of 1512, Frederick Herburt to charge a fee for the conversion of the fortress. A second, no less terrible, attack by Mongol savages in 1519 brought both owners of Olesko to the battlefield, from where Fryderyk Herburt never returned, having died a heroic death, orphaning his son Stanisław and three daughters: Jadwiga, wife of Jerzy Daniłowicz, then Vasileński, Anna, wife of Chodorowski, and Katarzyna, married to Żórawiński, all of whom were blessed with numerous offspring. The matter of the division of the inheritance becomes extremely complicated, as the heir to the other half of the castle, Jan Kamieniecki, son of Marcin, tries to take advantage of the family feud by seeking to confirm the privilege of 1441 in such a way as to incorporate all the properties mentioned therein into his name.

Although he himself does not have the courage to appear before the King to support such an unholy plan, he does push "per fas et nefas" his plan through the then interim Chancellor, Andrzej of Górka, Castellan of Poznań, known for such abuses, who in fact obtained confirmation of the said deed in 1537. However, justice prevailed and Olesko remained half the property of the Daniłowiczs and half that of the Kamienieckis until 1578, when the latter first mortgaged and then, two years later, sold their portion to Stanisław Żółkiewski, Voivode of Bełz. Thus, the construction of the estate passed to the Żółkiewski family, and from there, with the hand of the hetman's daughter to Jan Daniłowicz, whose daughter Teofila was married in 1628 by Jakub Sobieski, who also received the Olesko property. A year later, the fabled hero of the battle of Vienna, Jan Sobieski, was born here. Ten years later, the second Polish king, Michał Korybut, was born here.

The bloody events during the reign of Jan Kazimierz, especially the Turks and Tartar hordes returning to Wallachia, contributed to the almost complete ruin of the entire town of Olesko. It was only thanks to her husband's care for the plight of his family place and the great contribution of Queen Maria Kazimiera's money that Olesko recovered from the ruins, becoming one of the most beautiful royal estates, quite often visited by wealthy owners. Here, in 1687, surrounded by a splendid court, Maria Kazimiera waited for her husband, who, having visited the hereditary estate in October, obeyed a deputation from the Prussian lands headed by Casimir Opaliński. At that time, King Jan III nearly lost his life when the castle bridge collapsed under his carriage.

What also remains is a description of the appearance and smaller defensive buildings of the time, drawn up by an educated courtier, Franciszek Dzierżach. 'It was a small town,' he says, 'but quite populous, with a rampart around it, and a walled castle rising on a raised hill. The building had a sad, gloomy, asymmetrical appearance, the chambers inside stretched out without order, but all were beautiful, wide, high and richly lined with marble."

There are few magnate estates in Poland that have gone through the same vicissitudes as Olesko, with so many changing owners. In 1725 it was sold to Stanisław Rzewuski, Grand Hetman of the Crown, whose son Józef Seweryn founded a Capuchin monastery and church here in 1731 and was buried there in 1755. However, Olesko soon passed from the hands of the Rzewuskis for debt in 1772 to A. Zieliński, then to A. Zieliński in 1772. Zieliński, then in 1784 to W. Lityński, from whom Mikołaj Zyblikiewicz, the national marshal, bought Olesko on the bicentenary of the memorable Turkish pogrom at Vienna. From that moment on, greater efforts were made to preserve the time-worn walls, which culminated in the reconstruction of the Olesko fortress according to the plans of engineer K. Kulakowski, still unfinished.

Erected on a not very high (about 60 m above the level of the surrounding plain) hill, it had to be artificially defended from all sides. Even in the first centuries of its foundation, serving as a fortalitium, it was surrounded by a rampart and a spur, with the actual residential building probably made of wood. Whether a brick building was later erected in its place, in the 15th-16th centuries, is not known.

However, it is certain that Jan Danilovich, having taken possession of the Olesko estate, rebuilt the castle from the ground up at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries, probably in the spirit of the 16th century. It is certain that Jan Daniłowicz, having taken possession of the Olesko property, rebuilt the castle from the ground up at the end of the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century, in the spirit of the Renaissance style prevailing at that time, significantly modified by later stylistic influences. The chateau gate is reached via an arcaded brick bridge - now dilapidated and overgrown with bushes. The chateau itself is made up of quite impressive buildings, separated by a small courtyard, connected on one side by a wall, and on the other by an entrance tower gate - of a horizontal oval configuration, adapted to the shape of the hill on which it rises. Above the arched gate there is a Renaissance-style shield with the coat of arms of Sas and Axe at the top, and Herburt and Korczak in the lower fields. We enter the courtyard through a wide barrel vaulted hallway. To the right in the building, through a beautiful Renaissance-style portal framed by pilasters with beautiful figural ornaments, with similar coats of arms in the tympanum, we enter the present-day staircase, recently separated from the halls by a Prussian wall.

The ground floor is still inhabited, unfortunately not open to the public. The first floor, however, almost completely renovated, must impress everyone. It is striking by the enormity of the hall, once two storeys high, which probably also had a balcony for music, as it was the venue of all the sumptuous receptions and entertainments during the reign of King John III. Through a rather large room, one goes to the right to the so-called "royal rostrum", decorated with eight imitation yellow marble pillars, very well preserved. This corner room is already - like the next two - completely renovated. The stucco walls are beautifully highlighted by graceful door frames, delicate wall stucco and a light cornice under the ceiling. From here, a door leads into the prettiest chamber in the chateau with a ceiling, rich stucco and pretty paintings on ornate canvas, with white smoothed walls. In the corner opposite the windows rises a wide carved fireplace depicting Paris giving an apple to the three goddesses. Separated from this lavatory by a polychrome wall is a single-windowed room where John Sobieski was probably born.

Although there is a passage from here through the room in the tower above the entrance gate to the other part of the chateau, it is usually closed so that you have to go back down to the courtyard to get to it. The second floor of the right wing, as well as the first and second floors of the left wing, have so far presented a very sad sight of ruin and neglect. Having been used as classrooms for some time, the once most beautiful rooms have been badly damaged and it is only now that the restoration and conservation work is progressing that the halls and smaller rooms are regaining their former appearance, a testament to the aesthetic sense of the former inhabitants. The ground floor of the left wing has been partially restored, namely the former chapel and the site of the now buried, very supposedly deep well.

The first floor, on the other hand, has interesting ornamental details in the individual toilets, strangely reflecting the mottled painted plaster of the not too distant past, and it is to these that we wish to draw attention. In the "portrait" room, the baroque plaster frames with consoles of former portraits have been preserved, as well as a frieze, also made in plaster, richly ornamented before. In the "blue" room, so called because of the prevailing blue colour of the paintings, only the following have survived to the present day: a lovely fireplace with three angels stretching a fabric made of blue-coloured plaster with tassels, neatly modelled in the folds. The window stuccoes stand out next to it, depicting crowns supported by naked angels, as well as the richly ornamented cornice under the ceiling.

In the adjacent "Mirror Room", the white plaster frames of the mirrors, supported by rocking angels, bear witness to a better past. The character of the motifs and the workmanship of the described ornaments indicate the influence of the Western Baroque, contemporary with Maria Kazimiera, who decorated the Olesian building with them, and the way of modelling, especially the garlands and the floral ornaments in general, seems to resemble the reflections of the Rococo. In the courtyard, the two windows in the left-hand side of the castle, with the Saxon coat of arms at the top and the numbers 1599 on both sides, are distinguished by the nobility of their outlines and the rendering of the ornaments in stone.

This is the outstanding residence of King John III, not the last in the history of magnate fortunes. And it is to be expected that in a few years, perhaps a dozen or so, after thorough restoration, it will be one of the best defensive castles of the 17th century in Poland. Frequently visited, it also continues to be tarnished by tourists wishing to immortalise themselves with inscriptions on the walls, which are evidence of a lack of culture and reverence for monuments of the past. Right at the foot of the chateau are the extensive buildings of the Capuchin monastery from the first half of the 18th century. Like many others in Galicia, this one, too, met a sinister fate on the part of the Austrian government, which in 1785, after the dissolution of the Order, or rather its possessions, turned the monastery church into a grain store, vandalising the library and works of art, including extremely valuable and rare paintings by the Bernardine artist Le¶cki and Sz. Czechowicz ("Resurrection of Peter").

By a happy coincidence, Emperor Joseph II, who was on his way to Brody, visited the area and, outraged at such ruthlessness of the blind officials, ordered the monastery and the temple to be returned to the Capuchins in 1788, but without returning the lost sculptures and paintings, so that the church, scratched by an earthquake in 1838, does not look very impressive inside nowadays. Near the dirty market square of Olesko, with a population of about 5000, mostly Jews and Ruthenians, stands the parish church, destroyed by fire in 1841 and devoid of architectural expression. Only some fragments of Gothic and Renaissance style testify to the former type of this temple, built in 1481, probably by Piotr of Olesko, son of Jan of Sienna. Maciejowski, is a plaque referring to this act, built in under the choir. Among the church's many benefactors, the most prominent is that of the Ruthenian Voivode, Jan Danilewicz, who, in 1627, substantially furnished it and added two chapels dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St John.

Above the last chapel rises an octagonal, rather large, about 15 m high tower, which now serves as a bell tower. However, the numerous loopholes and thick walls suggest that it is the last remnant of the church's fortifications, which also resisted enemy plundering. The interior, devastated by a fire, is notable for the nice renaissance portal leading to the sacristy and the tombs of the Danilovich family. Opposite the pulpit there is a tombstone of Jan Danilevich in the wall, in the form of an oval shield made of red marble, decorated all around with arabesques. An interesting relief by a good chisel depicts a young knight, clad in armour, kneeling, with his head uncovered and his hands folded in prayer. In front of him is a cross, and at his knees a knight's helmet, and under his knee two swords, folded in the shape of the emblem of Christ's passion. Above the knight's head floats some small figure, and at his sides angels. Beneath these images tells the story of the man buried here, engraved in large letters, the inscription:

"Eternae memoriae Juan. Danilewicz puero incomparabili, virtuti et patriae nato, cuius pietatem, ingenium, mores, animum ad omne togae, regiae decus supra annos vix ultra lustrum mirata Russia. Joannes Daniłowicz Palat. Ter. Rus. et Sophia de Żółkiew Mostissimi Parentes P.P. Obiit XXII Septem. Anno Dni 1618".

The second tombstone was erected the following year by Danilovich for himself and the rest of the family in front of the great altar in the form of a stone slab with the inscription, lined with brass:

"D.O.M. Joannes Danilowicz Haeres in Olesco Palatinus Terrarum Russiae Sibi Posterisque Posuit VIII Januarii A.D. 1619".

Below it an engraved circle, divided into four parts, and in each a coat of arms: Saxon, Axe, Right and Korczak, as in the castle above the entrance gate.

The outline of Olesko's history includes times of decline and times of growth for this not overly poor town, which owed its existence to the road leading from Lviv to the north-east, through Brody to Volhynia and on to Ukraine. The same fact, however, which gave rise to a considerable number of similar towns in this belt, also brought them almost total destruction from time to time, being the so-called Tartar route, a road along which, in addition to the Asiatic locusts, also ravaged groups of half-wild Lithuanians and Ruthenians, led by lordly princes, mostly from Volhynia, moved into the western parts of Red Ruthenia. Nowadays, when the railway line has almost ceased to exist, when the iron roads went through other distant areas, the local villages are preserved only by force of tradition, giving shelter to fruit-growers, farmers, beekeepers, and to a lesser extent craftsmen, not growing at all, but assuming more and more the character of a larger village, or rather a grouping of human settlements, occupying an intermediate place between a village and a town in the strict sense of the word.

The nearest railway station from where one can travel to Lviv is a mile away in Ożydów, to which a well-maintained road leads from Olesko, running through the village of Juśkowice past a lovely park, in the midst of which sits an imposing manor house with a mansard roof and a renaissance façade, changing on the ground floor into a porch wrapped in wild wine. Up close, however, it makes a sad impression. The garden flowerbeds, sometimes trampled by grazing cattle, the once regular hornbeam rows, the lime tree avenues, are now overgrown, it is difficult to find traces of footpaths, and the park in general is slowly turning into a forest, awaiting its inevitable fate, the axe! Everything seems to speak of the lack of a master who cares about the state of his name. Having belonged to the Uniskis in the 18th century, then to the Wasilewski family and finally to Patio de la Scalla, the village in turn was given to a Jew. We quickly pass through deserted rooms with broken marble fireplace frames, of which only a faint trace remains here and there. Only one part of the manor, the former chapel, is not badly preserved. The rich rococo plasterwork, especially the upper ceiling frieze and the original cooker, is fading more and more with each passing day as a result of the dampness caused by the unprotected doors, windows and roof.

The great fortunes of the magnates are disappearing and failing, the estates and manors of the nobility are falling into ruin, the small backwoods are getting thinner and thinner all the time, parcelled out by speculators or passing into the hands of Jews, who deal in a barbaric manner with the beautiful and dear to every Pole witnesses of centuries gone by. This is the fate of all the manor houses, palaces and monuments of the past, when the spectre of business now dictating the right to exist or their complete destruction hangs over them....