The text mentions the last days of Boleslaus the Bold and his pilgrimage to Ossyak [now Ossiach, a town in Austria - editor's note], where he settled in a monastery and died in 1089. The article describes the monastery itself, its location and the surrounding area, and the burial stone in the monastery is also described. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1864, T:10, pp. 359-360., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

The tomb of Bolesław Śmiały in Ossyak.

It is known that Bolesław Śmiały, tormented by remorse, fled to Hungary after the murder of St Stanisław, Bishop of Kraków. The chroniclers give conflicting information about the further fate of the assassin-king; however, the most probable supposition seems to be that, on a pilgrimage to Rome, he entered the monastery of Ossyak and there, having settled in penance, died in 1089.

The monastery of Ossyak, once a Benedictine monastery, abolished in 1781, and now a parish church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, lies at the foot of the Alps in Carinthia, not far from Klagenfurt and Feldkirchen, between the towns of Villach and Sankt Veit, on the banks of a lake of the same name, three hours' drive long and in some places half an hour wide.

On either side stretch mountain ranges, lower from Feldkirchen and higher from Villach, with snow-capped peaks, forming a closed, quiet and picturesque valley in the centre. At the foot of the mountains, above the lake itself, rises a church, surrounded by several buildings: this is the Ossyak, the former abbey. The church is a long, low building, supported on all sides by pillars, as if attached to a semi-circular chapel, quite similar to our Dunin churches, which the Bishop of Bialobrzeg in the mid-16th century already called ancient. Touching this chapel is the tomb of Boleslav, built into the northern wall of the outer church.

\Behind the tomb, there is a part of the church built in the 15th century, and further on, where the great altar is, under the belfry, there is an even more recent addition. This tomb monument consists of two parts, namely a stone lower part and a wooden upper part.

The lower part is a plaque fixed to the wall, thick, oblong, with three rectangular sides and a fourth curved at the top, made of Carinthian marble, once white, now yellowed with age, with a deep groove in the middle. Inside this groove is a horse carved in relief, with a piece of reins on its mane and a half worn saddle on its back, while its ears, eyes and nostrils are almost completely gone.

On the broad brim, around the central groove, i.e. on the sides and underneath, is an inscription in clear Latin letters bearing the mark of the 13th century: "Rex Boleslaus Poloniae, occisor Sancti Stanislai, Epi. Cracoviensis." (Boleslaus the Polish king, assassin of St. Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow). The marble is 2 Polish cubits high, 1 inch, 2 cubits long, 20 inches, the thickness projecting from the wall is 4 inches, while the horse itself is a cubit and 3 inches high from the head.

Above this sepulchral stone, which is said to have changed its place several times on the same northern wall of the church, above a roof made of sheet metal, there is an image placed in the frame, depicting a knight in armour and a helmet, his left hand holding a club, his right hand resting on his hip. This painting is surrounded by seven oval pictures on which scenes from the life of Boleslav the Bold are painted in oil, three on each side and one above the king. The pictures represent:
1. St. Stanislaus the bishop reproaching Boleslaus for his wicked life;
2. The bishop prays, kneeling before a cross shining in the sky;
3. Boleslaus kills a bishop celebrating mass;
4. Bolesław in pilgrim's clothing;
5. Bolesław ministering in the monastery and carrying wood to the kitchen;
6. Bolesław on his deathbed, surrounded by monks;
7. His funeral.

At the bottom of the entire painted image, in two compartments of four lines each, is the following inscription:

"Occidit, Romam pergit, placet Ossiach illi:
Ignotus servit, notus pia lumina claudit.
Ossiach hinc placat tibi, Stanislae, tyrannum,
Mitem quod totum caelestibus intulit astris.".

That is, in Polish:

"Killed, he went to Rome, Ossyach pleased him;
Unknown served, known pious eyes concluded.
Ossyach therefore reconciles with thee, Stanislaus, the tyrant,
That the deed humbled under the heavens raised.".

Some copies of these lines misspell placeat instead of placat, which is a great change in meaning, and Lelewel placed these words in a different order. Under the knight finally we read the words: "Boleslaus rex 1089". Lower still, above the stone horse, are the words in accordance with an old manuscript kept in the Ossaac archives from around 1688:

"Rex homicida ego sum, profugus et scelere dives;
Hic latui, luctans, deplorans facinus audax,
Ne tamen ob crimen caelestis vindicet ultor,
Sanguine purpureo tingentem sidera Olympi,
Te Stanislae rogo, precantis advoca causam.".

This is in Polish:

"King of assassins I am, an exile and rich in crime;
Here I hid and pained myself, repenting of a daring deed,
But lest the avenger of heaven should punish the crime,
Thee, Stanislaus, I beseech, whose purple blood the stars of Olympus blush,
Be the advocate of the cause of him who begs thee.".

In the year 1839, on d. In the year 1839, in the presence of witnesses, they proceeded to open the tomb under the frame, which for centuries had been called the tomb of King Bolesław the Bold by local tradition. A skull, several bones and iron studs were found there, probably from a coffin, and under the skull a brass pin with traces of gilding still on it. From this it was inferred that the king must have been buried in pilgrim's clothing and that this pin was used to fasten his collar or coat under his neck. Afterwards, the tomb was walled up again with Bolesław's remains, and the pin was attached with a string to an official deed, written down at the time of the discovery and preserved in the church archives.

In the same year, 1839, thanks to the contributions of several Poles, King Bolesław's tomb was renovated and furnished as described above. At that time, the tomb stone was fixed on the place where it is located today, as it used to be a dozen or so steps further, and the image of the knight, newly painted in imitation of the previous one which had been destroyed by time and now kept in the church treasury as a memorial, was placed over it, and it was surrounded with inscriptions according to old manuscripts, also kept in the Ossaac archives. A stone floor was laid around the entire tomb and it was enclosed by an iron grate with a door and an inscription in brass letters: "Salutem peregrinantibus Polonis". - "To Poles travelling salutation".

Beside the grave stone in the church, close to the ancient round chapel, is a frame 1 cubit high, 19 inches in the middle, 3 cubits long, 10 inches, and 1 cubit deep, 13 inches. According to local tradition, it is said to date back to the time of Bolesław, and it is here that the king is said to have been buried, head to the church and feet to the cemetery. Two skulls and cross bones mark this frame.

Inside the church, above the windows, are frescoes in one colour, in an oblong shape, depicting, far better than this oil painting on wood, the mentioned seven moments from Boleslav's life, supposedly by Frohmüller.