The text describes the town of Humań, located in Volyn Governorate, which dates back to the 17th century. The settlement of Umań was founded by the Potocki family. Destroyed completely by the Turks in 1674, it was later owned by Ukrainian Cossacks, who returned it to the Potockis after the Treaty of Prussia. In the following part of the article, the area of the town is described in detail, including the parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose founder was Szczęsny Potocki. The history and grounds of the Zofiówka park established by Szczęsny Potocki in 1797 are also recalled (Source: 'Tygodnik Illustrowany', Warsaw 1869, Series 2, T:4, pp. 4-6, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text.

Description of Humania in the Volyn Governorate.

This town, situated in the Volyn Governorate, is rightly counted among the most beautiful and commercially successful in that area. At the beginning of the 17th century, there was still a desert on its present location, which soon turned into a populous settlement and then into a town. Then, under the name of Umania, it became the heritage of the Potocki family. In 1674, the Turks conquered Humań, destroyed the town and cut down the inhabitants. It then fell into the possession of Ukrainian Cossacks, who returned it to the Potockis after the Treaty of Pruth. From 1768, the town declined and only recently began to grow rapidly, namely from 1834, when it became government property. Today, Humans, because of its trade relations with Odesa, has an excellent position in the province. Populous and well built, it has more than 12,000 inhabitants and over 900 houses. It is divided into the old and the new, and, as is usually the case, the new, or taller, one is grander and more splendid. In the midst of the old town there are still standing brick shops, built in a square, from where, walking perpendicularly towards the north, we come across a house made of bricks, which was the former castle. The castle was in the shape of a small fortress, with palisades and towers, and a large courtyard where several thousand people could stand comfortably. There were stables for 100 horses and a large warehouse, now converted into a house. It is reasonable to assume that the founder of the castle in the 17th century was Kalinowski. There are three Orthodox churches and a Catholic church. In 1789, a painting of the Virgin Mary, widely considered miraculous, was brought from Radomysl to the chapel built next to this church. Nowadays, this painting has been repainted, as it was already faded and blackened. Today's Homanesian parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands on a new site. P. M., stands in the new town. It was founded by Szczesny Potocki in 1780, but the church was not completed until 1826. The church is rectangular in shape, with two towers not built according to the original plan, for which reason they are somewhat too low. It is 64 cubits long, 30 wide and over 20 high. Four Doric columns form its frontal decoration, while inside, the stuccoed cornices and pillars are in the Ionic order. In addition to the large altar, there are two side altars: of St Anthony and of Our Lady of Czestochowa. Above the latter is a painting of the Immaculate Conception of the N. M. P., by Raphael Hadziewicz. In writing about Humań, it is impossible not to mention the local park, the Tsaritsyna (Zofiivka), which is widely known, but which is only two wistoms away from the town. Walking from the centre of town towards the north, one encounters a hill, neatly and symmetrically built up, beyond which stretches a space strangely charming and full of beauty. At the end of the road, the wanderer encounters a barred iron gate, which is the entrance to the park. Right next to it is a fountain of clear as a tear, cold as krynic water, which feeds the city. From the gate, it is still quite a long way to the park, along an excellent gravel road. At its end lies the Zofiówka park proper. This place was founded in 1797 by Szczesny Potocki, and laid out by Metzel, an artillery captain, a man who was familiar with the beauties of nature, and what's more, who knew how to turn a barely sandy dune into an earthly paradise, charming, graceful, full of variety and splendour at the same time, as can be seen at Zofiówka. Potocki was anxious to create a park and a home for his wife, which was accomplished in less than four years, and the place received its later established name from Zofia Potocka. By 1800, the park had already been laid out, and with what splendour and charm, we shall soon see. That the place used to be a wilderness is proven by a poem by Trembecki from his poem 'Zofiówka':
"8 twożenie wszędy świeże
And cognate pupils".

It entertains me, it pleases me, it inflames my senses. The hills that first shone with a thin nakedness, brought from afar have shaded the hills...
Indeed, the park is now full of familiar and overseas plants. At the very beginning, just at the end of the gravel road, there are wonders of beauty, created by human hands. To the right is a pavement shaded by dense, spreading trees, between which a silvery, invigorating stream flows with a quiet murmur. To the left is a large pond symmetrically enclosed by trees, above which, in the depths, is a beautiful portico, supported by a graceful colonnade. This is the pavilion of Flora, dedicated to that goddess, and built on the site of another, which was covered from the bottom to the top with natural bark. It was both original and beautiful. In the middle of the pond, a stream of water beats high from an upward-opening stone grotto, over which it splashes and seeps into the calm, mirrored pond. Two roads diverge from Flora's pavilion. Going to the right, one has to cross a one-arcade brick bridge, beyond which is the entrance to the bathroom. The road leading to the left continues over the pond itself, over hills piled with lush vegetation. On the opposite side of the pond, the rocks rise up, here and there encompassing busts of illustrious people in niches. Here and there, on these rocks, platforms have been arranged, from which an exquisite view opens out all around. From here, a path full of variety leads to the so-called Hypocrene spring. On a plane paved with stone slabs stands a four-foot-high marble pillar hewn into a quadrilateral, decorated with two gilded serpents. From this pillar, in a stone urn shaped like a shallow shell, springs a spring of clear, cold water. On the column stands a statue of Venera. Trembecki speaks of this spring of Hypocrene:
. "Descending into the lowlands, I reached the statue,
Which generously from the stone holes arises.
Round about covered, not a twig trod it,
Neither a ray shall melt, nor a bird confound.
The transparency of the dyament, and the lightness of the rain
Makes this water seem the queen of others."
From the source of the Hypokrena not far to the left is a wild rock, the opening of which leads into a quadrangular cave. In the bottom groove, in the middle of the grotto, a clear, mirror-like spring gushes forth, so clear that it is difficult to see and, as a result, it is very easy to bathe in it. This spring is dedicated to Diana. From this rock, to the right, there is an iron bridge, from which, to the left, there is a splendid view of a huge cascade, which drowns out even the loudest conversations of passers-by. Not far from here stretches the so-called "Reunion", a place of general assembly, as if the centre of a whole park, shaded on one side by trees, on the other obscured by rows of rocks, seemingly threatening to fall. Benches for strollers have been placed all around, and in the middle rises a vast waterhole in which golden Japanese fish splash and play. A granite vase springs up from this waterhole, full of fragrant plants whose branches gracefully fall over the water. Continuing upwards, we come across a huge rock in which a grotto is carved, dedicated to the memory of Łokietek. An oval stone table and bench serve as its entire decoration. This place is strangely suitable for sombre meditations, accompanied by the rustle of trees and the steady, mysterious murmur of the nearby but invisible cascade mentioned above. From here, it is essential to walk along the so-called "Avenue des Elysées", where foreign trees rise. Here we encounter vejmutas (Pinus strobus), acclimatised sycamores and chestnuts, thuyas, rowans and American lindens, firs, weeping ash trees and other very rare trees and shrubs. Here we see two poplars planted by the founder's hand, and also three aspens growing in a row, joined by their own branches, and supposedly planted at the birth of Szczęsny Potocki's children. Further on we come across the so-called 'School of Greek Philosophy', arranged on the model of the Greek academies, a place for a stroll among trees arranged in various and beautiful ways. On the opposite side, supported on a granite base, is a bust of Trembecki; at the bottom is a plaque with a poem by this poet:
"Flow, brook, with a swift run,
Forever cast your shadows,
And with a flowery shore,
Sprinkle the wild hasten the stones.
So happy a day escapes,
Though too rare for man...
It is easy to see:
Only a glimmer, and it flees!"

From here, the so-called Lion's Grotto lies nearby. In front of this grotto stands a lofty American fir tree, planted by Metzl's own hand. The interior of the grotto is quite spacious, dark and furnished with a stone table and a bench. In the corner is a spring, next to which an inscription is carved, including a two-line poem by the chamberlain-poet:
"Lose here the memory of misfortunes, and take happiness you know,
If thou art happy, be happier still."

From this grotto, having crossed a wooden bridge, one enters another grotto, supported on quadrangular pillars, with a statue inside of Venera. When the water cascades in this direction, this grotto becomes a veritable water tent, and then it becomes the best protection against the heat. From here, one crosses a stream, and following a hilly road, one reaches the so-called Amsterdam sluice through a causeway, from which a hundred-kilometre-long underground channel leads from a small harbour to a large pond called the "Sweet Sea". At the end of almost this pond lies an oblong island, man-made, on which, according to the original plan, a monument to Trembecki, the singer of Zofiówka, was to be erected. This project fell through, however, and the island was dedicated to a famous mythological witch and hence named Anti-Cyrce, after the witch to whom the ancients attributed the power to make everything noble and beautiful disappear. Trembecki writes about her:
"The sharper by nature, filled with spirit,
Those bristled with wickedness, those with longer ears."

About the islet, however, he says:
"Here, on the contrary, having arrived cattle and beast,
Each one of them better, each one taking a human face.
The monkey, by the cut of its robe, its movements and mines,
of distant lands processed the inhabitants;
Here, having thrown off novelties, having ceased to be fashionable,
She became of customs worthy of imitation;
A hog whose pastime is to think about food;
All delight in vanity, all honour in sadness,
Gluttony and sloth made him guilty,
Now he is temperate and with roaring activity.
Griffin, toiling in gold with unnecessary mating,
Loud then was the bullion handsomely taken."

And so this islet, at the stroke of the singer-songwriter's magic cane, became a place of seemingly unseen wonders, from where all that remains is the road to the hothouse and garden buildings. As we leave the charming park of Zofiówka, we cannot refrain from quoting Trembecki's glowing praise of the place, which he ends his descriptive-fantastic poem by rounding off with an apostrophe to the owner of the park at the time:
. "Who has tasted the Tusculan groves of coolness,
Who crowned the Tiber's falling waters,
Who the dreadful Pausilippu was through,
Still, in Zofiówka he may marvel,
And will admit, if sincerity rules his mouth:
What those parts are famous for, this one holds together.
But this place, Sophie, you adorn yourself more,
. More like heaven than daughters of Adam,
And as long as you deign to be a guest among the human race,
Half the world will worship, the other half envy.".