The text describes the city of Lutsk and presents its history and turbulent history, starting from the 7th century. The 'happy times', the great congress of monarchs in 1429, are also recalled, as well as various issues of the urban space, including the former churches of the Bernardine Fathers or the Dominican Fathers (Source: 'Tygodnik Illustrowany', Warsaw 1872, No. 236-261, Series 2, T:10, pp. 28, 30, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text.

Łuck

For the historian, antiquary, poet, playwright and painter, Lutsk is a city where, at almost every step, you can come across a peculiarity, hear an interesting story, see objects so interesting in their present form that they seem to ask to be preserved from oblivion, whether in description or in drawing. Wherever you look around, there is an abundance of ancient barrows, graves, ruins everywhere, full of memories of strange adventures and vicissitudes of fate in this land. But they are not strange for the one who at least knows the history of the country and the city. For, like the whole of Ruthenia and some of its outlying areas, Volhynia was for many centuries a field of terrible invasions and numerous battles between a multitude of minor ruling princes, constantly squabbling with each other, and later of severe Mongol and Tartar invasions, quarrels between Lithuania, Ruthenia and Poland over this land. For a long time the Volhynian lands were torn out by these peoples, and when they became the property of one country, they were invaded by the Tartars from the Volga and the Crimea, or by the equally terrible hordes of Zaporizhzhia. First of all, in 1260, the Tartars invaded the region for the first time and, after destroying it completely, did not stop until they reached Silesia. In 1396 they were defeated here by the brave Vytautas. In 1442 the Tartars came again, and for 40 years raided Volhynia and Podolia again, and even though Theodor Buczacki crushed them in several places and deprived them of much of their produce, they did considerable damage. Five years later, the same barbarians deported 9,000 prisoners around Lutsk. And how terrible were the wars with these people in the 15th and 16th centuries! Although they were crushed by the sword of Konstantin Ostrogski, the hero of Volhynia, in 1575 thirty thousand inhabitants were taken captive from there. During the reign of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, forty thousand people were supposed to have died in Lutsk alone, and later the Turkish armies rushed here, blood was shed in every encounter, their marches were marked on both sides by sword and fire, and they were followed by disease, famine, misery and all the misfortunes from whose burden this country was many times lifted and again fell under. With all this in mind, we can understand why the environs of Lutsk, both near and far, are covered with so many graves, and why the ruins of ancient walls stand in the city. At all times Lutsk was the scene of bloody war wrestling or the theatre of domestic disorders. It had also happy times, when the city was famous for the magnificence of many buildings, for numerous temples, for its immense extent and wealth of inhabitants. For the town was a very ancient one, dating back to the pre-Christian era. It was supposed to have been founded in the 7th century by the Dalebians, or Lucians, one of the numerous Slavic tribes that settled on the Styr river. Others relate its beginning to the reign of Vladimir the Great, who is said to have built the city in the year 1000. Whatever the case, it is certain that the national chronicles already mention it in the 11th century as a more important city, hence it was called Great Lutsk, probably to distinguish it from the small one. At that time, it was the capital of a duchy, a vast and defensive stronghold. According to a local legend, it included adjoining villages, nowadays even much more distant, such as Hnidawa, Krasne, Cherezhytsya, Dvortsov, Kniahyninek, where the canal is named after Vytautas, Zychyczyn, Kivirce and Zaborol, which used to be suburbs. Indeed, there are traces of various large buildings that powerfully support this legend. As a capital and a fortified place, Lutsk was occupied again and again by various Ruthenian and Polish princes, until Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, annexed it to his state at the beginning of the 14th century. The following century was the most prosperous for it. At that time, Prince Vytautas often lived in Lutsk and even allegedly intended to make it the capital of a separate state, which he worked on establishing at the end of his life. To this end, a great congress of monarchs took place in Lutsk in 1429, brought by Vytautas as a place where he could comfortably accommodate and receive all of them. The fortified castle was then erected on a hill flanked by the Styr and Glushec rivers, and ruling over a vast expanse of land surrounding the city; the castle was inaccessible and even unconquerable when in spring the first two waters joined the city by causeways and a bridge, and so far in the fields of all the aforementioned. This edifice was to serve as a dwelling for the more illustrious guests; the rest, together with the servants, had to seek accommodation in the town itself and in the nearby villages. On the appointed day, Władysław Jagiełło, King of Poland, and Vytautas arrived in Lutsk, surrounded by prelates, princes, lords, Polish, Ruthenian and Lithuanian noblemen. Also arriving were the Mazovian princes, Basil v. Duke of Muscovy, Boris of Tver, Oleg of Kazan, the hospodar of Wallachia, envoys of the Greek emperor, tsars and khans of Perekopsis and Volga, Erik, king of Sweden and Denmark, Siegfried, the Livonian champion, two commanders sent by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights; and Emperor Sigismund, at whose instigation the congress was convening, announced through envoys that important employments made it necessary for him to delay his arrival in Lutsk. It was only six weeks later that Vytautas received the news that the Emperor had finally arrived with his wife Barbara, and that his retinue included Russian and Hungarian lords. Vytautas and Sigismund rode out on horseback opposite him about a mile before Luck. Jagiełło sat in the empress's carriage, while the rest, all on delicious mounts, to the sound of music, approached the city, greeted by the joyful shouts of the people. Having crossed the Styr, they met processions led by bishops and clergy of the Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian and Mosaic faiths. Vytautas received his guests with royal splendour; food and drink were served only in gold and silver vessels. The chroniclers all state what Stryjkowski mentions, that 700 oxen and heifers, 1400 scopas, 500 wild boars, besides vegetables, were eaten daily; that Vytautas gave out 700 barrels of honey daily, besides wine, beer and other beverages, and the convention lasted for seven weeks. Upon the emperor's arrival, deliberations began in a few days. At this congress, according to Kojalowicz, other subjects were given to the public for deliberation, and secretly Vytautas was given other subjects. Whether this claim is correct or not, it is enough that the congress and the intentions of both failed and remained fruitless. After the death of Vytautas, Duke Svidrigelo, his brother, similarly wishing to free himself from the influence of the Kraków court, defended himself under siege in Lutsk, finally burning down the city in 1437. However, he later changed his intention, reconciled with his brother Vladislav and ruled in Lutsk until 1452. After that, Lutsk, which was annexed to Poland along with Volhynia, reached the peak of its prosperity, the prosperity of its inhabitants and the highest population throughout the century, until the middle of the 16th century. It counted at least tens of thousands of people of various nationalities: Busins, Poles, Armenians, Tatars, Wallachians, Karaites and Jews. All religions had their own churches, the number of which gives an idea of the religious state of the city at that time. Thus, there were 10 Orthodox churches (the 1620 survey even reports 70, which seems to be a mistake), 2 Roman Catholic churches, a cathedral of the Armenian bishopric under the title of St Stephen, already existing at the time of Vytautas, and several Old Jewish synagogues. Some were brick, others wooden. Of the first, towering in number and importance, only four remained by the end of the 18th century. On the other hand, there were 12 at that time, namely: the Jesuit church, later taken over by a Roman Catholic bishop's cathedral; the Dominican church, converted from an Orthodox church, dating back to the 13th century; the Carmelite church, of the Brothers of St. John of God, from the ancient church of St. James; the Basilian church, also from the church of St. Lazarus; the Bernardine monastery, the Trinitarian monastery, the Missionary monastery, and finally the women's monasteries, with the churches of the Brigidine and the Daughters of Charity. The decline of the former had many causes, but the most understandable explanation is provided by the Jesuit judge Kazimierz Kojałowicz, who is not accused of this, referring in his "Miscellaneach" to an edict by King Casimir Jagiellon, issued at the instigation of his son St Casimir, under which it was forbidden to build new churches or to repair those that were falling into ruin. In general, from the second half of the XVI century Lutsk began to decline, and after the catastrophe of 1648, when the Zaporozhians cut down or drove out all the inhabitants, the city did not return to a better existence, but more and more decaying, covered with misfortunes of all kinds, it tested the proverb circulating in the mouths of the people about it so far:
"In tom Lutsk
Wse ne pohidźku,
Na okol wida,
A w seredyni bida."
The most devastating calamity was always inflicted on it by frequent fires, of which the fire that occurred several years ago, which turned many church and secular buildings to rubble, is one of them. Lutsk was annexed to Russia in 1791, in 1795 it was made a district town, now has 4,973 inhabitants, 1 Orthodox Church, 1 Roman Catholic Church and 1 Jewish house of prayer. There are 11 Jewish houses of prayer and 1 Karaite synagogue; the number of houses is 419, including 37 brick ones. Its greatest decoration is the massive remains of the ancient castle, which still house the county court. There are schools and charitable institutions, while the small trade remains in the hands of the Old Believers.