The text describes the Podolia city of Trembowla, recalls the history of the place and the surrounding castle, which was in the hands of Bolesław Chrobry or Casimir the Great, among others. Jan Samuel Chrzanowski is also mentioned, as well as the question of Wybicki's libretto to the opera 'Oblężenie Trembowli' (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1875, Series 2, T:16, pp. 168-169, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

The ruins of the castle in Trembowla.

In the beautiful and fertile area of Galician Podolia, on the Hniezna river, which flows into the Seret nearby, in a valley surrounded by mountains, lies the district town of Trembowla, one of the so-called formerly free towns. It has a population of 5,300, four ornate churches, Catholic and Uniate, a lively trade, and industry also contributes to its prosperity because of the best millstones in the country. The most important thing, however, is its past, which today is only reminded by the large ruins on both opposite mountains, on one of the Basilian monastery, on the other of the castle. As far back as the historical sources can be traced, Trembowla has already come into view as a fortified town of the front. In 981, Vladimir the Great conquered it, along with three other Chervenskiy castles, and annexed it to the Grand Duchy of Kyiv.

They were recaptured by Boleslav the Brave in 999, but after his death they were returned in 1029 to Prince Jaroslav, in whose family they remained until 1199, while one of his great-grandsons, Vasilko Roscislavich, was the Grand Duke of Tremblovsk in 1090. Then, from various Rus princes, after the Tartar invasion of 1240, it became part of the Duchy of Halicz. Throughout all this time and in all events, the Trembowel castle played a major role, which shows how long ago it was built and that it was used for defence. More detailed information about this period is provided by the famous historian from Galicia, Izydor Szaraniewicz, in his monograph about the four castles of Czerwunsk mentioned above. When in 1345 Kaźmierz the Great conquered Red Ruthenia and incorporated it into Poland, he immediately rebuilt and strengthened the local castle.

His successor, Ludwik, King of Hungary and Poland, settled Hungarians there, who, because they did not want to recognise Władysław Jagiełło as their lord, were expelled from here around 1390. In the centuries that followed, many events moved under the walls of the local castle and town. They witnessed, and often fell victim to, numerous attacks by Lithuanians and later Tartars, Turks, Wallachians and others. Memorable events took place in 1498 and 1508, when the Tartars and Wallachians, unable to conquer the castle, burnt it down and enslaved the townspeople. In 1516, the first Tartars, ravaging the Ruthenian lands, sneaked up on Trembowlova; however, the Polish army, under the command of Marcin Kamieniecki, Voivode of Podolia, Stanisław Lanckoroński, Starosta of Kamieniec, and Jan Tworowieński, defeated the invaders.

Two years later, the Tartars destroyed the town, so that Sigismund I, in order to raise it, freed the inhabitants from all taxes for 20 years; moreover, he set a fixed income for ever, which was to be used to keep the fortress in good condition. Subsequent monarchs did the same, and when the castle was in need of thorough repair, it was raised in 1629 by Aleksander Balaban, the local starost, at his own expense, while the Sejm of 1631 appointed auditors to evaluate the money he had spent. New disasters befell Trembowla during the war under the reign of Jan Kazimierz, when an inspection carried out in 1664 found only twenty or so houses in the town, which had previously numbered several hundred.

He gives a somewhat less despairing account of the state of the castle, to which, as he describes, the entrance was crummy, but the gate and entranceway survived; in the courtyard there were beautiful chambers and rooms, as well as a brick well. There was a nobleman's tower in the middle, a second one in the corner and a third one near the gate, in which there were shops for keeping the town's books and land records; all around the castle was walled with a mighty wall and there were a dozen or so cannons. Eight years later it was commanded by infantry major Jan Samuel Chrzanowski, whose brave defence against the Turks in 1675 became famous, mainly due to his heroic wife Dorota Anna, née Trezen. Thanks to the more recent research of the scholar August Bielowski, in his esteemed dissertation "Pamiątki trembowelskie", we now know more precise details about both characters.

Chrzanowski was born in the Mosaic religion, became a Christian at a young age and entered military service. In 1673 he had already distinguished himself as an able infantry captain and commanded one of the flags in the regiment of Aleksander Ludwik Niezabitowski, Castellan of Bełżec, and in the following year he advanced to the rank of major and was given command of the garrison of the castle in Trembowla. Soon afterwards, the Turks under Ibrahim-basha surrounded the castle. Ibrahim wrote a letter to Chrzanowski demanding the surrender of the fortress and sent it by Marek Makowiecki, who was taken prisoner in Zawidów.

Chrzanowski, with all the horror of knightly indignation, wrote back to the proud Muscovite and bravely repulsed several fierce assaults; however, among the defenders there were several dozen of timorous noblemen who started to discuss surrender of the castle in secret. Informed of this by his wife, Chrzanowski took the traitors into custody and severely punished them. However, when, under repeated assaults from heavy cannonballs, the defensive walls partially collapsed, and considerable gaps appeared in the ramparts, he himself, despairing of defending himself, began to hesitate and to contemplate surrender.

At that decisive moment, Anna stood before him with two knives, threatening to kill him with one and herself with the other if he did not continue to defend himself. Chrzanowski, convinced of the steadfastness of this intention from her look and attitude, moved to the depths by the extraordinary courage of his young and handsome wife, swore to the last to defend himself and, as if inspired by a new bravery, fought off the advancing Turks, inflicting a terrible defeat on them. Soon King Jan Sobieski also gave relief to Trembowla.

This heroic deed was immediately commemorated by the grateful inhabitants with a monument erected near the castle, but the indifferent descendants let it fall. As a reward, the husband was made a nobleman at the Seimas in 1676, then he was a subordinate of Mielnica in 1683, Smolensk in 1684, and from 1686 a commander of the Mikuliniec fortress, today a town in the Ternopil district, where he is said to have died at the end of the 17th century.

The castle of Tremblovsk was still defensible in 1688, when the Turks and Tatars, not tempted to conquer it for the last time, burned the town and carried away a large part of the population. Since then, impoverished, it has not been able to recover, the castle deteriorated more and more and, strained by human hand, slowly turned into ruins. It was not mentioned at all in the inspection of 1765, so it must have been in the state it is in today. The heroic defence of Chrzanowska was also forgotten.

It was not until the end of the last century that Jozef Wybicki was the first to revive her memory, writing a libretto in 3 acts in verse for an opera entitled "Siege of Trembow. "The only thing we do not know is who composed the music to it and whether it was performed on stage. In our times, this memory has been nourished by the talented Warsaw painter, Mr Aleksander Lesser, in his beautiful oil painting, popularised by lithography, in which the artist depicted that very moment when Chrzanowska, doubting the defence of the castle, encourages her husband with her courage and entices him to repel the Turks.