The text describes the castle in Otrokovo in Podolia. The village belongs to Count Władysław of Żmigród Stadnicki, and was founded by Ignacy Marchocki - just like the Otrokov castle he built. In the following part of the article, the area around the village and the castle and the cemetery where members of the Marchocki family were buried is described in detail (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1869, Series 2, T:4, pp. 20-21, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text.

Description of the castle in Otroków.

The European Review placed a story by Mr Bożydar Szaszor about Ignacy Ścibor Marchocki in the May issue of 1863. Already previously Mr. Sylwester Groza in the form of a novel under the name: "Count Scibor on Ostrowiec", sketched us a picture of this personage, so interesting by many measures, who was suspected of eccentricity, accused of abuse, called a ridiculous original; and yet this Marchocki was one of the first representatives of progressive thoughts that have generally developed today. There are many stories about this truly remarkable man, told by those who knew him and were able to observe his way of life, but these have been almost completely exhausted in the writings I have mentioned; therefore all that remains for me to do is to sketch a picture of the place where the late Ignacy Marchocki lived and to give drawings of some of his remaining mementoes in brick, as they have survived to the present day in the Podolia region. I inspected them in 1866 and made notes, and supported by a photograph of the painting made on the spot by Mr J.P., I am sending it to "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" in the hope that I may make use of it. Here is a description of the place. The river Uszyca is one of those beautiful ribbons of Podolia which, contributing to the previous half of this province, flow southwards towards the magnificent Dniester bends. Having flowed through a narrow stream of the plain, it begins to increase in size from the village of Illibova and enters, like its other sisters, between two walls of steep ridges, which, stretching in the most diverse folds, form a very picturesque gorge. In the depths of this gorge, on its slopes and peaks, villages and towns are scattered. Already the village of Kurzelowa stands out with the allure of a wonderful village, further on, m. m. Zinków, Mińkowce. Zinków, Mińkowce, Sokulco etc., all the way to the once district town of Stara Uszyca, where the river of the same name gives its swift waters to its more powerful brother. The village of Otroków, today the hereditary property of Count Władysław of Żmigród Stadnicki, lies on this magnificent gorge, not far from the town of Mincovets. Entering it, one can recognise that one is in the former estate of a man with a somewhat eccentric imagination; even the village inn has the appearance of some monumental edifice from Roman times. Above the very crest of the steep slope of the wide ravine, in the angle formed by the two converging ridges, rises a seemingly defensive castle, strangely adorning the whole area; it has four high towers and two rows of long, weighty residential buildings, above which the chimneys from the fire of 1826 stick out in places. Inside, the castle is completely empty, without doors, windows or a floor, overgrown only with grass and nettles, but its external appearance, especially from the side of the ravines, is magnificent. Not far from the castle walls, on a plain, there is a fairly well-preserved temple, the use of which I have not been able to find out, nor could I inquire. Above the door of this tabernacle is an inscription in Latin: "Quatenus denegatum est nobis diu vivere, faciamus aliquid quo nos vivere testamur" (Since we have not been allowed to live long, let us do anything that would testify to our life). In the depths of the gorge, whose steep walls are covered with a beautiful hornbeam and sycamore forest, a stream of clear water, murmuring over the pebbles and forming numerous waterfalls, breaks the melancholy silence of this place of sorrow and remembrance; it is the water course of the Uszyca River. By the stream is the family cemetery established by the owner, girded by a thick stone wall in the shape of a cross; in the centre is a monument to Ewa lir. Marchocka, wife of Ignacy, carved from local stone, with Latin inscriptions, is in the shape of an ancient sarcophagus; at the corners stand statues of geniuses, much damaged. On the right, in the arm of the cross, the corpse of the late Ignatius Marchocki, who died in 1827, is laid in the frame. There is no inscription on the cover plate, as this was the will of the deceased. On the left, also in a frame, rests the corpse of Scholastica, née Ruff Hanicka, who died in 1817. In addition, there are small frames where the bodies of Ignacy's grandchildren rested. Walking away from this sanctuary of death along a beautiful promontory, between lofty walls of great height, covered with woods and grass, one breathes in the fresh, intoxicating air. The springs that fuel the course of the main stream beat here in places, some columns and benches can be seen here and there, but all badly damaged. The quadrangular building without a roof must have been that temple of peace mentioned by Mr Szaszor. At the entrance to the wide gorge, where the streams flow into the Uszyca River, begins the settlement of the village, which the late Ignacy Marchocki, like these gorges, called Przytulia, and the reason for this name is mentioned in his novel by Mr Sylwester Groza. To the left, beyond the course of the winding river, are the remains of some brick buildings, leaving to the imagination the possibility of creating an image of the beauty of this place, when all these edifices still stood untouched, and each of them must have had some distinctive feature of the taste of its founder. To the right, in the distance, the pretty little town of Minkovce looks out from between the ravines like some kind of gem, made up of small buildings, church gables and an Orthodox church. Further beyond Minkovce you can see the Belmont palace mentioned by Mr. Szaszor, standing against a background of azure sky, which seems to be hardly inferior to the Italian one. This southern area is indeed beautiful, especially on its outskirts, and nature has decorated it so gracefully and alluringly that everything smiles and attracts towards itself. If you walk along the paths of the Podolskie Gulleys, you can forget about the hardship, because in each of their folds a new landscape is revealed, and more and more beautiful. Suddenly, the opposite granite wall closes our view of the Podil, it's the wall above the Dniester riverbed... The river, on the banks of which we were walking on the Podil, soon ends, as it modestly and impoverishedly flows into a wide and rapid river, which also carries its dishes to the sea; it has made you happy and satisfied with its swift course, and now it bids you farewell and makes you admire something more powerful. The banks of the Dniester are a repetition of those picturesque rifts of smaller rivers, which run parallel to it in short intervals, only in an unevenly more magnificent form; the Dniester itself produces numerous and continuous bends and on its course we encounter ever new sights. The coastal hills are steep; on their sides there are layers of flat stones, alternating with bushes and beautiful greenery, and on the ridges there are high spur mounds, monuments of bloody wrestling with the Muslim wilderness.