The island of Šolta on the Adriatic Sea was once a favourite with Polish artists. Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński also stayed here twice on health holidays. Let us, therefore, get to know this story.

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński in Croatia
There are places on Earth where it is said that just being there stimulates the senses and influences the creative process of artists of all kinds. But only a few are lucky enough to have been born there like Antonio Vivaldi in Venice, or to have lived there all their lives like the Parisian Marcel Proust. Most follow the advice of the Russian poet Nikolai Gumilev and have to seek their 'muse of distant travels'.

It is probably difficult to speak of a conscious choice of this kind in the case of a sixteen-year-old, which is how old Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski was when he turned up in the small town of Nečujam, in Croatian Dalmatia. Nor could he have even guessed that the stone, two-storey house where he spent his holidays in 1937 and 1938 had once belonged to the Renaissance writer Marko Marulić, the father of Croatian literature. He made history not only with his poetry, but also with the first use of the word 'psychology'.

Perhaps it was also here that Baczynski first fell in love. Love may have become the muse that pushed him towards both the pen and the easel.

Šolta Island and Polish artists in Croatia
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and even Bronisław Piłsudski, to whom a commemorative plaque has been dedicated in nearby Rogač, also took a liking to the picturesque corners of Šolta Island.

Why did our compatriots choose Šolta out of more than a thousand Croatian islands and islets? Let us recall the muse of literature and its faithful servant, Ferdinand Antoni Ossendowski, writer, avid traveller and - alongside Professor Tadeusz Hilarowicz - founder of the Polish-Yugoslav League.

Polish House on the Adriatic in Dalmatia
. Franciszek Ossendowski, a Polish Tatar by origin, co-founded an organisation focusing on activities promoting and popularising cooperation between the two countries.

In 1927, as part of the League's work, he set up the housing and construction cooperative "Polish House on the Adriatic". Its members, having travelled along the Croatian coast, decided, as we read in the 1929 biweekly "Official Life", to "acquire a villa on the island of Solta in Dalmatia and a plot of land on which a small villa was built for the time being, and in the future a large pavilion for 30 rooms with modern facilities and warm sea baths".

A second house, named Zofiówka after Zofia Ossendowska, and 5 hectares of land christened Chrobrzyn in honour of Bolesław Chrobry were also bought. During a grand fete attended by representatives of the authorities, aristocracy and clergy, the Polish anthem was sung, while the literary scholar and Polish philosopher František Ilešić from the University of Zagreb made a declaration:

. "Remember this, brothers Poles, that if a storm threatening your country ever roars on the Baltic, our Yugoslav Jadran [Adriatic] will also roar menacingly to rush to your aid".

Polish House and Zofiówka in Croatia
When the initial excitement subsided, it was time for the inevitable, even in such beautiful natural circumstances, prose of life. The centre, originally intended as a holiday home for members of the society, was to be run by the Bartelmuses, a married couple of Józef, a First World War veteran, and Emma (of Czech origin), co-founder of the Chopin museum in Żelazowa Wola. They were the true good spirits of the place.

Unfortunately, the sister Zofiówka, overseen by a certain Władysława Nazarewska, was much less fortunate. Although the administrator herself claimed that 'it was an honour for her', it was soon to be revealed that behind the backs of the donors she was conspiring with a fascist officer to take over the estate. Fortunately, the truth came out and this was prevented in time.

"Dalmatia" by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński
Over time, the two centres also began to function as a colony and treatment centre for children and young people.

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński (born in 1921) was always in poor health. As a child, he suffered from asthma, tuberculosis and heart pains, so his parents came up with the idea of sending him on health holidays to what was then Yugoslavia. There the boy swam, walked, explored and, above all, began to write and paint. He sent his parents regular letters, which he laced with drawings, such as those of giant worms, and we can only guess that he did all the things that teenagers his age did, such as watching the sea at night.

Croatia in Polish poetry
We can find reflections of those events in Baczynski's poetry, in the early lyric Dalmatia.

"The sea is black at night - it shines black -

the ink of God spilled on the land

and with a glistening sheet wavelessly clotted;

shines in stillness with the velvet of honey....

Shrimp eyes white - tearful phosphorus -

bottom lanterns, singing lights.

The moon's white cold blade

cuts the tar into shimmering streaks....

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

let's swim ..."

Who could have guessed that in a short while there would be neither the joyful bustle of the "Polish Adriatic" nor, still less, the boy who "sleeps through the time of the great sculpture / with his head heavy on the rifle".

Polish chapel and Our Lady of the Dawn Gate in Nečujam
Hard times came for the Bartelmus people living in Nečujam as well. The German army entered Yugoslavia in the spring of 1941 and the couple decided to return home. Before doing so, however, in 1939 they financially supported the construction of a chapel at the local ruins of St Peter's Church. The local builder Marin Ursić was responsible for its design and construction. A copy of the painting of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate from Rogač, which, according to a silver plaque, was an official gift from the city of Vilnius in 1932, was also moved here for safety from the turmoil of war.

How much the memory of the Polish couple means in this small town can be seen in the fact that years later the Bartelemuses were made patrons of one of the local streets. After all, if it were not for them, their efforts and hard work, perhaps the house of the father of the 'Croatian Renaissance' would be nothing but ruins today? However, as can be seen from the numerous photographs, not only has the architectural fabric of the building been preserved, but the memory has also been taken care of.

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński honoured in Dalmatia
There are two commemorative plaques in Nečujam in close proximity to each other: Marko Marulić's and Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński's. The plaque in honour of the Polish poet was unveiled on 6 June 2015 on the building where he lived as a young boy during his health holidays. The idea for the commemoration was the Polish Cultural Society "Polonez".

When one looks through holiday snapshots of tourists from all over the world immortalising the walls of the old villa on the hill where Baczyński lived, what is perhaps most moving is the sight of a small red-and-white flag inconspicuously flashing in the sun. It means that our people were here!