Four polonics - like four Jungian archetypes - introduce us to the world of Hedwig the Jagiellonian. This is a journey in time - we will go back half a millennium, a journey in space - we will visit modern and traditional Bavaria at the same time. In the process, we will also look inside ourselves to find out a little about the modern woman. On your way!

St. Hedwig Jagiellonian Church entry to Landshut
"Orszaki, dworaki, / the swoosh of peacock feathers!" sang Ewa Błaszczyk of a poem by Agnieszka Osiecka. And indeed history has different shades, but here it has left its superfluous mark. A royal retinue with life-size figures. Men, dressed with courtly splendour on mounts on which "a row of golden turquoises is planted", as one might read in the register of John III Sobieski's wealth. Although the particular retinue immortalised in this fresco had passed two centuries before the relief of Vienna. In addition to the dignitaries, the artists depicted warriors dressed in Eastern fashion.

Here, a bearded man in a pointed cap on his head and with a quiver on his back approaches the right-hand edge of the work, while horses with plumes are led by a moustachioed man in an oriental kaftan. There are also ladies - one, in a turquoise gown and horned cap, follows on horseback, while another, lower in the hierarchy, glides along on foot, teasing the halberdier in the process.

But they are all just a background for the bridal couple. She is the Polish-Lithuanian princess, Jadwiga Jagiellonka (1457-1502), daughter of Kazimierz Jagiellon and sister of Sigismund the Old. At one time, the most important bachelors in Europe vied for her hand in marriage, and the famous nuptials - due to the young couple's close relationship - had to be authorised by the Pope. He, George Wittelsbach (1455-1503), Duke of Bavaria-Landshut, in a glittering jewellery outfit, with a cap in his hand, probably removed during the bow, and riding a black, sturdy stallion, looks in one direction - towards the golden carriage decorated with a red banner with a white crowned eagle, in which the princess sat in a golden dress. From behind a veil of wealth and splendour, the figure betrays indecision.

Landshut - inspires and conne cts
A very picturesque scene, although it is hard not to ask how we can admire it in a Bavarian town, Landshut. In addition, this work of art, with the Polish national symbol in the centre, is located in the seat of the municipal authorities, in the most representative of their halls. The apparent explanation for this is simple.

In the second half of the 19th century, it was decided that the three interconnected Gothic townhouses deserved to be rebuilt and Landshut's landlords merged them into a single neo-Gothic town hall. The interiors needed a setting and artists associated with the Munich Academy of Fine Arts were invited: August Spieß, Rudolf Seitz, Ludwig Löfftz and Konrad Weigand. All had a series of works in their dossiers that were part of historicism. They were commissioned to illustrate a wedding in Landshut from 1475, an event from the town's prosperity. At the time, it claimed to be the main centre of Bavaria, drawing its wealth, among other things, from the nearby silver mines. The beginning of the 16th century brought a civil war (the so-called Bavarian Conflict) over the succession to the duchy of Bavaria-Landshut, and the subsequent decline of the town. It is significant that the burghers and nobility, threatened with confiscation of their estates, found refuge in the Polish city of Łańcut, which had been founded by their grandfathers. Let us recall that the name Łańcut is a polonised version of the German 'watchtower of the country', i.e. Landshut. The wars fought over the Isar River contradicted the narrative of the city's greatness, and this is, after all, what the strange 19th-century administrators wanted to talk about. No wonder, then, that their choice fell on the nuptials of Prince George the Rich of the Wittelsbach family to Queen Hedwig. In the early 1880s, the Parade Hall of the Town Hall was decorated with a series of frescoes and stained glass windows referring to this event.

The Wedding of Jadwiga Jagiellonka according to Bavarian painters
. Bavarian artists may have drawn on a variety of works, but let us draw attention to one - the portrait of Hedwig. It is in Landshut in the Trausnitz Castle museum and is the work of an artist called Mair. It was painted before 1502 and depicts the royal looking serenely into the distance, holding a dove in her hands. The creators of the frescoes also studied German and Polish chronicles, thus learning the context of the event.

Following in their footsteps, we learn that the story of the nuptials began in the early 1570s, when the Duke of Bavaria-Landshut, George the Rich, began to look around for a royal setting for his political aspirations and approached the ruler of Poland. Giving his daughter to such a candidate, from the perspective of Casimir Jagiellon, had the hallmarks of a mezalliance, although, on the other hand, the marriage brought benefits, and the King counted on, among other things, that the Lord of Landshut would support Jadwiga's brother Władysław, who ruled in Bohemia. The negotiations dragged on for a long time, and it was not until Christmas 1474, in Radom, that the monarch and the prince struck a deal.

The wedding was scheduled for October of the following year, but it was not without its problems. George did not meet the retinue at Wittenberg, which the king perceived as an affront, and once the conflict had been resolved, it turned out that there were outbreaks of epidemics on the route and the route had to be made up. Finally, on 14 November 1475, the Poles stood on the outskirts of Landshut, where they were greeted not only by their fiancé but also by Emperor Frederick III himself. It was only then that the eighteen-year-old Jadwiga saw her future husband for the first time. The meeting gave rise to festivities, the extent of which chroniclers have illustrated with numbers. Almost 10,000 guests enjoyed themselves for several days and during this time consumed: "323 oxen, 11,500 geese, 40,000 chickens, 194,345 eggs, 140 pounds of sultanas, 730 pounds of figs, three buckets of honey, 1.5 quintals of saffron, 338 pounds of pepper, 75,000 crabs". The accounts of the wedding also have a wider, source-related significance. The eminent historian Karol Szajnocha concluded from them that in the second half of the 15th century, contrary to earlier beliefs, the sabre was already a popular weapon of the Polish knighthood.

Wedding of Jadwiga Jagiellonka - staging of the wedding in Landshut
. The town hall frescoes stirred people's imagination. In 1903, the innkeeper Georg Tippel and the baker Joseph Linnbrunner organised a re-enactment of a historical wedding. The first re-enactment involved 248 actors and was an immediate success. It was decided to repeat it every four years; the last one, in 2017, was attended by as many as 2,000 citizens, while a total of 600,000 spectators watched the entire series of events spread over three holiday weeks.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 staging has been postponed until 2023. Let us therefore already get ready to take part in this event, treating it as the third Polonica associated with Jadwiga, after the frescoes and the portrait. However, this does not exhaust the legacy of the Jagiellonian queen. The last of the polonics is a symbolic tombstone in the Cistercian monastery in Raitenhaslach in the Upper Bavarian town of Burghausen.

The tombstone of Jadwiga Jagiellonka in Ra itenhaslach
. According to Adam Krzemiński, a publicist who deals with German subjects, "Wanda, co nie chcieć Niemca" "has almost become the founding myth of the Sarmatian Republic since the 16th century". Jadwiga would thus be her opposite, she does not divide but unites, and in this activity she heads quite a list of princesses, princesses and ordinary Polish women who agreed to a marriage with their western neighbours. Their fates, of course, went and go in different ways, although it is known that the daughter of Casimir the Jagiellonian was not happy in marriage.

George turned out to be as rich as he was promiscuous, and after a decade sent his Polish wife away, not to be disturbed, to Burghausen Castle, 80 km away. Alone there, she spent her last seventeen years and died in mysterious circumstances in 1502. She was buried in the nearby Cistercian monastery in Reitenhaslach. The tombstone of the Jagiellonian royal was destroyed in 1800 and today the only trace of her posthumous existence is a symbolic gravestone. And it is she who will be the fourth and final Polonica. As we stand over the plaque, let us think how Jadwiga Jagiellonka would have enjoyed our visits.

1485-1903

August Spieß (malarz; Monachium), Rudolf von Seitz (malarz; Monachium), Ludwig Löfftz (malarz; Niemcy), Konrad Weigand (malarz; Niemcy), Mair z Landshut (malarz, rysownik, grafik; Bawaria)

Andrzej Goworski, Marta Panas-Goworska