In the Navje Memorial Park in Ljubljana, there is a modest, but tasteful, classicist tombstone of Emil Korytka. According to the inscription on his tombstone - born in Lviv in 1813 and died in Ljubljana in 1839 - he was a Polish patriot, an independence activist. He was sentenced to exile in 1836 and became involved in shaping the national consciousness of Slovenians and took an interest in local folklore.

When we hear of exiles, what comes to mind first and foremost are the Tsarist deportations to Siberia or other remote regions. The Austrians had more limited opportunities in this respect, which does not mean that there were no deportations, and the fate of Emil Korytka is the best example of this. The policy of the invaders in this context was not only a form of punishment, but combined the isolation of the exile from his environment with the idea of state development. The majority of Poles went to the Balkans not as exiles, but for bread or adventure, treating it also as a kind of challenge. Although the province of Galicia was one of the poorest and most backward regions of the empire, the University of Lwow and the Jagiellonian University, as well as schools such as the Krzemieniec Lyceum and the Technical Academy, later transformed into the Lwow Polytechnic, educated young people, who often supplemented their knowledge in Vienna or other centres to become valued specialists in their fields.

Emil Korytko, however, was an exile. He came from a noble family settled in Žežava (now Zielony Gaj) near Zaleszczyki. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy in Lwów. With patriotism ingrained from home, he became involved in underground activities, distributing, among other things, illegal prints - texts by Adam Mickiewicz, banned in the Austrian partition. And it was this that led to his arrest. The investigation dragged on for two years until, as he himself wrote in a letter to his parents, "Today I have received my sentence for lack of evidence - and they are ordering me to go abroad to Austria or Styria for a while, maybe for a year, completely on my own, but at my own expense. This is just a manipulation, so that those who have been freed, for a while, until they poison themselves with those who have not remained in the country". He was eventually sent into exile in Ljubljana. Together with another exile, Bogusław Horodyński, he arrived at the place of exile in 1837. He was not completely free, as the police controlled him and Korytka was not allowed to leave the city in the first period.

At that time, Poles - if they knew of the existence of Slovenians at all - treated them as "Croatian highlanders". This was only changed by the research carried out by Feliks Konieczny from Vilnius and Andrzej Kucharski in Warsaw. It was Kucharski who was the first to point out the national identity of the Slovenians. Konieczny, in turn, emphasised the numerous similarities between Poles and Slovenes. As he wrote, we even have similar place names such as Tarnów or Krakow (Krakovo) - then a suburb of Ljubljana, today part of the Trnovo district. The etymology of the name probably does not derive from the Polish town, but from the word kraka meaning a branch of a river or, more broadly, a term for something split. By the way, some researchers have reportedly derived the etymology for the Polish city of Krakow. Just as Tarnów and Trnovo derive from the same Slavic word meaning thorn.

What Emil Korytka's knowledge of the place of exile was when he set out on his journey, we do not know. However, his love of folklore, fashionable in Romanticism, had already developed in his Lviv days, when he wandered through the Galician villages collecting information about folk culture. Locally, he also quickly became involved in national activities. The police, moreover, suspected from the start that Korytko might still be involved in national activities. Sedlnitzky of the Viennese police wrote to the governor of Ljubljana that "we are becoming more and more convinced that Polish fanatics (patriots) are trying to attract other Slavs to their subversive aspirations by this means of impersonating their nationality". However, notwithstanding the suspicion of the police and the restrictions on his movement, Korytko became genuinely involved in nation-building activities quite quickly. Through the wife of local lawyer Blažem Crobathem - Jozefina, a Pole by origin, who took care of the Polish exiles - he met, among others, the eminent poet Franc Prešeren (1800-1849). Apparently, it was under Korytko's urging that Prešeren began to write in the national language instead of German. During this time, Prešeren also became interested in Slavic folk poetry.

Prešeren and Korytko studied each other's languages. Thanks to the support of a Polish friend, Prešeren translated Mickiewicz's sonnet "Resignation". Korytko, on the other hand, noted down folk songs, travelled through Slovenian villages and amassed an impressive folklore collection, which he later donated to the local museum. He was able to develop his interest in folk culture from 1838, when the exile was allowed to leave the city and move around the Land, where he collected folk messages and, above all, songs. He wrote of his travels as follows: "I make my journeys in different ways: on foot, on horseback, on a cart. I have already travelled 5-6 miles on foot in the mountains, and 7 miles on horseback in one day, and everything is on the move. My wandering around the country has always been nothing other than literary. I collect Songs'. During this time he also published proclamations and articles addressed to Slovenians and emphasising their national distinctiveness. He worked intensively on a collection of folk songs. In December 1838, he signed a contract to have the first of five volumes published by a local publisher. However, they did not appear in print until 1839-1944, which was after Korytka's death, who died in Ljubljana on 10 January 1839. His funeral was also a national manifestation.

For him, involvement in national activities was also a moment of respite for his longing for his country and his family. In May 1838, he wrote to his parents, "If it were not for a book, if it were not for a pen, I do not know what I would do. There are moments in exile, as there were moments in prison, that the awfulness of them is difficult to define [...] My mind, my feelings must have nourishment of another kind. [...] So I sit, like a tortoise in a shell,
in this Lajbach (Ljubljana's name at the time) I do not like any longer."

Emil Korytka's tombstone is built into the wall of the Slovenian pantheon, which was located at the edge of the former St Christopher's cemetery. The cemetery was closed in the 1930s (although the last burial took place in 1940). Most of the tombstones were removed, with only the monuments to prominent Slovenians being moved to the arcaded classicist building erected for this purpose in the mid-20th century. The fact that Korytka's monument was located there is the best indication that his work has become a permanent part of Slovenian national culture.

The second-built tombstone monument features a gilded family coat of arms (Jelita) and a gilded representation of a creeping snake, presumably as a symbol of immortality. There is also an engraved inscription, with gilt letters, in Polish: Emilowi Korytko / best Son / Parents / born: in Lwów 1813 died in Ljubljana 1839 // and German: Der Mensch muss untergehen / Die Menschheit bleibt fortan / Wird mit ihr das beliehen / Was er für sie gethan // (Man must pass away / Humanity will remain forever / Will be grateful / for what he has done for it //. By the way, there is a good deal of rhetorical exaggeration in these words about the best son. We know from the letters he addressed to his father that family relations were strained. It is true that throughout his stay his parents supported their son, but to a rather limited extent, and even suspecting him of overstating his living expenses.

There is also a plaque in Ljubljana commemorating the 200th anniversary of Emil Korytka's birth, issued by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Ljubljana. On 6 March 2023, a Polish-Slovenian philatelic postage stamp commemorating Emil Korytko was issued.