Reggio nell'Emilia is a city that remembers both the creator of the Polish national anthem, Józef Wybicki, and General Jan H. Dąbrowski and his legionnaires. Relatively often, Polish delegations come here to pay tribute to the soldiers who once fought for the freedom of their homeland in Italy. They then place bunches of flowers at the plaque commemorating the place where the "Dabrowski Mazurka" was written.

Polish legionaries in Italy
Fans of the Napoleonic era visiting sunny Italy are well aware that in almost every corner of the country they will find historical buildings remembering the epic of General Jan H. Dąbrowski's Legionaries (1755-1818). Indeed, during the ten years of their presence on the Italian peninsula (1797-1807), the Legionaries performed garrison duties and took part in battles in all the provinces of modern Italy. There is not a major city that they did not enter, quarter, defend or, on the contrary, storm. In Milan, for almost the entire period of their presence on the Italian peninsula, there were official and private quarters for senior commanders, headquarters, barracks, factories, lazarettes, set up in both civilian and sacred buildings. The situation was similar in: Rome, Naples, Bologna, Genoa, Florence, Turin, Parma, Verona, Modena, Padua, Ferrara, Loggia, Mantua. All the more reason not to mention the names of the smaller centres , except for one particularly associated with the history of the Polish Legions - Reggio nell'Emilia (less official name: Reggio Emilia). It is a town situated in the Po river valley, in the Emilia-Romagna region, between Modena and Parma, with a contemporary population of around 170,000.

A brief history of Regio nell'Emilia
The town at the end of the 18th century was the capital of the Crostolo department in the Cisalpine (Cispadian) Republic created by Napoleon Bonaparte. It was a troubled region at the time and the local population was partly hostile to the authorities. The town was also a staging area for units of the Polish Legions, commanded by General Jan H. Dabrowski. They were part of the army of the Cisalpine Republic and were repeatedly used to suppress the resistance of its population.

Reggio was a staging base for many legion formations and a place where General Jan H. Dąbrowski's staff was stationed several times. His quarters were always located in the centre of the city, in the palace of the Bishop of Reggio nell'Emilia, Francesco Maria d'Este in the Piazza del Duomo (today Piazza Camillo Prampolini). It was there, in mid-July 1797, that the General received optimistic news from Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the Cisalpine Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the 'Italian Army'. These related to the possibility of the restoration of peace in Europe and, consequently, "the imminent return to the pleasant Fatherland". Probably for the purpose of 'discussing current issues', among others, the Minister of War of the Cisalpine Directory, Ambrose Birago (1754-1828), invited the General to Milan.

Gen. Dąbrowski in Reggio nell'Emilia
General Jan H. Dąbrowski travelled to the capital of the Republic on 21 July 1797. On the eve of his departure, representatives of the municipal authorities, Bishop d'Este and citizens, grateful for having saved the city from attack by counter-revolutionary formations, unexpectedly accorded him a solemn farewell. Private and official buildings were decorated with flags and greenery, and the surprised Legionary commander was asked to plant a republican liberty tree, which was decorated in ribbons: green-white-red (the colours of the Republic), navy blue-white-crimson (the then traditional colours of Polish military formations) and blue-white-red (of revolutionary France), the General did this in person in the Piazza Piccola (Piazza San Prospero) to the lively applause of citizens singing patriotic and regional songs.

However, the General was even more surprised by his friend and émigré activist, Józef Wybicki (1747-1822), who had just then arrived in Reggio nell'Emilia. Under the influence of strong emotion, at the sight of Polish signs and uniforms, the mood and awakened hopes of returning to the country, he hastily wrote for the general the six-song "Song of the Polish Legions in Italy". It began with the words:

"Poland is not yet dead while we live. What the foreign power has torn away from us, we will take back with a sabre.", with the refrain: "March, march, Dabrowski, to Poland from the land of Italy, following your lead, I will join the nation".

"Song of the Polish Legions in Italy "
Józef Wybicki wrote the words of the song in Reggio nell'Emilia between July 16 and 19, 1797. He composed them to the melody of a Podlasie folk song similar to a mazurka. This was most likely the result of Wybicki's collaboration with the Kapellmeister of the legionary orchestra stationed in the city. The song was sung to the leader of the Legions on the very day of his solemn farewell. It is not clear, however, who first intoned this musical gift - whether it was the legionnaires who had learned the words and the melody in advance and in secret, marching in a parade during the celebrations in Piazza Piccola, or Józef Wybicki himself to the accompaniment of a military orchestra, e.g. in the evening at the local "Caffè dei Luterani" café, in the large company of Polish officers and distinguished townsfolk, amid toasts, games and dancing.

Memorial plaque at the site of the Polish anthem
As is well known, for legionary purposes, the "Song" became a military march over time with slightly changed words and a greater number of stanzas. After Poland regained its independence, it became the national anthem of the Republic of Poland in 1927.

In 1977, on the 180th anniversary of the creation of the "Mazurka Dąbrowskie", a stone plaque commemorating the date and place of the creative act of Józef Wybicki was placed on the building of the historical town hall (between the windows of the first floor), located near the Bishop's Palace, with the following text in Italian:

. NEL VICINO PALAZZO VESCOVILE
JÓZEF WYBICKI
NEL MESE DI LUGLIO 1797 SCRISSE
LA MAZURKA DI DĄBROWSKI
"JESZCZE POLSKA NIE ZGINĘŁA"
CHE PER LA PRIMA VOLTA INTONATA
TRA LE MURA DI REGGIO
DIVENE L'INNO NAZIONALE POLACCO

The Polish translation of the inscription reads: 'In the nearby bishop's palace / Józef Wybicki / in July 1797 wrote / the Dabrowski Mazurka / "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła" / which, when first performed / within the walls of Reggio / became the Polish national anthem'.

The commemoration was created through the efforts of the Polish Academy of Sciences and with the cooperation of the authorities of Reggio nell'Emilia.

Memory of Poles in Italy
The armed efforts of Poles abroad to regain their independence have not faded from the memory of many Italians, as they too experienced many years of Austrian occupation. This is evidenced by the words of the anthem of the Italian Republic, composed in 1847 by Goffredo Mamelli, a participant in the struggle for Italian independence and unification. The author explicitly refers in his work to the common fate of the two oppressed nations ('for centuries we have been trampled on, humiliated'), writing further about hostile Austrian eagles and Cossack sotnias drinking Polish and Italian blood, which, shed in battle, eventually 'scorched their hearts'.

Almost just before the 'Dabrowski Mazurka' was written, in January 1797, in Reggio nell'Emilia, the Congress (parliament) of the Cisalpine Republic officially established the tricolour Italian national colours: green, white and red. To commemorate this fact, on 7 January, the day of the Italian flag festival (La Festa del Tricolore), the solemn hoisting of the national flag on the mast is held annually in the city, in the same square where Jan H. Dabrowski's quarters were located, with the participation of the President of the Italian Republic.

It is worth visiting Reggio nell'Emilia, whose streets and monuments remember both Józef Wybicki (there is also a street named after him) and General Jan H. Dąbrowski and his legionaries. Relatively often, Polish delegations come to the city to pay tribute to the soldiers who once fought for the freedom of their homeland in Italy and to lay wreaths and bunches of flowers at the plaque commemorating the place where the "Dabrowski Mazurka" was composed. Official representatives of the Polish state are usually accompanied by a representative subdivision of the Military Academy of Technology in Warsaw in the uniform of the Polish Legions.