Family

Karolina Lanckorońska was born on 11 August 1898 in Buchberg am Kamp, Lower Austria, as the second of three children of Count Karol Lanckoroński and Małgorzata von Lichnowsky. She had an older brother, Antoni, and a younger sister, Adelajda.

Count Karol Lanckoroński ( 1848–1933) came from a Polish aristocratic family bearing the Zadora coat of arms. He was an exceptionally distinguished and influential figure, not only in Austria itself but also on the international stage. This great scholar was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1903; in 1905, Jagiellonian University honoured him with an honorary doctorate; and in 1928, he was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta. Lanckoroński was a highly regarded patron and art collector. His palace in Vienna housed one of the largest private art collections, and the painter Jacek Malczewski was a frequent guest of the Lanckoroński family. In addition to his great passion for art and science, the Count was also an avid traveller. In 1888, he undertook a round-the-world journey. He immortalised his numerous expeditions, as well as works of art and architecture, in photographs, which he donated towards the end of his life to the branch of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Rome . The photographic collection is currently held at the Science Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków.

Karolina’s mother was Princess Małgorzata von Lichnowsky ( 1863–1957), who came from an aristocratic Prussian family settled in Silesia. She was Karol Lanckoroński’s third wife.

This aristocratic family resided in a Neo-Baroque palace at 16/18 Jacquingasse in Vienna , which housed a vast art collection opened to the public once a year. The Lanckoroński family also owned estates in Rozdol on the Dniester River near Lviv and in Komarna, to which they often travelled in order to cultivate the Polish language and their Polish roots.

Education

Karolina Lanckorońska, raised by demanding parents, received a thorough education in the humanities, with particular emphasis on art, literature and philosophy. She attended an elite Benedictine grammar school in Vienna, where she obtained her school-leaving certificate in 1920. She then undertook studies in art history at the University of Vienna , attending, amongst other things, lectures by Prof. Max Dvořák ( 1874–1921). In 1926, she was awarded a doctorate on the basis of a thesis on Michelangelo’s ‘The Last Judgement’ ( ‘Studien zu Michelangelos Jüngstem Gericht und seiner künstlerischen Deszendenz’), written under the supervision of Professor Julius von Schlosser.

Between 1929 and 1939, Karolina Lanckorońska was associated with the Roman Research Station of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences . When, in 1929, her father donated a collection of some 60,000 photographs to this institution—mainly of works of art and architecture captured during his numerous travels—she began a long period of inventorying, cataloguing and caring for this valuable collection. Lanckorońska also aspired to establish an art history department at the station, and once this had been achieved, she systematically expanded it, amassing specialist literature, including the book collection of Professor Maks Dvořák, who had died in 1921. The time she spent in Italy also enabled her to further her studies of Renaissance and Baroque art.

In 1933, she returned to her family estate in Komarno, which she had inherited following her father’s death. However, she continued her research in the field of art history at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv, where in 1935 she obtained her habilitation on the basis of a thesis entitled ‘The decoration of the church “Il Gesù” against the backdrop of the development of the Baroque in Rome’. As the first female associate professor, she worked at this university until April 1940, further developing her academic and teaching activities.

The War

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Karolina Lanckorońska joined the underground Union of Armed Struggle, and subsequently the Home Army . She was also active in the Polish Red Cross and the Central Welfare Council. As well as providing aid to Polish soldiers released from prisoner-of-war camps, she also gathered information on war crimes. For her daring activities, she was arrested on 12 May 1942 in Stanisławów. She was interrogated by Hans Krüger himself , who revealed to her that in 1941 he had ordered the murder of the Lviv professors. From Stanisławów, Lanckorońska was transferred to a prison in Lwów, from where, in September 1942, she was taken to Berlin as a witness in the Krüger case.

Despite numerous attempts to secure Karolina’s release – in which representatives of the International Red Cross in Geneva, amongst others, were involved – in January 1943 she was sent to the women’s concentration camp at Ravensbrück. Even there, the harsh conditions failed to break her spirit: she provided help and moral support to her fellow prisoners, and even organised secret lectures on art history. Herself, wishing to find some respite from camp life, even if only for a moment, would let her thoughts wander back to the great European galleries and ‘look at the paintings’.

Following further interventions , in April 1945 she was released from the camp and made her way to Switzerland . Once in a safe country, she set about documenting the crimes committed against Polish female prisoners at Ravensbrück and the murdered professors from Lviv. Despite the opportunity to take up a post at the University of Geneva, Lanckorońska returned to Rome, where she began her service with General Władysław Anders’s 2nd Polish Corps . Anders entrusted her with the task of organising study programmes at Italian universities for demobilised Polish soldiers.

In the service of Polish scholarship and culture

Working for Polish scholarship became a true calling for Karolina Lanckorońska. Together with eminent humanists – Henryk Paszkiewicz (1897–1979), Oskar Halecki (1891–1973), Stanisław Biegański, Józef Michałowski (1870–1953) and Rev. Prof. Walerian Meysztowicz (1893–1982) – she founded the Polish Historical Institute in Rome (PIHR). The founding charter was signed on 10 November 1945 in the library of the Research Station of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Rome.

At the Institute, Lanckorońska played an active role in organising lectures and also appeared as a speaker herself. Her lectures centred on the history of early Christianity in Poland. Karolina’s greatest contribution to the PIHR’s activities, however, was her editorial work on the following series: ‘Antemurale’ ( 1954–1985), which published scholarly articles by Polish researchers working in exile; ‘Elementa ad Fontium Editiones’ ( 1960–1991), comprising source materials on Polish history gathered during research in foreign archives; and ‘Acta Nuntiaturae Polonae’ (1990–2002), devoted to the compilation of archival materials concerning Poland’s diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

From a very young age, Karolina Lanckorońska was brought up to serve the greater good, to help the weak and the needy, and to maintain an honourable yet modest demeanour. All these qualities accompanied her throughout her long and extraordinarily rich life. She lived through two world wars and, during both, fought actively and with great courage for freedom and justice.

Until her final days, she remained devoted to Polish scholarship and culture, as evidenced by the numerous scholarships for Polish scholars awarded through the Lanckoroński Family Foundation in Brzezie, which she established in 1967. In 1994, she donated her family’s art collection to the Royal Castle in Warsaw, the Royal Castle at Wawel, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Kraków and the Jagiellonian Library.

In 1983, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Jagiellonian University. For her services to Polish science and culture, she was awarded numerous orders, including the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, presented to her by Lech Wałęsa in 1991. However, she declined to accept the Order of the White Eagle – the Republic of Poland’s highest honour.

Many publications, memoirs and documentary films have been dedicated to Karolina Lanckorońska, including *Portrait of a Lady*, directed by Paweł Woldan in 2004, and *Karolina Lanckorońska: A Polish Woman by Choice*, directed by Marta Pietrasiewicz in 2021. She herself was the author of numerous studies, academic publications, articles and memoirs, including the book *War Memoirs: 22 September 1939 – 5 April 1945* (Kraków, 2001).

She died on 25 August 2002 in Rome at the age of 104. Her gravestone is located in the Campo Verano Cemetery. She was the last surviving member of the Lanckoroński family.