Swedish museums house one of the world’s most fascinating collections of Polish artefacts from the modern era. These items – archival materials, books, military artefacts and works of art – found their way to Scandinavia mainly as a result of looting carried out by Swedish troops during several military campaigns in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among them, the hunting horn of Sigismund III Vasa, made from the horn of one of the last aurochs living on Polish soil, deserves special attention.

The hunting horn of Sigismund III Vasa
Compared with other Polish artefacts in the Stockholm collection, this exhibit does not, at first glance, stand out in any particular way. It is a horn approximately 35 cm long, weighing just over half a kilogram, modestly mounted in gilded silver and featuring a small silk braided cord. What makes this object unique is that it was crafted from the horn of one of the last Polish aurochs, which perished in 1620 in the Jaktorowska Forest in Mazovia. The object was commissioned by Stanisław Radziejowski, the then Starost of Sochaczew (responsible for the care of the aurochs), who in turn presented it to King Sigismund III Vasa. This is indicated by an inscription on the silver band at the mouth of the horn.
The horn was kept in the royal treasury in Warsaw for a relatively short time – as early as 1655, following the Swedish capture of the capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was taken to Stockholm and incorporated into the collections of the Livrustkammaren (the Royal Armoury). The object is still housed in this oldest Swedish museum to this day.

Hunting horns were once used during hunts, mainly to signal to hunters scattered across a vast area or to call hunting dogs. In the old Polish hunting tradition, great respect was shown to experienced horn players who were able to produce clear and resonant sounds from their instruments. The most beautiful description of horn-playing in Polish literature was left by Adam Mickiewicz in Book IV of *Pan Tadeusz*. It is difficult to say whether Sigismund III Vasa’s horn was ever used for its intended purpose, or whether it was made merely as a memento of the last hunts, in the outcome of which the king took a keen interest.

Only one other similar object of Polish provenance is known, made from a hunting horn – the so-called Wieliczka horn (or the horn of the Diggers’ Brotherhood), mounted in the 1530s, probably in one of the Nuremberg goldsmith’s workshops. It is held in the collection of the Krakow Saltworks Museum in Wieliczka and represents a much higher artistic standard than the exhibit from the Livrustkammaren.

The aurochs in Polish lands
The aurochs is considered to be the ancestor of domestic cattle. A few thousand years ago, this species was found throughout Europe. It was a large, herbivorous animal, living in vast, dense forest complexes. A male aurochs could reach a height of 1.6–1.9 metres at the withers and weigh up to 1,000 kg. A characteristic feature of this animal was its massive, spreading horns, reaching 70–80 cm in length (measured along the curve).

With the expansion of settlements and the clearing of primeval forests, the aurochs became extinct in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. For several centuries, the lands of Poland and Lithuania-Rus’ served as the main refuge for this animal. Aurochs living in the wild were considered the property of the Dukes of Mazovia and the Kings of Poland, who alone had the right to hunt them (a practice which, incidentally, was very rarely carried out). Despite royal protection, the aurochs population declined sharply during the 15th and 16th centuries. In the second half of the 16th century, only a few dozen animals were recorded, living in the Jaktorowska Primeval Forest in Mazovia. It was then that foresters were stationed in the village of Kozłowice, situated near present-day Żyrardów, whose sole task was to look after the aurochs in the surrounding forests. In accordance with the decree of 1599, they were to “look after the aurochs, graze them, collect hay from Jaktorów from the subjects, and feed the aurochs with this hay in winter; they were to know the exact number of aurochs and report this to the lord of the manor or the starost (…) every quarter”. These measures, introduced in the second half of the 16th century, are today regarded as the first example in history of active nature conservation by humans (as opposed to passive conservation, which is limited solely to the imposition of bans).

Despite these efforts, the aurochs became extinct in the early 17th century. It is believed that the last member of the species died of natural causes in the Jaktorowska Forest in 1627. It is likely that the last herd, which had been isolated for decades, fell victim to an infectious disease affecting domestic cattle, having been deprived of the opportunity to develop immunity through natural interbreeding between populations.

In Western Europe, the aurochs was regarded as a curiosity of the Polish lands. One of the oldest depictions of the aurochs dates from the mid-16th century, from the book *Rerum moscoviticarum commentarii* by the Austrian diplomat Siegmund von Herberstein. This animal was renowned for its strength, as evidenced by the saying ‘strong as a tur’, which is still in use today. This motif appears, amongst other places, in the pages of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s *Quo vadis*, in the scene depicting Ursus’s victorious fight with a aurochs in the circus arena.

Polish artefacts in Swedish collections
During the numerous military campaigns waged by Swedish forces on Polish soil in the 17th and 18th centuries, vast quantities of cultural artefacts fell into the hands of the invaders. Only a small proportion of these returned to Poland under various circumstances, beginning with the restitution in the second half of the 17th century (under the provisions of the Treaty of Oliwa), up to the handover in 1974 of the so-called ‘Stockholm Scroll’ by the Swedish Prime Minister to the rebuilt Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The most valuable items are primarily housed in the Livrustkammaren and at Skokloster Castle. These include, amongst others, ceremonial weapons and armour belonging to Kings Sigismund Augustus, Sigismund III, Władysław IV and John II Casimir, as well as a gallery of portraits of the Bishops of Warmia. The Polish artefacts also include so-called ‘secondary spoils’, the most valuable of which is the helmet of Ivan IV the Terrible, looted from the Kremlin by Polish troops and, several decades later, taken from Warsaw to Sweden.

Valuable objects of Polish provenance are also held in Stockholm in the collections of the National Museum, the Royal Palace and the Military Museum.