The text mentions the town of Brzeżany, 12 miles outside Lviv, where there is, among other things, a church and a Bernardine monastery founded by the wife of the last of the Sieniawski family. In addition, the castle is mentioned, a detailed description of the walls and chapel is given, and the issue of the three zinc coffins of the Sieniawski family located there (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1876, Series 3, T:2, pp. 88-89, after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Sieniawski Castle in Brzeżany, Galicia

Beyond Lviv, 12 miles to the south-east, lies Brzeżany, a district town on the Zolota Lipa River. Its location is very charming: it is surrounded by hills covered with forest. The north-western hill is called Storożyska, probably because during the times of the former Republic of Poland it was the place where, in fact, a bit of mundane wickerwork was used to light fires from the other side during Cossack and Tatar attacks. At the foot of Storożysko lies a very large pond, separated from the town by a strong causeway. This pond, excellent for ice-skating in winter and for bathing in summer, is not a picturesque sight due to the fact that on one side of the pond there is a government road leading to Lviv, below which there is a monotonous and tedious rope running down to the water itself, and all shrubbery has to be cut down and shaved off as carefully as possible.

But I will give the matter room, for as if I heard the reluctant words of the owner of Brzeżany:

"And this grizzly what did he want again? Isn't it enough that I let him bathe in my pond, and in winter watch the graceful movements of skaters on the ice, and finally that I don't forbid him to walk on my dyke? And that I should also make him a gondola and put it at his service?"

I retrace my steps from the pond towards the town. Here again, to the right, a magnificent edifice on the eastern bank of the Storožys is drawing my gaze towards me. It is the Bernardine monastery and church, founded in the early 18th century by the wife of the last Sieniawski family. In the middle of the square rises a quadrilateral building with a clock tower, on top of which, above a flag in Austrian colours, rises the coat of arms of the owner of Brzeżany, Stanisław Count Potocki, Piława. The bottom of the building is occupied by stalls, full of noisy and dirty Jews, while the first floor houses the classical government grammar school. This Gymnasium was originally founded in Zbaraż in 1789, and had only 5 classes. At the request of Princess Lubomirska it was moved to Brzeżany in 1805, and in recent years has been expanded to 8 classes.

Finally, I would like to lead the reader to the castle, only the castle, and not the castle itself, as there is nothing interesting for the researcher, apart from one chapel. The roofed walls are still standing, the quadrangular edifice has retained its former appearance, at least in general outline, but it is neglected and deserted to a high degree. The west wing of the building housed the brewery, while the rest was turned into barracks for the local staff. A Revival-style chapel with two domes, facing west, stands amidst the courtyard. Leaning with its eastern wall against the body of the edifice, it served until very recently as a store for brewing supplies and materials. But what is worse: three coffins of the Sieniawski family, cast very beautifully in zinc, have been removed from the tomb's shops and placed on the church floor next to the northern wall. On the lids of the coffins there are figures of the hetmans, lying down.

These coffins still contain the bodies of the deceased. Where the rest of the coffins have gone, God only knows. The marble statues of the hetmans, located on the right and left of the great altar, were not treated any kinder; incidentally, only the scarlet mensa was left. What is more, the most beautiful of the monuments, placed in the right wing of the chapel, take the viewers by surprise. From the plaque above the reclining figure of the last Sieniawski, Adam, Hetman of the Crown, the brutal hand tore out the gold or gilded letters which had been attached to the background by screws and which formed the inscription. One of the Sieniawski family had his nose blown off, another his leg, another was whitewashed with lime. What a pity, what a pity for those monuments, carved with a masterly hand from red marble!

God grant that the conservators of ancient monuments will take pity on this chapel and at least try to get a photographic picture of what still survives. I'm not mentioning the "tooth of time", which is usually blamed for negligence and sinful disregard, because the whole edifice, the chapel and the monuments would have survived for centuries, had it not been for human perversity, which envies even the dead their rest, takes stones from their tombs to establish inns, splashes the gilded chambers with lime, and, delighting in the dirt, in order to trample and crush the past more quickly, arranges a brewery in the seat of the ancestors. Perhaps this is how it must be in our age of industry, counterfeiting and general bankruptcy...?