From 2014 to 2023, I conducted ethnographic research in New Caledonia (a French overseas territory in the South Pacific).

When I first arrived in Bourail in 2016, locals mentioned the 'Hill of the Pole' on the northern edge of the village. Who was this Pole? How did he find his way here? Thus began my quasi-detective search and exploration into the fate of Antoni Berezowski.

I spent months sifting through archives - first in Poland, then in Numei, New Caledonia, where I discovered real treasures: a death certificate and a map of Berezowski's estate in Bourail. Piece by piece, I put together the jigsaw puzzle of the life of a man who was a prisoner on the other side of the world for almost half a century.

He was born on 9 May 1847 in Avratyn (present-day Ukraine). In 1863, as a 16-year-old, he took part in the January Uprising, and after its collapse fled to France. In 1865 he settled in Paris and worked as a locksmith. Immersed in reading the Polish press, he observed the progressive Russification of his homeland and the suffering of his compatriots.

On 6 June 1867, during Tsar Alexander II's visit to Paris, Berezowski made an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the Russian ruler in the Forest of Bourbon. He shot at the imperial carriage but wounded only his horse. Sentenced to forced labour for life, he avoided the death penalty thanks to French public opinion's favour towards the Polish cause.

In February 1868, he reached New Caledonia after a 110-day journey. His attempt to escape to Australia was unsuccessful. Berezowski worked for years at various jobs: in a hospital garden, in a bakery, as a lumberjack. In 1884 he was given a plot of land in the village of Bourail, where he ran a coffee plantation and lived in increasing isolation.

The years spent in the tropical climate and isolation left a mark on his mental health. Witnesses described him as a recluse obsessed with ideas for bizarre inventions: perpetual motion machines powered by cattle or 14-metre high rabbit cages that were supposed to solve the island's famine problem.

Antoni Berezowski died on 22 October 1916 in a hospital on the island of Nou, after 49 years of exile. His figure lives on in literature (the novels 'Icarus' and 'The Island' by Jan Józef Szczepański) and art (the painting 'Berezowski's Assassination of Tsar Alexander II, 6 June 1867' by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux in the Museum d'Orsay).

Was Berezowski a regicide or a Polish hero? The story of the exile remains a testimony to the national dramas of the 19th century.

Entry by Karolina Kania submitted as part of our competition.

See also the entry about the exhibition on Antoni Berezowski at the Bourail Museum.