Nieborow Poland ©JohnPkolasinski

Nieborów and Arkadia

By John P. Kolasiński

About half of hour by car from the capital of Poland, Warszawa, there is an incredible place called Nieborów, showcasing an amazing baroque palace and park. Today it is a museum containing a collection of books, painting, and sculpture and period furniture. The first floor of this former residence of the Radziwil family is used by the artists, who go there and feel inspired by the beauty of the garden and the house to create new ideas in the fine arts. 

In her book “ “Three Ladies from the Land of Happiness” author Hanna Muszyńska-Hoffmanowa writes about the aristocratic family of Radziwił from Nieborów  and Arkadia, and narrates how Helena (Przeździecka) Radziwił dedicated 40 years of her life to building an imaginary  land of happiness.  About seven kilometers from the palace of Nieborów, in 1778, there was a village called Łupia under the banks of a river of the same name.

Nieborów from the gardens side (JPK©2006)

Arkadia was a place for sentimental meditation and for inspirational thoughts. Helenka “Malinka” was Helena Radziwil’s nick name. Later, in the family gatherings the closest family members called her “Mamezina Princess”. She was enlightened by her rich cousin Isabela Czartoriska of Puławy and other aristocratic families in Europe. More inspiration came from the European trend of disapproval of Baroque and the re-evaluation of European culture. Princess Helena Radziwił employed various architects (among others Szymon Zug, Henryk Itar, or Józef Sierakowski) and on many occasions Helena herself made drawings and plans. Artists like Płoński, Norblin, Orłowski and Baccarelli, worked on different designs and paintings.

Driven by the curiosity awakened in my mind by author Hanna Muszyńska –Hoffmanowa, I went to see for myself the romantic beauty of the home and the garden.  What’s a disappointment! Two major wars, devastation by Zygmunt Radziwił, and 50 years of Communist rule, have left the park in ruins, except for the Temple of Diana which was recently restored.

(JPK©2006) Temple of Diana 1783 designed by the Warsaw’s Architect Szymon Bogumił Zug

This incredible view was painted once by the Princess Helena’s daughter Kristina Radziwił, in 1797. 

Princess Kristina had a crush on Tadeusz Kościuszko, the leader of the Kościuszko Insurrection, but they never met. Princess Kristina was sent by her mother to Petersburg, where she became Maid of Honor to Tsarina Catherine II, a very short time before the Tsarina’s sudden death. Participating in Catherine’s funeral Kristina caught pneumonia and, not too long after that, he died in Petersburg.

Her younger sister Princess Aniela got married and soon after one of the big parties, she became ill and she was attended to in different sanatoriums. She too left this world at a young age.

The youngest Róża was a town-boy, always around Arkadia with the village children; her best friend was a daughter of the village blacksmith “Róża Kowalanka”, who had the same first name as Princess Róża. The blacksmith’s daughter was leader of a group of village children whom Princess Helena used for a Greek performance in the Arkadia. 

Princess Aleksandra of Nieborów

One day when young princess Róża walked through the village, she saw a peasant woman biting a little baby, so she took the baby away from the angry village woman and she brought it to the palace of Nieborów ( it happened before the two daughters died) and Mamezina Princess and Papezino  Prince, adopted the baby and named her Aleksandra.

  But princess Róża fell ill upon going to her first ball and also passed away in the flower of her youth. Princess Aleksandra outlived all of them.

Beside the Temple of Diana in the Park of Arkadia were High Priest’s Sanctuary, Margrave’s House, Stone Arch, and Gothic House, Sybil’s  Grotto, The Roman Aqueduct, Old Circus, There was a project for a Tomb of Illusions, where the ashes of the three daughters possibly where lay to the rest.   

The park was visited by many important people, such as crowned heads like Tsar Nicolas of Russia, artists, poets, and politicians. The members of the Radziwil family were involved with the Russian Tsars, and some of them had high positions in Napoleon Bonaparte’s military ranks.

Maria Konopnicka, Polish Poet, and Nobel price winner in literature Henryk Sienkiewicz were inspired by the beauty of this place. Mr. Sienkiewicz visiting once the park noticed a Roman epitaph dedicated to “beloved wife Ligia by the Roman aristocrat Winicjusz… Henry Sienkiewicz used these names as main characters in his book “Qvo Vadis”  for which he received  the Nobel Prize.

The wind wrinkled the mirror surface of the lake by Diana’s Temple, the old trees started to move in the wind and sounded in the strong branches, and you could feel like they would tell you the story of the people who once lived here.  The sun was less bright, and hiding somewhere behind the trees, in the evening reflection you could imagine the village girl dressed as a Greek Goddess, running there on the hill, by the Gothic house, stingy Edward burring his treasure, Róża with her girlish laughter, Romantic Aniela, and Kristina painting her portraits of the Confederation Leader., And  you could see goodhearted Aleksandra and Malinka always busy turning Arkadia into a new garden of Eden  But that was not the end; other generations of residents are going through: Zygmunt, greedy in his search for Edward’s hidden treasure, whose French concubine destroyed all that could be sold.   And finally, the last Radziwiłs deported to deep Siberia labor camp by the Soviets NKVD in year 1945. 

Someone called my name; it was dark by the lake of Diana’s Temple, and the visions went away… could it have possibly been a chimera after all, created by the sunset in  Arkadia’s Park?

Janusz Kolasinski

July 20, 2006   

Proofreading Dr. Manuel Santayana

Photos taken by John P. Kolasinski