In Honor of Artists

Stanislaw Wyspianski's stained glass window in St. Francis' Basilica: "God the Father in the Act of Creation"

I was wondering why it seemed like such a large proportion of the statues and other memorials in Poland were of artists of one sort or another: the huge statue in the main square here in Krakow is of a poet I'd never heard of (Adam Mickiewicz); the gorgeous statue in the middle of Warsaw's major park is of Chopin (OK, so I'd heard of him); the crypt, below, of a major church in Krakow is filled with tombs of artists, not church bigwigs, kings, politicians or generals.

Crypt of the Pauline Church on the Rock

Then we visited the Wyspianski Museum yesterday (I'd never heard of him before I came to Poland either, though I'd taken notice of his stained glass windows in some of the churches we'd visited). This was a truly remarkable guy: painter, stained glass artist, playwright (The Wedding), costume and set designer, typographer/graphic designer, interior designer, furniture designer, architect....he did it all. He was part of a group of writers, painters and graphic artists labeled "Mloda Polska" who were crucial in defining Polish national identity. And this is at least one of the reasons why Poland holds their artists in such high esteem: In the 1800's, the Mloda Polska school developed when Polish culture had been struggling to survive. This was the period when the three countries of Russia, Germany (Prussia) and Austria had sliced up Poland among them; they tried to eliminate the Polish language and suppressed the teaching of Polish history and literature. In this climate, the work of writers, painters and artists became the only way of defining Polish national identity. The artists of Mloda Polska made a point of celebrating Polish folk traditions, and would prove to be essential for creating a national Polish consciousness that eventually led to independence in 1918 (at least for a while).

Chopin Statue in Warsaw

Public Art

The public art in Krakow tends toward the traditional (since it wasn't destroyed during WWII), which means statues of famous generals, popular rulers - and they also love their artists (the large memorial in the middle of the town square is a statue of Adam Mickiewicz, Poland's national poet from the 1800s).

The picture at the beginning of this post is from a park in Wroclaw - a sculpture we walked by every day on our way to lunch from our classes. The sculpture below is from a very moving memorial, also in Wroclaw, tothe Polish soldiers who were slaughtered by the Soviets at Katyn. (This incident has also just been made into a movie that is now playing at the theaters here.)

Then there's the Soviet-era sculpture we saw in Krynica....

And the Poles are proud of their scientists, too. Marie Curie was Polish (Marie Sklodowska Curie) and, of course, Nicolaus Copernicus. Below, his statue in Warsaw.

Below is the Krakow statue commemorating the union of Lithuania and Poland when the Lithuanian Prince Jagiello married the Polish Queen Jadwiga. This union and the resulting Jagiellonian dynasty helped make Poland/Lithuania (The Republic of Two Nations) the greatest power in central Europe during the 15th century.

And I think the buildings are still some of the most interesting "public art" ....

Our First Visitor!

Victor Claar, an economics prof at Hope, was our first visitor! Well, he really came to go to the Krynica conference where he and I presented a paper and then stayed with us a day before returning to the U.S. As you can perhaps tell, the weather was not great for his visit, but here he is in the market square by the entrance to the Sukiennice (cloth hall). We're looking foward to more friends coming to Krakow!

Beskid Sadecki ("Basket" Valleys)

One tour book describes the area around Krynica: "as good an experience of rural Poland as you could hope for, through fields where farmers still scythe the grass and forests cover the hills above. The villages are ripe for cerkiew (old wooden church) hunting and mineral water bottling facilities abound." One morning of our time at the conference in Krynica was devoted to a bus tour of this area (then the conference continued in the afternoon and evening). I've attached some pictures from the churches the tour book talks about, one of the most interesting characteristics of the area. They were originally Greek Orthodox churches of the Lemks - an ethnic minority of this area who were 'relocated' (mainly to the Ukraine) as a result of the border redrawings after WWII. Now they are Roman Catholic churches but have only been adapted slightly (such as adding an altar at the front of the church in addition to the two side altars typical of Greek Orthodox) and much of the original interior remains, as well as the very unique exterior design.

The ongoing stories of border changes and wholesale population relocations continue to amaze us. We heard someone tell a joke about their grandfather "who was born in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), went to school in Austria, was married in Germany, and died in Poland.....but never left his village in Silesia." It's harder to joke about your family and whole village being deported hundreds of miles to another country as a result of redrawn borders.

Cerkiew in Muszynka (on the border with Slovakia) from 1689

Cerkiew interior

Pojazdow cerkiew, 1604 (oldest in the area)

Krynica

I attended a conference sponsored by the Cracow University of Economics in Krynica this past week. Victor Claar, a colleague at Hope, discovered this conference last spring and we wrote a paper together which we presented at the conference. The whole experience of attending a Polish conference was great (the sessions had English translations available). They made sure we experienced typical Polish hospitality!

Krynica is in Southern Poland, very near the Slovakian border in the Carpathian Mountains. It's a spa town with several mineral water springs in the area. The pictures posted at the beginning of this entry are from our hotel window our first morning there. The picture below is from our window the morning we left....yes, that's snow! It was beautiful, but there's no doubt the weather has turned to winter here (and not just in the mountains).

International Students

This is my classroom at the University - can you see why I have a stiff neck by the end of the day? It goes straight up!

It's interesting that I only have a few Polish students in my classes, since I'm teaching in the English track of the International Business School. Here's the list of countries my students are from in addition to Poland: Afghanistan, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. It's great to have such different perspectives on things. What an experience!

Sok and Precles

"Sok" is said just as it looks – sort of like “sock.” But it means juice. And the juices are amazing here. The selection is huge, from the normal orange, grapefruit, tomato and apple to pomegranate, raspberry, black currant, cherry, banana – yes banana juice – carrot, peach, pineapple, and some I haven’t figured out. Then they have mixtures of different juices...and then they have nectars…which I haven’t tried yet, but probably have pulp. I’m planning to try them all. They’re great alone, but also with a little poured into my kefir in the morning if I don’t have any raspberries (the old woman selling them at our tram stop hasn’t been there lately…guess the season is over). And, yes, they are all just on the shelf and not in a refrigerated case because of the way they are processed and packaged (irradiation?). Milk is on the shelf in the same type of package (though we refrigerate the juice and the milk once we open it at home).

Then there are the big, warm precles (pretzles! - the 'c' is pronouned like 'tz') that are sold in stands on almost every corner in town. They are sort of a cross between pretzels and bagels…a very good snack to have with you on long walking tours through the city.

We’ve already started on second rounds at some of our favorite restaurants, though we try to hit mostly new ones. Even eating out every day I don’t think we’d get to all of them. We haven’t been to any of the more expensive restaurants yet, though some meals have turned out to be more expensive than planned (like the time John ordered trout and found out the price on the menu was by weight, not for the whole dinner and the bill was about 5 times what we thought it would be). A common dish at many restaurants is sole on a bed of cooked spinach. It’s been good everywhere we’ve tried it. And even though beer is the most common beverage, we have been able to find some good house wines. Tonight we had our first Polish pizza at a place down the street from our apartment (figured we had to check out the pizza before our kids come to visit) and we both liked it - thin crust, very little sauce, nice toppings. All in all, the food here has been great - it's a good thing we're doing so much walking!