Ignacy Krasicki w ogrodzie

Ignacy Krasicki was not merely the most distinguished writer of the Polish Enlightenment, but also “the prince of poets” − to use a phrase from the period. He occupied a prominent position in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, as the bishop of the Warmia region in north-eastern Poland and archbishop of Gniezno. He was a passionate and highly competent art collector. His collection included numerous and diversified works of art: pieces of sculpture, painting, drawing and engraving. Moreover, Krasicki was a dedicated gardener. His episcopal residence at Lidzbark (Heilsberg) in Warmia was surrounded by an exquisite English garden. According to many of his contemporaries, it was the most beautiful garden in this part of Poland, if not in Europe. Krasicki’s passion for gardening was, in part, a result of his family roots in landed gentry. But, unquestionably, it was also due to the fashion of the period. His garden, surrounding what used to be a castle of the Teutonic Knights, was, in a certain measure, a retreat for Krasicki, an exile (after the first partition of Poland Krasicki became a Prussian subject). In Polish history he was one of the first spiritual predecessors of the great exiles and expatriates from the period of Romanticism. Last but not least, his Warmian garden was a realm of beauty which is created like a grand lyric.