12 cities. Vienna - Dresden - Vilnius

The battle, which took place on 12 September 1683, is known across Europe as the Battle of Vienna or the Relief of Vienna. The Polish camp was in the Vienna Woods on the Kahlenberg hill. In a monastery on that site, at four in the morning shortly before the battle, our king took part in Holy Mass. After the victory, the monastery, which had been destroyed by the Turks, was rebuilt. It was renovated again in the early 20th century, when it was already in the care of the Polish association of the Congregation of of the Resurrection.

The day after the battle, in the Church of St Augustin (which adjoins the imperial Hofburg palace) a Mass was held in thanksgiving for the victory over the Turks. John III Sobieski was present. In the Capuchin Church, which houses the imperial crypt – the burial site of the Hapsburgs since the 17^th century – there is an urn containing the heart of Stanisław Potocki, the starost of Halicz and captain of the Polish cavalry, who died at battle of Vienna.

In the second half of the 19th century, Polish ties to the city grew stronger. Under Partition, employees of the state administration settled in the Austro-Hungarian capital, as well as the aristocracy that helped form Vienna’s cultural and political life. At the turn of the 19th century, several dozen Polish artists were studying at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (the Academy of Fine Arts). At the same time, there was a Polish grouping within the Austro-Hungarian Parliament, bringing together parliamentarians from Galicia. Franciszek Smolka (a lawyer and social activist from Lviv) was appointed President of the Kremsier Parliament in 1848.

In the Schwindt foyer of the Vienna Opera House, which was built during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph, there is the bust of the famous singer Jan Kiepura. Vienna and its opera played a huge role in his career. Kiepura debuted in Warsaw but at first was no was not very successful. He therefore decided to try his hand in Paris. On the way to France, he stopped in Vienna. He was quickly spotted there and appeared on stage at the Vienna Opera in Tosca and soon after in Turandot (1927). The Austrian press pronounced pronounced him the king of tenors.

Three years after the death of Augustus the Strong, his son Augustus III erected a statue of his father on horseback (commonly known as the statue of the Golden Horseman) in Dresden’s New Town market square. The Polish king and Saxon elector is presented in the style of an ancient Roman ruler, that is, armed and astride a galloping horse. The coat of arms of the Commonwealth and the royal cypher are found on the base of the statue.

To facilitate communication and the fast delivery of correspondence between the two capitals, Dresden and Warsaw, Augustus II ordered the establishment of permanent postal routes. The paths were marked out by posts placed at regular intervals – every quarter, half or full mile. The courier bearing state correspondence took three days on horseback to travel between the two cities. Today only a few mileposts remain, one of which stands in Oberwiesenthal in Saxony. It is decorated with the Polish-Saxon coat of arms and the royal cypher AR.

At the outbreak of the January Uprising (1863), novelist Józef Igacy Kraszewski left Poland and settled in Dresden, where he supported refugees and also managed the insurrectionists’ diplomatic representation. It is here that he wrote his most famous novel, An Ancient Tale, an and a cycle of books on Polish-Saxon history. The heroine of one of these is the Countess of Cosel, that is Anna Konstancja Cosel, mistress of Augustus II the Strong. Kraszewski’s house in the Neustadt district is now a museum.

Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed by the delicate beauty of Vilnius’ gothic Church of St. Anne that he longed to take the church back to Paris. Another legend claims that the builder who constructed the walls of the church was so jealous of the work of his son-in-law, who had built its elaborate façade, that he killed him by pushing him off the scaffolding. The Church of St. Anne is one of the oldest churches in Vilnius, and is still considered one of the most beautiful. Its construction was funded by King Casimir Jagiellon, and its architect was brought especially from Gdańsk.

The royal church in Vilnius is the Cathedral of St. Stanislaus and St. Ladislaus. The first church in this location was in the grounds of the Lower Castle and was dedicated to the Baltic ruler of lightning and the heavens – Perkūnas. After the Grand Duke of Lit Baltic ruler of lightning and the heavens – Perkūnas. After the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jagiełło took the Polish throne and was baptised, he founded a stone church on this site.

Vytautus, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and his wife Anna were buried here, as were, later on, King Aleksander Jagiellon and Elisabeth Hapsburg, the first wife of King Sigismund Augustus. The underground royal crypt contains the tomb of Barbara Radziwiłł, his second wife, who came from a Lithuanian magnate family and was born in Vilnius.

The churches of Vilnius are linked to Polish patriotic activity of the 19^th century. Tsarist authorities established a prison inside the buildings of the Basilian Monastery. After the failure of the November Uprising, members of student's patriotic societies Philomath and Filaret prisoners were held there, as was Adam Mickiewicz after his arrest on 23 October 1823. Konrad’s cell in Forefathers’ Eve was essentially in Vilnius. 

Travellers and pilgrims to the city are protected by Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn. This painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary (painted on oak boards by an unknown artist) is highly venerated to this day. As a result, the Gate of Dawn where it is kept is a destination for many pilgrims and is also the symbol of the city. In 1927, Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn was crowned Queen of Poland. In 1931-32, the chapel interior was fitted with oak panels designed by Helena Szramotówna, on which the painter and teacher Ferdynand Ruszczyc arranged a composition of votive offerings.