JOANNA WIELICZKA – SEARCH AND ADAM BUJAK ABOUT A CITY IN WHICH all CAMEWAY SAID ABOUT POLAND

We all know Krakow. Almost everyone visited the erstwhile Polish capital with a school journey and on 1 another occasion. There are besides many books about the Krak Grod, fewer cities of our country were painted and photographed as well. And yet it is Krakow's communicative endless. A subject that, in any case, does not cease to be fascinating. It turns out that it is possible to arouse in relation to the royal city with the Wawel hill feelings even more passionate and even greater cognitive desires. The book – "Kraków. Culture and Nation" is the proof of this.

Some of the sentences said about Krakow I will never forget. The words of John Paul II, who, just before his first pilgrimage to his homeland, said: “Let me look at Krakow again before I leave, in which all stone and all brick is dear to me.” And how important, not only in the context of the editorial masterpiece (for specified masterpieces we must bow down to all its co-creators, how frequently almost nameless!) is the further part of the words of the top Polish household of Poles said at that time: “I ask you to accept again with faith, hope and love the full spiritual heritage, to which Poland is called. As Christ instilled in us at the baptism of the saints. So that you may never doubt, weary, or discouraged. So that you do not cut through the roots from which we grow.” About this Poland and about Krakow, in which each brick and all stone are costly to the heart of all Pole, is told by an unparalleled book – an album, an extraordinary work which was mainly created by Joanna Wieliczka – Szarkowa and Adam Bujak. I wouldn't exaggerate if I said: lens geniuses and feathers, masters of erudition and reflection, large teachers of reasoning and looking.

It may not be appropriate after quotes from the largest of Poles and at the same time holy to callback here the words of a man who is known primarily as a manager and is alternatively entertaining films. But it's hard, it's a reminder, and I hope to callback it here is not a sin. A fewer decades ago, I listened to Radio Free Europe, which abruptly announced an interview with Bill Wilder, the manager of films specified as “Bulwar setting up the sun”, “Double insurance”, “Garsonier” or “Bol with half a joke”. Previously, Billy Wilder gave me no pleasance in the last of the mentioned films of the heroine, whose function was played by Marilyn Monroe, giving clearly Polish nationality and surname Kowalczyk. What was not an isolated case in his work – “Bulwar...” prepared to entrust in it the main function of our Poli Negri, after which Gloria Swanson – Polka played in it in half or in 1 4th and unfortunately not identified with our homeland as clearly as Pola – Apologia Chałupiec. From these films I concluded that Wilder likes Poland and Poles. However, erstwhile I heard his voice from the silenced radio, I thought I would fall from the chair. Billy Wilder not only spoke Polish, but spoke great, as a actual Pole! It turned out that he was born in Sucha Beskidzka as the boy of an Austrian authoritative (Jewish origin) that he went to Polish schools, that he had many Polish colleagues and friends. erstwhile asked about the most crucial memories from Poland – he immediately started talking about Krakow! With the tenderness that everyone said to his grandma that his grandma was in love with Krakow. She loved his unique charm, his unparalleled beauty, his artistic class of art, and of course – a beautiful story, a rich and wonderful tradition. So she took her grandson on trips to Krakow. Billy Wilder recalled with how much love his grandma looked at Krakow, with what adoration her grandson was showing him and how beautifully she spoke about him. The large Hollywood manager said that Poland is for him a deficiency of large memories – above all, a boy's bullying with his colleagues from school and yard, a beautiful scenery of fields and mountains, but most of all – the charm of Krakow, who experienced the charm of his tour by holding his grandmother's hand – a large admirer of the ancient Polish capital.

Among the countless crowds absorbing the beauty and tradition of Krakow was my father. No household ties to this town. However, the first expedition “cared for many years” was a journey to Krakow. And, of course, to Czestochowa. She's my wife since she was a kid. Since advanced school times, she has been getting on a train many times at night from Saturday to Sunday (free Saturdays at schools at the time) so that after a day in Krakow, having filled her eyes with his atmosphere and beauty, after a very long frequently staring at these monuments, about which she had previously tried to learn everything possible – she returned on a night train to Wrocław almost straight to the first Monday lesson at 8:00 in the morning. That's what people were, and there's plenty. due to the fact that can it not decision the Polish heart to walk among graves or sarcophagus of our kings, in places known from the Prusian hoard or the oath of Tadeusz Kościuszko? Or after those connected with Karol Wojtyła, Stanisław Wyspianski, Jan Matejka, Józef Mehoffer, Józef Piłsudski and how immensely many other, how extraordinary, how crucial to us all? no of specified people will pass indifferently next to the book – the album, in which they masterfully extracted, exposed and sometimes described even the details of Kraków, which may not be seen by the eye of a racial tourist. Watching these pictures makes you realize how much you can lose. And how much you gotta go back to these places.

Adam Bujak, the most prominent Polish photographer, bachelor of the Order of the White Eagle, like Jan Długosz, the largest historian of medieval Europe believes that Kraków is the first of all Polish decoration, a stronghold and – a matrix of all Poles. First of all, consider the last of these words. Who realizes that he is increasing out of this grandeur, specified as the Wawel, marketplace Square, Skałka, close Wieliczka or Tyniec – he will never be able to feel a associate of a secondary, inferior, little worthy or subordinate nation. A full, common sense awareness of specified a origin from which 1 grows, of specified an inheritance, which 1 is simply a depositary, protects against the effects of even the most full pedagogy of shame. The cognition flowing from these cards is an effective weapon against even the most furious attack on Poland and Poland.

I remember our Salesian catechet showing us albums presenting the treasures of Jasna Góra and Wawel Cathedral in spiritual classes. They were English-language publishers, commenting: “It is impossible to get Polish-language versions. due to the fact that you know – why should Poles know that their ancestors created specified things that they were so great?" A fewer years later, a man named Donald Tusk smittenly committed an essay published and publicized by akin ones with celebrated words that “polsity is abnormal.” And not ending with grumbling, as it is Poland's burden on him. And it was only a prelude to the beginning of the 1980s and 1990s full orgy of humiliating everything most Polish. Until the decade goes by, lie, hectolitrify everything that is sacred to Poles. And unfortunately – equipped with powerful tools for the transmission of contempt for Poland, Polish history, tradition, religion connected with Poland since the beginning of its history, has led to the unlearned Polishness so much of our nation that it can even win elections. For a simple reason – due to the fact that in the face of propaganda quasi – Poles were vulnerable. due to the fact that we did not have at our disposal a percent of those media that were utilized to combat Poland and Poland. Thanks to the care of God and persistent wise patriots – we are no longer vulnerable. Against the attacks of anti-Polish slanderers we already have protective shields. specified as Wydawnictwo Biały Kruk, whose editorial masterpieces tell the fact about Poland. The fact we have all right to be arrogant of. And it is hard to find the fact as beautiful as the images of Krakow photographed by Adam Bujak, as the communicative accompanying these paintings, which is authored by Joanna Wieliczka – Szarkowa.

But do we always appreciate what we have? I have always been a patriot, but the slavery and misery that almost everyone experienced in the 1980s did not have no effect on individual well-being. 1 time I met students from Vietnam, who were very sympathetic, whose eyes were virtually glowing with delight. Turns out they just got back from Krakow. A brief conversation about how we live in Poland abruptly 1 of them interrupted, as it turned out later, expressing their convictions. He said: “How can you complain? You have specified things in Poland! Yeahie things!” All his companions were confidently nodding their heads, after which the conversation took a completely different turn. Her conclusion was that yes, it is worse with Poland now. But this scale of historical size, which Krakow contains, is proof that the current state is only a temporary shortness of breath, a temporary aberration. due to the fact that a nation with specified a large past, with specified a immense scale of accomplishments – will not last forever in stagnation, in crisis or any fall. Whoever truly met Krakow knows that it is illogical, so besides impossible. It is besides not by chance that the cathedrals of polytology of Chinese universities, or a country boasting the longest continuity of their history, invariably specify Poland as a "power in sleep". The power is simply a category of discussion and in a political sense it is not easy, but the sober and knowledge-based national awareness of Poles is the basis for Poland to be the power of the spirit now. A real Poland, i.e. not allowing itself to be ripped out by either inalienable interests or any of the components of our identity.

So it is not only a journey into the past or a walk through the wonderful beauty of the corners is “Kraków. Culture and Nation”. This book – the album is simply a origin and cognition and spiritual strength.

Artur Adamski