Poland: Puszczykowo, Arkady Fiedler's museum of Battle of Britain, squadron 303 RAF, famous writer and educate about tolerance

The old pre-war villa and the beautiful Russian Blue Cat greets us in the yard. This legendary breed was the favourite race of tsars. The friendly bulldog wags his tail, and the charming shi-tzu entertains everyone with his ball. This villa is home to the famous traveller, a soldier of Squadron 303, Arkady Fiedler. To this day, it is the home of the Fiedler family. That place is also the Arkady Fiedler Museum, which promotes knowledge about other cultures and spreads tolerance. Arkady Fiedler was a Polish writer and traveler. He made 30 journeys in his life. He wrote 32 books, which appeared in 23 languages and sold over 10 million copies. His books enchant with the art of description, colourfully bring the reader closer to people with different cultures, teach respect for other cultures, and speak about the beauty of nature.

 

Squadron oryginal plane and picture of Arkady Fiedler with   Witold Urbanowicz

 

Arkady Fiedler bought a villa in Puszczykowo in 1946 after returning from emigration. During the war, he was in the famous No. 303 Squadron RAF and took part in the Battle of Britain. The 303 Squadron was the best air squadron and, by far, contributed the most to the victory of the Allies. For many years, the squadron was carefully wiped out of the memory of Poles and British, including by Churchill himself. In 2018 , two films about the division were made. Both films featured famous international actors, like Piotr Adamczyk or Mel Gibson's son. After many years, the forgotten squadron seems to be returning to the pages of history. The museum also has an exhibition about the history of the squadron. You can see, for example, original photos of soldiers made by Arkady Fiedler. 

The information about Fiedler's travels was spreading fast, so the author decided to set up a museum to show people the different worlds. and, in this way, educated them. The writer decided to open a museum in his family home, showing travel exhibits related to religion, the folk craft culture of the countries he visited, and also his story of the Second World War. There are also many photos from travel. Arkady Fiedler loved animals, and on many of them he was with some animals.

Arkady Fielder was primarily interested in the period of geographic discoveries, and it presents mainly his collections. One of the assumptions of Arkady Fiedler and his museum was to show people the world that they could not see. During communist times, travel was very difficult, especially for those far away. The second most important thing was probably education by showing other cultures the science of tolerance and acceptance of otherness. This is the role of the museum until today, and it performs very well, especially nowadays when the work of this family is very important because tolerance begins to disappear again.

 

Moai

 

The most important element of the assumption is a garden of tolerance in which replicas of sculptures and objects important for the development of various civilizations in the world are here, for example: the Sun Gate of Tiahuanaco, the Aztec calendar, the mouth of Quetzelcoatl, a monument of the famous Native American chief Sitting Bull, Moai, and the Toltec telemon. The last copy of the well-known sculpture is quite a sad monument. It is a copy of the Buddha's sculpture from Bamiyan in Afganistan, which the Taliban blew up. It was the largest Buddha statue in the world.

 

Copy of Bamiyan Buddha

 There is also a replica of the Santa Maria ship opened by the descenant of Columb  himself and the original battalion 303 plane—the famous Hurricane. Since 2001, the state has no longer donated to the museum, and the family is working on it alone. That's how it is: if you are not following ideology, then the state will do everything to make the institution forgetful. Unfortunately, they have no money for modernization, but in fact, creating a from that place in the 21st century would make the place lose its climate. History has shown more than once that people like Fiedler can once again be condemned by the system, condemned to others, and in any case, they are used politically. It seems that the family does not want to have anything in common with any political system; it wants to primarily educate people about the fact that the world is different and that this divergence makes it beautiful.

This copy of Buddha's sculpture shows us how much such places are needed so that such things never happen again. This is a beautiful place where you can feel the unique spirit and family hospitality. A place nowadays is necessary because the acceptance of otherness becomes a prohibited thing again.

 

Toltec  atlas

International site about the place:(no) polish   http://www.fiedler.pl/
If you will contact family also in English, they will always answer.

Poland: castle Kórnik residence of most famous ghost, White Lady and pact with devil



In the Middle Ages, it was owned by the Górka family, in legends their treasures were  watched by devils. The most famous owner of the castle Teofila Działyński Szołdrski -Potulicki decided to damaged the family Górka hunting lodge, which was located at the lake shore. For this thing she suffers until today. Every night she descends from the picture, walks around the castle and at midnight it is taken by a black knight. Teofila, also known as the White Lady, is the most famous polish ghost.Real Teofila was a very resourceful woman. She even set up one of the first silk factories in Europe,also brought silkworms.Teofila developed the town, which was why she was not liked mostly by the male part of the nobility. She can be considered a polish feminist in the good sense of the word. At that time, an educated woman who managed her prosperous wealth alone had to become a witch over time.Unrealistic stories began to be created about her.Honestly, this town could use not only her spirit but her resurrection. It is not surprising that you can meet her. I think the ruin of the city is teasing her. 
 
 

Dodaj napis

 
 

About Teofila remained the painting, pavillion in to the park and several fragments of garden buildings. How about the castle itself? The Kórnik Castle became the property of the Działyński family at the end of the 17th century. In the 19th century, the current form of the neogothic castle was awarded to Tytus Działyński, who also created a library here. Here is one of the largest collections of old books in Poland. The rooms are very interesting, and the most undoubtedly attracted is the portrait of Teofila, who looks mystically at us. Teofila was undoubtedly the most outstanding owner, who was legendary in her life. Mainly thanks to the fact that she knew how to do business, which in age of baroque in Poland,did not appeal to her. 

 



Remains of the fountains from the time of Teofila White Lady

 

 

At that time in Poland   created a very strange and even backward culture called 'Sarmatian culture', which not existed in other countries, that style of life not acepted resourceful inteligent people. This age led to the fact that Poland was one of the last countries in which witches were burned. That culture had in fact nothing to famous ancient Sarmatians, even if nobleman called themselves like that.  It was also said that Teofila signed a circographer.Rumors started spreading that she slept with a pastor and a catholic parish priest. After her death, the estate was inherited by her son, but the family undermined the will and the castle returned to Działyński. The garden plays the role of the Arboretum, where there are specimens of trees imported from various parts of the world. Castle was visited by Henry de Valois king of Poland and after few weeks king of France. Last king from de Valois family. The castle is surrounded by a beautiful park where trees from around the world have been brought. Just few things remember great Teofila. The castle is restored and it seen great, but...

 



Garden pavilion rest from the time of Teofila White Lady

The rooms are open to the public although at present it is the headquarters of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Dendrology, and here is  the biggest problem the place not use the potential of turism  because the scientists have forgotten very mundane things:
  

 

The castle does not have its own site, but only a bookmark on the Polish Academy of Sciences website, which makes a problem for  the foreign tourist. Even if they knowing the name of the castle will not find it in the search engines. Not to mention errors. A polish tourist also needs to know what he is looking for. The website of the Arboretum is much better, but we will not find it in the search engine when we enter the word ''Kórnik'', we must look through ''the Arboretum ''or ''Garden''. One decent page would be much better. And it would be beautiful if it was also in a language other than polish.

 

Information about prohibitions, eg. about the prohibition of moving around the garden during a strong wind are written in so much  pompous language that you can see that someone realy  highly educated wrote it, but that type of  language  rather matches to  the scientific book not on the usual information plate.

 

 

The price of the car park also is higher than in  the capital of the country . It's not price for  a small village.

 

And perhaps the worst thing that can happen to us is a restaurant in bulding near the castle. The prices of dishes are taken straight from the capital, but the decor itself, the way it is served and the quality of the dishes leave much to be desired. In fact  frozen foods, bought in supermarket, very poor quality served on a paper plate at the price of a gourmet restaurant. Eating here is good just for someone who has very strong stomach in other way it mean visit doctor. The bar uses the fact that there is practically no other restaurant nearby, and scientists like scientists who are thoughtful, do not see the ordinary world.Of course, on the ticket information, the castle recommends another restaurant, but  often the tourist eats dinner first and recomended restaurant is very far away. So maybe  should be liquidated this place and instead of it, make a good restaurant which bring  money and a souvenir spot, which also give place earnings.

Kórnik is an interesting place, but it has to decide whether it still wants to play a tourist role or remain part of a scientific institute, it can not reconcile these roles yet, or above all use tourist opportunities at last.Some things must here changed even for the glory of Theophila's works.

 

 International site about the place: (at last created, but just in polish language):
 https://kornik.travel/pl/obiekty/zwiedzanie/zamek-w-korniku?gclid=Cj0KCQiAmsrxBRDaARIsANyiD1phsKg5S9ZT7vALQgcWO5T3iMqBZ0ty5JkZEmMsj2Q5NO0bikkH1wwaAuT4EALw_wcB

 



Teofila (A. Pesne) painting taken from wikipedia