The Temple of the Sibyl (in Polish, ''Świątynia Sybilli'') is a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

d round monopteral temple-like structure at

Puławy Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was estimated at 47,4 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, built at the turn of the 19th century as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

Izabela Czartoryska Elżbieta "Izabela" Dorota Czartoryska (''née'' Flemming; 3 March 1746 – 15 July 1835) was a Polish princess, writer, art collector, and prominent figure in the Polish Enlightenment. She was the wife of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and a ...

History

The "Temple of the

Sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local trad ...

" at

, also known as the Temple of Memory, opened in 1801. The structure was modeled after the similar monopteral "

Temple of Vesta The Temple of Vesta, or the aedes (Latin ''Aedes Vestae''; Italian: ''Tempio di Vesta''), is an ancient edifice in Rome, Italy. The temple is located in the Roman Forum near the Regia and the House of the Vestal Virgins. The Temple of Vesta h ...

" at

Tivoli, Italy Tivoli ( , ; la, Tibur) is a town and in Lazio, central Italy, north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine hills. The city offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna. History Gaius Julius Solinu ...

, the site of the

Tiburtine Sibyl The Tiburtine Sibyl or Albunea was a Roman sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Etruscan town of Tibur (modern Tivoli). The mythic meeting of Cæsar Augustus with the Sibyl, of whom he inquired whether he should be worshiped as a god, was of ...

, which was well known throughout Europe in engravings. The Puławy temple, designed by Polish architect

Chrystian Piotr Aigner Chrystian Piotr Aigner (1756 in Puławy, Poland – 9 February 1841 in Florence, Italy) was a Polish people, Polish architect and theoretician of architecture. Life Chrystian Piotr Aigner acquired extensive knowledge of architecture in the course ...

, memorialized

Polish history The history of Poland spans over a thousand years, from medieval tribes, Christianization and monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political l ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

, and the glories and miseries of human life. Items kept in the Temple of the Sibyl included the

Grunwald Swords The Grunwald Swords ( pl, miecze grunwaldzkie, lt, Žalgirio kalavijai) are a pair of simple bare swords sent as a mocking "gift" by Ulrich von Jungingen, the Grand Master of the Order of Teutonic Knights, to King Władysław II Jagiełło of ...

and a large " Royal Casket" containing portraits and personal items of Poland's monarchs and queens. During the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

of 1830–31, the museum was closed. Izabela Czartoryska's son

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (; lt, Аdomas Jurgis Čartoriskis; 14 January 177015 July 1861), in English known as Adam George Czartoryski, was a Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author. The son of a wealthy prince, he began his political c ...

evacuated surviving collections to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where he housed them at the

Hôtel Lambert The Hôtel Lambert () is a ''hôtel particulier,'' a grand mansion townhouse, on the Quai Anjou on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. In the 19th century, the name ''Hôtel Lambert'' also came to designa ...

. His son

Władysław Czartoryski Prince Władysław (Ladislaus) Czartoryski (3 July 1828 – 23 June 1894) was a Polish noble, political activist in exile, collector of art, and founder of the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Life Son of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski and Pr ...

later reopened the museum in 1878 in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

, in

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

Poland, as the

Czartoryski Museum The Princes Czartoryski Museum ( pl, Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich ) – often abbreviated to Czartoryski Museum – is a historic museum in Kraków, Poland, and one of the country's oldest museums. The initial collection was formed in 1796 i ...

Prus

In 1884, the Temple of the Sibyl was used by the Polish writer

Bolesław Prus Aleksander Głowacki (20 August 1847 – 19 May 1912), better known by his pen name Bolesław Prus (), was a Polish novelist, a leading figure in the history of Polish literature and philosophy, as well as a distinctive voice in world li ...

as the setting for his micro-story, "

Mold of the Earth "Mold of the Earth" (Polish: "''Pleśń świata''") is one of the shortest micro-stories by the Polish writer Bolesław Prus. The story was published on 1 January 1884 in the New Year's Day issue of the ''Warsaw Courier'' (''Kurier Warszawski''). ...

." The story's action takes place adjacent to the Temple, where there is a boulder overgrown with

mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...

s. At a certain moment the boulder magically transforms into a

globe A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model glo ...

. In his one-and-a-half-page micro-story, Prus identifies human

societies A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

with

s that, over the ages, blindly and impassively contest the surface of the

. He thus provides a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

for the competitive struggle for existence that goes on among human communities. In 1869, then-22-year-old

had briefly studied at the Agricultural and Forestry Institute that had been established on the old Czartoryski estate at Puławy.Edward Pieścikowski, ''Bolesław Prus'', p. 147. Earlier, he had spent several years of his early childhood in

Notes

References

Christopher Kasparek Christopher Kasparek (born 1945) is a Scottish-born writer of Polish descent who has translated works by numerous authors, including Ignacy Krasicki, Bolesław Prus, Florian Znaniecki, Władysław Tatarkiewicz, Marian Rejewski, and Władysław ...

, "Two Micro-Stories by

," ''

The Polish Review ''The Polish Review'' is an English-language academic journal published quarterly in New York City by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. ''The Polish Review'' was established in 1956. Editors-in-chief The following persons hav ...

'', 1995, no. 1, pp. 99–103. * Edward Pieścikowski, ''Bolesław Prus'', 2nd ed., Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1985, . *

Zygmunt Szweykowski Zygmunt Szweykowski (7 April 1894 in Krośniewice – 11 February 1978 in Poznań) was a historian of Polish literature who specialized in 19th-century Polish prose. Life In 1932-39, Szweykowski held a professorship at the Free Polish University ...

, ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Art of

), 2nd ed., Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972. {{Coord, 51, 24, 54, N, 21, 57, 19, E, source:kolossus-plwiki, display=title Museums in Lublin Voivodeship Buildings and structures in Puławy

History

Prus

See also

Notes

References