Description of the attraction
The museums of the Parisian Polish Library, located on the Ile Saint-Louis, can be of the utmost interest to the Russian tourist: their origin is associated with the name of Adam Czartoryski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire in 1804-1806. This was the very “wonderful beginning of the Aleksandrovs' days” that Pushkin wrote about.
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, a noble Polish nobleman, at the beginning of the 19th century was a member of the "inner circle" of the young emperor Alexander I and, at the suggestion of the tsar, became the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A brilliant career was cut short by events at the Imperial Vilna University, whose trustee was Czartoryski - students created a secret society here, Czartoryski was forced to resign. During the uprising of 1830, he was the chairman of the government of rebellious Poland, after the defeat of the uprising, he emigrated to France.
In Paris, Czartoryski settled on the Ile Saint-Louis. He led the Polish emigration and became a patron of the arts. In his huge Lambert mansion, he settled almost all the major figures of Polish culture, who, of course, had a hard time in emigration. Adam Mickiewicz and Frederic Chopin lived here. In 1838 Czartoryski bought a house on the Orleans embankment to build a Polish library. Today the library houses three small museums, two of which are directly related to Russian culture.
The great Polish romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz lived in St. Petersburg and was friends with Pushkin, Vyazemsky, Delvig, Baratynsky. All reading Russia highly appreciated his work. The collection of the museum named after him contains manuscripts, documents, letters, portraits of the poet and publicist.
The composer and virtuoso pianist Frederic Chopin lived in the Russian Empire, near Warsaw, before leaving for Western Europe. In 1831 he settled in Paris, where he met the writer Georges Sand - their romance lasted ten years. The last days of the composer have also passed in Paris. The Salon-Museum of Chopin presents the first editions of his scores, his chair, a death mask and a cast of his left hand.
The third museum of the library is a collection of paintings and sculptures by the Polish surrealist painter Boleslav Begas, who worked in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. There are also works by other Polish artists, archives of the Polish emigration.
