Kossakówka

Abstrakt

THE KOSSAKÓWKA

The article is the first in our literature to deal with the history of the Kossak family house. They settled down in Cracow 123 years ago (in 1869), in a house called the Kossakówka. Three masters of battle-piece painting and painting representing horses — Juliusz Kossak (1824-1899), Wojciech Kossak (1856-1942) and Jerzy Kossak (1886-1955), and Wojciech’s two daughters — poetess and playwright Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzeska (1891-1945) and satirical writer Magdalena (pen-name Samozwaniec, 1894-1972) came from that family. The whole estate was composed of two old manor houses of a villa type and painter ateliers, surrounded by an English-style park, full of green trees and flowers. The home, always open, welcomed guests and enjoyed the renown of ‘Cracow’s most interesting home’. From 1870 to 1956 the Kossakowka was an artistic and literary salon; painters, writers, poets, actors, musicians, hunters, and officers used to meet here as it was a meeting place for Cracow intelligentsia. It enjoyed justified fame for its unforgettable atmosphere and unique charm.
The article also describes the history of the houses architecture from its construction (1836-48) through its successive development and additions, improvements, embellishments, the times of standstill, negligence and deterioration, until the years of its decline, leading straight to its total ruin. There was even an intention to demolish the Kossakowka altogether, to pull down both manor houses, to cut off the trees in the parks and to construct huge skyscrapers and concrete blocks of flats on the site. In fact, persently they surround the site. However, the two manor houses survived, were partially renovated in 1961 and were qualified as 4th-class historical monuments; the park also survived, though it has been reduced from all sides and badly neglected.
Presently the fifth generation of the Kossak family lives here. The last year brought some changes for better. The new generation is enthusiastic and has courageous and ambitious intentions to rebuilt and restore their family house and to arrange the Kossak family biographical museum here. Cracow authorities and museums should support this initiative.
The author of this work, researcher and the best expert in the history of the Kossaks’ biography and their work, has included for the first time the plans for development of the former Kosskówka he found in archives and a collection of documentary photographs.