Bohemian Highlights -- Poznań

 

Poznań, the original capital of Poland, is located in western Poland on the Warta River. It was founded in the 10th century and was one of the one of four historical capitals of medieval Poland. Today, as the fifth largest city in the country with a population of over half a million, it is the center of trade, sport, education, technology and tourism.   

At the heart of the square is Poznań’s Town Hall, which was originally built in the late 13th century following the founding of the city in 1253. The clock tower features two billy goats that come out at noon and butt heads 12 times as the clocks sounds the hour. This display has gone on since 1551.

The goats refer to a 16th century story about a chef in town who was supposed to make an elaborate feast for the mayor and visiting dignitaries. The chef had planned roasted venison but ended up burning the meat to a crisp because he was distracted by the festivities. In desperation the chef found two goats grazing in a nearby meadow that he intended to cook. Unfortunately, the goats got away from him and ran toward the Town Hall. They ran up the stairs to the tower, emerged from the turret, locked horns, and battled it out. The mayor, his guests, and the townspeople were so entertained by the goats that they forgave the chef and the goats for the meal. When the new clock was set up, the mayor ordered that the goats be added to the mechanism and continue their noon time battle.

Goat photos by Atlas Obscura

 

Town Square

  

A very colorful town square graces the center of Poznań's old town and helps visitors like us to forget the dreary, overcast and very cold day.  The square is very big with the huge Town Hall in the center of it. Below are some of the buildings and objects that make up the square. The architecture is exquisite, just a taste of what we were in for during this two-week trip in both grand cities and rural small towns alike.

 

 

                                    

Restaurants are enticing with their sculpted windows and doorways. They look so 18th century. The names are equally intriguing like Billy's, a reference to those two goats battling it out in the Town Hall's tower. Another restaurant features the two goats in its front window. Truly beautiful--and inviting.

 

 

I ate at a small restaurant that served some delicious food and a spiced Christmas drink. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of it, the food, or my fellow travelers, two sisters from South Africa, that I ate with. 

 

 

Christmas is around the corner and the town is getting reading with a crêche and later on, a Christmas market that will feature hand-crafted goods made by local people. Little log cabins (sometimes small tents) will be set up as they are in cities across Europe.

 

 

 

My fellow travelers and I only had time for lunch and a quick look around the town square before we boarded the bus and headed for Warsaw.

 

St. Martin's Croissant -- “rogale świętomarcińskie”

 

 One of the popular local foods in Poznań is the St. Martin's Croissant. This giant-sized delight is filled with poppy seeds and mixed with nuts, raisins, almonds, sugar and butter. Icing is poured on top and sprinkled again with nuts and sugar. It's more than one person can eat at a time, and it's best eaten when it's warm. 

 

 The croissant is protected as a cultural heritage by the European Union because it is not only a staple of the Poznanian diet but a delicacy celebrated every year at the town's St. Martin Festival. 

The tradition of the St. Martin's Croissant goes back to 1891 when a young priest was trying to encourage his congregation to find a way to be charitable towards the poor during the cold winter months. A young confectioner took this to heart after he watched a horse lose its shoe. He decided to create a croissant in the shape of a horseshoe and give it to the poor. He filled the croissant with almond and poppyseed paste and passed it out to beggars on the street. As a result, the townspeople created a charitable event they celebrated every year on November 11, St. Martin's feast day. On this day, the town makes and eats over 700,000 croissants during the annual St. Martin's Day parade.

Today, the Croissant Museum features the baking process of the croissant as they teach the history of St. Martin, Poznań, and the famous croissant. 

 

1956 Monument

If there was one outstanding lesson of this trip to Poland and the Bohemian region it was that the people in this region have suffered much over the centuries as bigger and better armies conquered them. One dreadful period in recent history was the post-war Soviet takeover of Poland. In June 1956, however, the people of Poznań revolted against the regime. 

The 1956 Poznań protests were the first of several massive protests against the communist government of the Polish People's Republic. Workers demanded better working conditions at Poznań's Cegielski Factories. Approximately 100,000 people gathered in the city center. They were met with 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of the Polish People's Army and the Internal Security Corps under the command of the Polish-Soviet general Stanislav Poplavsky who were ordered to suppress the protesters--with bullets if necessary. Between 57 to 100+ people were killed and hundreds sustained injuries. The Poznań protests eventually resulted in the Polish October as well as the installation of a less Soviet-controlled government. Other similar protests would lead to the fall of communism in Poland in 1989.

We didn't see this monument, but I include it in this blog because of its importance to Poznań and Polish history. It is important to note that the protests were not motivated by anti-communist ideology as much as workers' demands for better working conditions. "We demand bread" was their motto. These demands, in turn, eventually led to the call for political change.

These two steel crosses bound together with rope were unveiled on June 28, 1981, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1956 uprising against Soviet control. An eagle head and nearby tablet were added when Polish Pope John Paul II visited the monument in 1997. 

The monument has become a very powerful symbol of remembrance of the painful events of Poland’s recent past including the people's subsequent patriotic and social riots of 1968, 1970, 1976, 1980 and 1981.

 

Sources

Atlas Obscura on Poznań -- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-fighting-goats-of-poznan-poznan-poland

Atlas Obscura on St Martin's Croissant -- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-martins-croissant-museum

Atlas Obscura on 1956 Monument -- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/poznan-june-1956-monument

Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozna%C5%84

Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Pozna%C5%84_protests

 

 

Les Charmettes -- The Formative Years of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived at Les Charmettes with Madame de Warens between 1736-1742. Les Charmettes is a preserved natural site and a botanical garden. This place, where the personality of one of the most important French writers was formed, is the genuine testimony of the author's influence on the evolution of the universal thought over Nature, Romanticism, education, happiness, the Enlightenment, liberty, and equality.

 

"At this moment began the short happiness of my life, those peaceful and rapid moments, which have given me a right to say, I have lived."

Confessions, book VI 

 

Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1712. He stayed in Chambéry (marked by the red dot on the map of France) between 1731 and 1742 with Madame de Warens. They lived in this country house at the Charmettes since 1736 when he became 24 years old. 

The Charmettes site spreads over three hectares which includes a house, a chapel, and a garden. This place served as a foundation for the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau who described his stay at the Charmettes as having been "the short happiness of my life" in The Confessions, book VI.

 It has been a place of philosophic and republican pilgrimage since 1792. Today it is a place of remembrance. In 1905, it became the public property of the city of Chambéry and was classified as a French historic monument to be maintained for future generations. It was built in 1660 and had several private owners before Madame de Warens and Rousseau lived in it.  

"An isolated house on the slope of a valley was our sanctuary, and that is where, in the space of four or five years, I enjoyed a century of life and total and complete happiness...."

                                                            Reveries of a Solitary Walker, Tenth Walk

 

 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau met Françoise-Louise Eléonore de Warens in Annecy (northeast of Chambéry) in 1728 when he was sixteen years old. They lived together in the city center of Chambéry starting in 1731. Madame de Warens chose the Charmettes as a country house where, between 1736 and 1742, they spent the summer months. 

 

 

 

 

 

Rousseau remembered The Charmettes with a sense of happiness. This place is associated with a key moment in the life of the writer and thinker of the Age of Enlightenment.

After having fled from Geneva and his family in 1728, he met Madame de Warens, who would play a crucial role in his life by helping him discover love. She embodied the quintessential feminine and maternal figure for him.

These years also gave the young man the opportunity to pursue and enhance his education, develop his passion for music, learn about botany, and take advantage of the joys of Nature. It is at The Charmettes that, fueled by his multiple readings, he established his "storehouse of ideas", the source of intellectual training for the forthcoming philosopher.

 

"I said to myself: I will begin by laying up a storehouse of ideas, true or false, but clearly conceived, till my understanding shall be sufficiently furnished to enable me to compare and make choice of those that are most estimable."

The Confessions, book VI

 

 

 

Madame de Warens (Vevey, 1699 - Chambéry, 1762) was of Swiss nobility. She lived in Savoie from 1726. Impoverished and without family, she became young Rousseau's protector. He called her "mother" and she called him "little one".

 

The 18th century sedan chair was the preferred means of transport for Madame de Warens to gain access to the Charmettes. Rousseau wrote "The first day that we went to The Charmettes, mother went by sedan chair and I followed on foot..." (The Confessions, book VI). 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dining Room

 

Over the years, museum curators of whom an artist, Marius Mars-Vallett, have refurbished it in accordance with the original spirit of the place. At the end of the 18th century, one of the occupants ordered the painting in trompe-l'oeil. 

 

 The map on the wall is a reproduction of the Sard Map representing the city of Chambéry in 1729 and the small valley of The Charmettes. First graphic European land register, the Sard Map was made from 1728 to 1738 by the administration of the Kingdom of Piedmont Sardinia, whose capital was Turin and where Victor Amadeus II and Charles Emmanuel III reigned. At the beginning of his stay in Chambéry, Rousseau provided support to this important source by working as an attendant to the writings.

 

 

Dated 1793, Rousseau's portrait is an early work by the artist Jean-Baptiste Peytavin (Chambéry, 1767-1855). It reflects Rousseau's reputation during the French Revolution. A literary man and philosopher fascinated by the notion of "truth" as indicated by the Latin motto Vitam Impendere Vero (Life for the Truth). Rousseau is represented with a hand on the Social Contract published in 1762 in which he theorized his republican ideal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Eluiza and I pose with one of the greats.

 

 

 

The Music Room

 

Rousseau always had a passion for music. At The Charmettes he invented a new writing method for music by replacing notes with numbers. Later he composed operas and wrote articles on music in the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert, published in 1751. 

 

 

 

 

The pianoforte dates back to the end of the 8th century. George Sand drew it in her travel books during her visit in 1861.

 

 

 

Chinoiseries adorn the tops of the doors. Their colors with the birds, branches, and flower patterns are characteristic of 18th century tastes.

 

Crafted by Noubel in 1809, the bust represents Georges-Marie Raymond, the curator of the Chambéry Museum of Fine Arts. He resided at The Charmettes, opened the doors to visitors and established the first guest book in 1810, which people from all over the world have signed.

 

 

 

 

By singing the praises of The Charmettes in his autobiographical text, The Confessions and in Reveries of a Solitary Walker, Rousseau aroused the interest of readers in it. Intellectuals, artists, and ordinary people went to see The Charmettes for themselves and experience the ambiance that Rousseau described so well. This was how the house became a pilgrimage site. Visitors come here from all over the world to soak up the spirit of the place.

Hérault de Séchelles, a key player in the French Revolution, was among the first to visit. He affixed a plaque to the facade of the house in 1792 with the inscription: 

"Retreat, inhabited by Jean Jacques/ thou recallest to my mind his genius/ his solitude, his pride/ his folly and his misfortunes/ He dared to consecrate his life to truth and glory/ and was always persecuted/ either by himself or by envy."

 This is how Jean-Jacques Rousseau became a symbol of the Revolution.

 

The Garden

The gardens provide a broad nature setting favorable to contemplation. Rousseau developed a taste for simple pleasures from this privileged setting: walking, reading, gardening, daydreaming, and observing the countryside.

The French garden bears witness to the taste for order and symmetry in garden design until the middle of the 18th century. Today, the botanical garden contains vegetables, medicinal and aromatic plants that Rousseau may have been familiar with in Savoie.

The Charmettes site is equally a place of heritage preservation, registered on the inventory of heritage and sites since 1933. The house is situated in the Chartreuse Mountains, which are located in the heart of a protected valley. Facing the Nivolet mountain, the orchard, grapevine, and garden are reminders of the setting in which the young Rousseau liked to walk and draw his inspiration. 

 

In book VI of The Confessions, Rousseau recounts his first ascent to The Charmettes through the episode of the flowering periwinkle that Madame de Warens shows him. The periwinkle acts as the future "Proust's madeleine", through the concentration of the emotional effects of reminiscence. It is a flower emblematic of the moments of happiness experienced in this place.

 

 

Second Floor

 

stairway to second floor chapel and bedrooms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapel Alcove

The chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits. It was initially in the chapel on the roadside and was moved inside the house during the 18th century. Born into a Protestant family from Geneva, Rousseau converted to Catholicism in Turin in 1728 under the influence of Madame de Warens who was committed to the spread of the Catholic faith in the region. Her bedroom is on the immediate right of the chapel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madame's Bedrooom

Madame ensured the spiritual and sentimental education of the young man who was indelibly marked by this love. 

 

"Over these few years, with the love of a woman full of kindness and gentleness, I could do what I wanted to do, I could be what I wanted to be"                                                           (Reveries of a Solitary Walker, 10th Walk).

 

 

 

 

 

Madame de Warens was interested in botany. She was passionate about books on "medicine for the poor" and plant therapy, of which we can see some examples in the bookcase in the corner of the room (left).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ceiling has typical 18th century wooden beams. The wallpaper is decorated with flower patterns called "Indiennes". 

 

Rousseau's Bedroom

The bed is situated in an alcove surmounted by an attic that is accessible via a staircase and could serve as a resting place for the servants.

Close-up of the crucifix scene over Rousseau's bed.

The second floor is entirely decorated by wallpapers dating back to the end of the 18th century. This rare and precious ensemble was made according to a traditional printing process enriched by paintbrush and stencil. Below is the floor with its wide planks.

Rousseau's desk

Fueled by his multiple readings, Rousseau constituted his "storehouse of ideas" at The Charmettes, the source of intellectual training for the forthcoming philosopher. Rousseau modeled his first essays such as Le Verger de Madame de Warens in 1737. 

 

 

"At this moment began the short happiness of my life, those peaceful and rapid moments, which have given me a right to say, I have lived. Precious and ever-regretted moments! Ah! recommence your delightful course; pass more slowly through my memory, if possible, than you actually did in your fugitive succession. How shall I prolong, according to my inclination, this recital at once so pleasing and simple? How shall I continue to relate the same occurrences, without wearying my readers with the repetition, any more than I was satiated with the enjoyment? Again, if all this consisted of facts, actions, or words, I could somehow or other convey an idea of it, but how shall I describe what was neither said nor done, nor even thought, but enjoyed, felt, without being able to particularise any other object of my happiness than the bare idea? I rose with the sun, and was happy; I walked, and was happy; I saw Madame de Warens, and was happy; I quitted her, and still was happy! Whether I rambled through the woods, over the hills, or strolled along the valley; read, was idle, worked in the garden, or gathered fruits, happiness continually accompanied me; it was fixed on no particular object, it was within me, nor could I depart from it a single moment."

The Confessions, book VI 

In 1794, Rousseau's ashes were transferred from Ermenonville to the Pantheon in Paris.

Resources

 

notations at The Charmettes

www.chambery.fr/musees

 

www.facebook.com/MuseesChambery