Izabela Fleming

Princess Izabela Czartoryska (nee Countess Fleming) (1746-1835) was a Polish noble lady, writer, collector of art, founder of the first Polish museum.

She was the daughter of Count Jerzy Detloff Fleming and Princess Antonina Czartoryska. She married Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski on November 18, 1761 in Wołczyn. It is rumoured that she had an affair with the Russian ambassador to Poland, Nikolai Vasilyevich Repnin [1].

In Paris in 1772 she met Benjamin Franklin, one of the leaders of the American Revolution, and the French philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire, who at the time brought new ideas to the old order.

In 1775 she completely transformed (together with her husband) the Czartoryski Palace at Puławy into an intellectual and political meeting place.

Izabela discovered the talent of the young painter Aleksander Orlowski and financed him.

In 1784 she jointed the Patriotic Party. After the Kosciuszko Uprising two of her sons were taken by Catharine of Russia as political hostages.

In 1796 she ordered the rebuilding of the ruined Palace of Puławy and started a museum. Among the first objects were Turkish trophies from the siege of Vienna. Also included were historical objects, from Polish families and royal treasures.

In 1801 she opened the first museum in Poland, called "The Gothic House" or "The Temple of Memory". It contained objects with sentimental significance pertaining to the glories and miseries of human life.

During the November Uprising in 1830, the museum was closed and all objects evacuated. Her grandson Władysław Czartoryski re-opened the museum in 1878 in Kraków.