Racławice Panorama

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Rotunda housing the Racławice Panorama, Wrocław, Poland.

Rotunda housing the Racławice Panorama, Lwów, Poland, 1938

The Racławice Panorama (Polish: Panorama Racławicka) is a monumental (15 × 120 meter) panoramic painting depicting the Battle of Racławice, during the Kościuszko Uprising. It is currently located in Wrocław, Poland. The painting is one of only a few preserved relics of a genre of 19th century mass culture, and the oldest in Poland. The panorama stands in a circular fashion and, with the viewer in the center, presents different scenes at various viewing angles. A special kind of perspective used in the painting and additional effects (lighting, artificial terrain) create a feeling of reality.

[edit] History

The idea came from the painter Jan Styka (1858 – 1925) in Lwów (Lvov) who invited the renowned battle-painter Wojciech Kossak (1857 – 1942) to participate in the project. They were assisted by Ludwik Boller, Tadeusz Popiel, Zygmunt Rozwadowski, Teodor Axentowicz, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Wincenty Wodzinowski and Michał Sozański. The project was conceived as a patriotic manifestation commemorating the 100th anniversary of the victorious Battle of Racławice, a famous episode of the Kościuszko Insurrection, a heroic but in the end fallen attempt to defend Polish independence. The battle was fought on April 4, 1794 between the insurrectionist force of regulars and peasant volunteers (awesome scythe-bearers) under Kościuszko (1746 – 1817) himself and the Russian army commanded by General Alexander Tormasov. For the nation which had lost its independence, the memory of this glorious victory was particularly important.

The National Exhibition, organized in Lwów in 1894, offered an excellent opportunity to realize Styka’s idea. Canvas, woven to order, was bought in Brussels, the specially-built rotunda’s iron structure (designed by Ludwik Ramułt) in Vienna. The rotunda, located in Stryjski Park in Lwów, was ready in July 1893. The huge panorama painting was executed within 9 months, between August 1893 and May 1894. The official opening was on June 5, 1894. Since the very beginning, Panorama of the Battle of Racławice attracted enormous attention and brought crowds of tourists to Lwów.

After World War II, the painting was brought to Wrocław along with a part of the collection of the Ossoliński Institution. As under the Communist regime the subject was considered politically sensitive, the efforts to have the canvas restored and exhibited, undertaken by successive Volunteer Committees, were successful only after August 1980. Reopened on June 14, 1985, the major attraction of the old Lwów has immediately become the main tourist attraction of Wrocław. Here, contemporary viewers have an opportunity to participate in a unique illusionist spectacle. Among many guests visiting the panorama were Pope John Paul II, Beatrix, the Queen of Holland, Czesław Miłosz, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature.