Mikołaj Bazyli Potocki

Mikołaj Bazyli Potocki

Mikołaj Bazyli Potocki, (1712–1782), Starost of Kaniv, benefactor of the Buchach townhall, Pochayiv Lavra, deputy to Sejm, owner of the Buchach castle.

Infamous for his many excesses and habits, he was immortalized in many Polish and Ukrainian books and legends (especially those of the 19th century), notably in Ukrainian ballad Bondarivna (about a cooper´s daughter, whom he murdered when she refusing to live with him).^[1] Zygmunt Krasiński in his Nieboskia Komedia referred to him as "him, starost, who shot women on the trees and baked Jews alive" ("Ów, starosta, baby strzelał po drzewach i Żydów piekł żywcem").^[1]

Near the end of his life, after the first partition of Poland, where many of his lands have passed under Austrian rule, he was ordered to disband his private army. He then attempted to create an image of pious and almost saint person, moving to a monastery and sponsoring many religious buildings and organisations - nonetheless, even until his last years, he retained a harem.^[2]

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  Buchach townhall (1750-1751)

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  Horodenka

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