Jan III Sobieski’s great love for gardening turned Wilanów into an important centre for the cultivation of new plants. It is probably for this reason that Sobieski is attributed the introduction of potato growing in Poland. The king allegedly sent a few pounds of potato bulbs to Wilanów from his expedition to Vienna in 1683 and ordered them to be planted and multiplied in the local garden. So much for the legend, but does it hold true? Nobody knows for sure. There is evidence to suggest that the plant might have appeared in the area of Warsaw no sooner than at the end of the 18th century...
What we do know for sure is that potato (Solanum tuberosum) has been cultivated in South America for at least 9500 years, as revealed in the course of archaeological research carried out in an excavation site in Tres Ventanas, Peru, where discovered were the oldest remains of cultivated potatoes. The first identified European to encounter potatoes was Juan de Castellos. In 1537 he came across potato bulbs in American Indian huts in the area of the Columbian Andes and named them “turmas de tierra”, i.e. truffles. The later coined terms also referred to truffles, as exemplified by the Italian “tartufflo”, the French “tartufle”, the German “Kartoffeln” and the Polish colloquial name “kartofle”.
Potatoes were imported from South America to Europe on frequent occasions in 1550–1600. The best-documented introduction took place in 1588, when the Pope offered potato bulbs to Carolus Clusius, a renowned botanist active in Vienna. Clusius made a watercolour image and a detailed description of the potatoes and sent them to botanic gardens in various cities, including Frankfurt, Nuremberg and Wrocław (for more on this interesting scientists, go to the article “History of Tulip Cultivation in Europe”). In the 16th–17th centuries potatoes were considered a botanic novelty and circulated between courts of contemporary rulers and dignitaries. It is therefore possible that Sobieski obtained Solanum tuberosum bulbs from Viennese gardens. Admittedly, should the legend of the potato trophy from the Relief of Vienna be true, Wilanów could not boast of being the first potato-growing location in Poland, outstripped by Wrocław. According to some records, a certain apothecary from Wrocław cultivated potatoes as early as in 1587!
Regardless of who imported the plant to our country, when and how, one may toy with the idea that the freshly boiled new potatoes steaming on the plate had been first brought to Poland by King Sobieski himself!
