Silva Rerum | 17.08.2015 Baroque is often associated with a peculiar phenomenon of peregrination. Citizens of the Commonwealth travelled the then Europe, appeared in most of the important cities, followed the popular routes and visited less frequented destinations.
In the 17th century, England was far from a distant, exotic and vague island for the inhabitants of the Commonwealth. It was visited by numerous Poles, who travelled there for various reasons. Undoubtedly, the most important destination for all travellers to England from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was London. In 1609, Jakub Sobieski wrote about the English capital, emphasising the role of flourishing trade and of the port: It is a metropolis in the Kingdom of England, a city with a port on the Thames River, strangely merry and broad, navigated by ships. This port is important among other beautiful and merry Christian ports. The city itself, as you walk along, is much longer than it is wide, very populous and dense, with a lot of trade activity.
Several decades later, the caretaker or Jakub's sons, Jan and Marek Sobieski, named Sebastian Gawarecki, also described in his memoires the English capital, emphasising the feature noted by all the travellers of those times, namely the length and vastness of the city situated on the Thames River: First, we had a look at the city, which is very long, but not particularly wide. It is built mostly of wood, rather than brick, however, there are quite many nicely proportional palaces and other town houses rich in brick. What is noteworthy is the comment that wood was commonly used in buildings (several years later, in September 1666, the city was devastated by the Great Fire that completely changed its architecture).
The first surviving account of a citizen of the Commonwealth travelling to London when it was still being reconstructed is a description by Teodor Billewicz of 1678. What is surprising is the fact that the journal does not in any way mention the tragic event that so strongly affected the appearance and structure of the English capital. Billewicz admires the beauty and vastness of the city, or rather its length, and in an attempt to give a reliable impression of the size of the capital, he compares London to Paris, which was already well known to him. In his description, the English capital is a flourishing and beautiful city and a prosperous and colourful port. The majestic Thames River dominated the traveller's account: Indeed, non immerito Londra denominationem nominis takes a longitudine, five miles extenditur et longitudine multo superat Paris, only it is not so broad, but aparet larger than Paris. Uncommonly beautiful, too, in its town houses and palaces as well as in a great number of various ornaments, being an abundant port city. The sea alluit the edge of the city and it is cut in the middle, being a long city, by the huge Thames, along which ships navigate into the city, and there are so many of them that it is impossible to accurate comput them, as some come while other go, but at one time, there are circiter three or four thousand main ships besides many smaller vessels, and the city apparet colourful with all the ship masts and flags.
It is worth noting that a similar description comparing the two largest European capitals: London and Paris was included in the 1680s in the journal of the educational trip of Europe of the sons of Rus Voivode, Jabłonowski brothers. Such comparisons were included in many travel journals of those times written by travellers from all over Europe. The two capitals were compared in terms of the size and density, and different aspects of life on both sides of the English Channel were confronted. A traveller, alone in a foreign environment, tried to find a convenient point of reference and the simplest way to describe the grandeur and wealth of a city was by comparing it to other urban centres along his itinerary that were already known to him. Visitors to London also described in their accounts the Monument commemorating the Great Fire. Having climbed to its top, the then tourists had a view of the entire city and could realise its scale and dimensions, and later sketch a colourful panorama of the English capital viewed from such an interesting perspective. Such image of London was dominated, the numerous houses, by two types of buildings: beautiful temples and vast royal residences. They were the places visited by Polish travellers staying in London.
The churches and monasteries visited by tourists from the Commonwealth impressed with their grandeur, splendour, dimensions and rich and ornamental interiors. For many tourists, visiting London temples meant in the first place seeing the Westminster Abbey. Descriptions of the great Gothic cathedral, royal necropolis and crowning place, were included in all the identified travel journals and accounts of the Baroque period. The abovementioned caretaker or the Sobieski brothers, Sebastian Gawarecki, noted in particular the expensive materials and elaborate design of the tombs he saw: made of very precious marbles and having beautiful proportions, artistically carved and rich in copper. Similar elements appear in the accounts of Teodor Billewicz, too; for him, the Abbey is mainly a national necropolis: where all the English kings are buried.
Apart from the Westminster Abbey, which undeniably occupied the main place on the pages of the diaries of peregrinations, another beautiful London church was also mentioned: Saint Paul's Cathedral. The Mediaeval Gothic temple entirely changed its appearance in the course of the 17th century, which was reflected in the reports of Polish visitors. At the beginning of the 17th century, the church was somewhat neglected and used for different purposes than intended. It was noted by Jakub Sobieski, who wrote with visible shock: Saint Paul's Cathedral is huge and splendid but, alas, the city of God's glory ementes et vendentes caused great sorrow to the Catholic heart. In 1647, Sebastian Gawarecki noticed the beautiful proportions of the temple, but he also commented on its derelict interior and abandoned attempts of its restoration: the huge Ancient church, cross shaped, has very beautiful proportions, which, however have been ruined by wooden scaffolding put in its interior up to the vaults; unfortunately, improvement work has been abandoned. The Great Fire of London solved the problem of the planned and continuously delayed renovation: many London churches burnt down and had to be rebuilt. Construction of the new Saint Paul's Cathedral is associated with the acclaimed architect, who directed reconstructions of the entire city, Christopher Wren. Drawing on the art of Italian Baroque, he gave the temple its final shape and crowned it with the huge dome that became the dominant element of the new church. For Polish travellers, especially those who arrived in England after long peregrination across Europe, in particular in Italy, the reconstructed monumental London cathedral brought to mind one specific place. The same was the case with the young sons of Rus Voivode, Jan Stanisław and Aleksander Jan Jabłonowski, who noted in their journal that the temple was modelled on Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.
17th century Polish travellers also included in their journey accounts, diaries and memoirs numerous descriptions of their visits to royal residences on the British island. Citizens of the Commonwealth visited the Palace of Whitehall, Hampton Court or Windsor Castle, but a must-see in London, recurring in all the accounts, was the former royal residence, the Tower of London. All the reports mention the fixed stops along the tour of the Tower: the treasury, armoury and royal zoo.
In the 17th century, a trip to London became a permanent element of European journeys, and the English capital was visited by numerous travellers from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The image of London, recorded in the accounts of tourists, depended on the individual artistic sensitivity, literary talents and curiosity of the world of a traveller who decided to leave home and go on a journey to England, in order to: see the kingdom that is no less worth seeing than the rest of Europe, as Teodor Billewicz put it.
Translation: Lingua Lab
