A family saga about Poland that could happen. Fragment of “¦wiecki”

As announced by the publisher:

‘The Secular’ is an unusual family saga about Poland that could happen. About a country that exists purely theoretically, and in this it very much resembles the real Poland. It is a fresh perspective full of hope, because there is an alternative in the Republic of the Laity.

Read the excerpt:

The complex, dug into the ground below the castle, did not disturb the historical silhouette of the city on any side, the great courtyard separating the museum and the philharmonic hall opened at the feet of people approaching Staszica Street rising from the center. Both buildings were entered from the atrium below the street level, glistening in the sun with snow-white aluminum of futuristic facade panels and a stretch of the noble Sudeten White Marianna, the only white marble quarried in Poland. A square hole in the ground was framed by a terrace with a light balustrade over the atrium. Those who approached the castle from the city saw only the bastions and walls of the monument. Only the balustrade and the glass pavilion of the cafe, from which the elevators and escalators took guests down to the atrium, revealed that there was an architectural surprise here.

Another was the aforementioned footbridge between the town and the Świecie campus and the manor park. The laity invented it during the same foundation convention in the fall of 2006, when the decision was made to build a museum for their art collection. Maciek was sitting farthest from the presidential table, in the corner with young people who were texting each other and giggling, waiting for a break in the prolonged chatter. He texted with them, but at the same time he was listening to what the elders were discussing, and at some point out of nowhere he jumped up and picked up the microphone about the need to make the park available to the inhabitants of Świecie, aunt von Baudissin standing next to him. Before he could say anything, there was a murmur of discontent. Professor Karol Modzelewski, the chairman of the meeting, the then chairman of the Council of the Świecie Foundation, scolded Maciek with his eyesight.

– Mr. Maciej, we are not interrupting each other.

– Professor, I am so sorry. Basia, I’ll give you the floor in a moment, I just wanted to agree with you and propose an idea that just came to my mind, and I would soon forget it. Let’s build a footbridge over the ravine so that people would be closer to our campus and the park, and us closer to the city – he said, handed back the microphone and sat down, and the room was in a tumult.

Maciek had an unofficial enfant terrible status in the family, interrupting others during the family foundation meetings was treated as another offense of the unruly boyfriend. And as the idea of ​​building the footbridge came from him, some of the people gathered in the room decided that it was a whim of a reckless youngster.

There were fifty people in the room, and the dividing line became straight very quickly. “For” or “against”. And the specific arguments were irrelevant, whether it was against the destruction of the gorge’s unique ecosystem or for bringing the manor house and the city closer together.

‘Well, my dear, lest you find yourself on the wrong side of history,’ said Aunt Marilla, obviously supporting the construction of the footbridge. The dispute became quite acute. Andrzej Szymczak from Warsaw, a member of the foundation’s board, a gruff curator of contemporary art, asked for the floor.

– Ladies and Gentlemen, today we discussed a lot about the museum that is to be established and how it is to fit in with the aims of the Lay Foundation. But I believe that your family nest, Devil, must also become available to people, continued Szymczak. – Enemies keep accusing you of sectarianism, of conspiracy. Mrs. von Baudissin’s idea of ​​making the park a public place is, of course, brilliant. But I agree with Mr. Maciek that this ravine is perceived by many as an obstacle. As something that the laity hid from the world. Throwing a footbridge to the park that is open to people will be a handy place. I heard the voice of Mr. Zbigniew who is worried about the ecosystem. Thanks to you, I learned a new word, xerothermic vegetation, thank you very much. I recently collaborated with a rather crazy French architect, Francois Roche, and I can assure you that he can propose something such that the ecosystem or the natural landscape will not suffer, a facility will be created that fulfills its function and an adventure will happen at the same time. For a collector from Bangkok, Petch Osathanugrah, for example, he designed an art museum building to attract urban dust and thus clean the air. Well, at least to some extent …

At that moment, laughter exploded in the room, which – it seemed to everyone – would tear Juliana apart from the inside, and would surely end up getting her panties, dresses and perhaps upholstery wet on the chair, but she was unable to sit on it. She liked to laugh loudly and exhaustively, her diaphragm was as strong as Maria Callas, who she was quite like, and she was laughing now, standing with one hand on her mouth and the other on her crotch. The seconds passed, and everyone was already roaring, and it did not matter whether they were laughing at the museum soaked with dust or at the attack of Juliana Swiecka’s hysterical idiot. Only Szymczak stood motionless in the center of the curling bodies and tried to keep himself serious. Henryk Świecki was the first to control himself. He pressed the microphone button in front of him and called out:

– I believe that we accepted by acclamation the commission for the design of the footbridge by the architect Francois Roche! To be sure, I ask: is anyone against? I do not see. Charles, carry on then.

In this way, Maciek’s proposal, thrown out of a stupid frant, became in a few minutes the official decision of the foundation’s congress. In the early spring of the following year, Szymczak brought Roche to Świecie. They walked with a group of Świecie people all day around the city, showed Roche where the museum and the philharmonic would be built, he was also taken for a traditional walk around the old town, large modernist workers’ housing estates from the 1920s in Przechowo and the famous New Town Hall from the late 1930s at Łyszczyński Square were shown . The imposing edifice made a great impression on Roche, but it was even bigger – a monument to the patron saint of the central square of the modern part of the city.

– Lat is zis? He asked, opening his eyes very wide at the sight of a white stone plinth, in the center of which lay at first a bronze stain that was difficult to identify. Something like a head of cabbage, the outer leaves of which melted in the rain.

– This is a monument to the Polish nobleman Kazimierz Łyszczyński, one of the first atheists of the Western world – explained Maciek, because he was again a tourist guide.

– They cut off his head? The architect guessed what the bronze shape represented.

– Unfortunately. It was a matter famous all over Europe. Even the Parisian newspapers wrote about it. Never before has the public heard that there can be such a thing as atheism at all – explained Maciek.

– And that was when? Before the French Revolution? – Roche wasn’t good at history.

– Exactly one hundred years before the revolution. On March thirty one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine – replied Maciek.

– You had atheists a hundred years before our revolution? Incroyable! – The Frenchman pouted. – And what, they beheaded him here?

– No, in Warsaw. But the scandal spread over the whole country. – Maciek told the French a story that was taught in Świecie by all children in primary school. Łyszczyński was a respected commander, praised by Jan III Sobieski for his participation in wars with Sweden and Moscow. He was a member of the Seym for many years. In his youth, while still a Jesuit, he studied theology and philosophy for eight years at various universities in the Republic of Poland. The manuscript of the treaty De non existentia Dei was stolen from him by a neighbor who tried to avoid returning a large sum of money. The denounced Łyszczyński was imprisoned, which was a clear violation of the most important law of the Polish nobility, the famous neminem captivabimus. No nobleman could be imprisoned in the Polish-Lithuanian state without a court sentence. On the case of Łyszczyński, who proclaimed in his treatise that the Christian God is a product of human thought, a “chimeric” being, like all other deities, but also other imagined but non-existent creatures, the Seym of the Republic of Poland held its debates for almost half a year. “, ie the Sejm reports of Gdańsk deputies, kept to this day in this city, show that the atheist was discussed at as many as nineteen sessions.

“So he said God was something like a mermaid?” Roche asked, not sure he understood.

– Exactly. What’s more, he wrote directly that theologians themselves know that no God can exist, but they deliberately keep people in a lie in order to have power over them – explained the young Secular.

– So not only an atheist, but also a revolutionist! Really amazing.

– Unfortunately, he was also deeply pessimistic and did not believe that people would want to know the truth. Do you know that he wrote that the people would kill a wise man who would announce that there was no God sooner than convince him that he was living a lie?

“It’s no wonder the inquisition beheaded him.”

– No, no. It didn’t work that way for us. The Polish Seym did not agree to hand him over to the Inquisition, as the Pope wanted. Ultimately, he was judged by a parliamentary court. All the bishops sitting in the senate demanded the death penalty, but there was no unanimity among lay deputies and senators. The nobility really was indignant that their brother, because they all treated each other like brothers, imprisoned without judgment. Those deputies who defended Łyszczyński were threatened by the bishops that after his conviction, they would also be brought to trial.

– Quels merdeux! What a bastard.

– Well, but there were two senators and two deputies who, despite threats, voted against. And do you know how the vote itself was formulated? They asked questions: “Who is for God?” And “Who is against God.”

– Oh putain! Roche cursed.

– Exactly – admitted Maciek, after which he mentioned the names of MPs Ludwik Konstanty Pociej and Andrzej Kazimierz Giełgud and the voivode of Smolensk, senator Stefan Piaseczyński. – Each of them has their own street with us – he added with clear satisfaction.

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