Dzieje, architektura oraz twórcy Zakładu OO. Jezuitów w Chyrowie : twórczość Antoniego Łuszczkiewicza oraz Edgara Kovátsa na tle epoki

Authors:

• Aneta Kinga Borowik

Abstract

The academic-education centre in Bąkowice near Chyrów is a phenomenon encompassing many problems. Its 50 years of existence should be considered not only at the material level, although it is most interesting for an art historian. Making an attempt to deal with this type of object one cannot forget many issues going beyond a tightly-understood history of art, entering the area of the history of culture, pedagogy and even theology. However, the most primary and leading thought of the book was “to save it from being forgotten”, not the phenomenon of Chyrów as such (because according to the author of the text it is still alive, though it will have to be reminded younger generations more and more often with time), but a material base that underwent devastation and disperse. This is an inventorying issue to find, undust and describe each, even the least valuable thing that belonged to the equipment of the centre or chapel, reconstruct the appearance of the rooms, chapels and building surroundings on the basis of the photography, to bring a former grace of this place back at least in this way. The second, equally important aim of this work is to present the object of the 19th century architecture which has become a satisfying subject of research for many art historians these days. In the case of the centre in Chyrów, we deal with the work that is not easy to analyse in a formal-genetic way. Experiencing the objects of the 19th century art, in the case of which traditionally understood aesthetic categories are not sufficient, we face broader problems that focus the phenomenon of the 19th century as such – its art, philosophy, education, pedagogy, spiritual life and, above all, socio-economic problems taking a lead at this time. A presentation of centres such as the one in Chyrów also aims at propagating a different perspective on the 19th century works of art, and the inclusion of them into the world of values and filling the apparently empty crust with a meaning. A broad spectrum of issues raised in the very work was determined by the very research subject, which, as has already been mentioned, is a phenomenon. The author had to enter the areas usually unknown to the art. Historians, such as pedagogy in general and Jesuit pedagogy in particular. She also had to, at least in an outline, present the system of the functioning of the centre and a daily life of its foster children. This way, despite no ambitions to exhaust the topic, the attention that in the case of a traditional perspective focuses on the work of art, was dispersed. What is more, the obligation required a wider presentation of the profiles of the authors of the architecture of the centre: Antoni Łuszczkiewicz and Edgar Kováts.The book consists of six parts in general. The first presents the history, organization and functioning of the academic-education centre of Jesuit fathers in Chyrów covering the period of almost 50 years of its existence. It also describes a pedagogic system used in this institution. The next chapters are devoted to the issues connected with an architectural frame of the centre, The history as well as a description of the main building, accompanying buildings and the surroundings as well as sculptures and small architecture situated within its scope. Further on, the profiles of and architectural activity of the authors of the material tissue of the centre, i.e. Edgar Kováts, a professor of the Lviv Technical University and the author of the so called Zakopane measure (sposób zakopiański), and Antoni Łuszczkiewicz, a slightly-forgotten architect from Cracow were presented. Selected realizations were described and artistic as well as aesthetic attitudes of both architects were presented. A summary of the parts of the book in question is a chapter devoted to the academic-education centre of Jesuit fathers in Chyrów as an architectural work of art. It provides a formal-genetic analysis of the team. An important element of this publication is appendices including little-known sources presenting the history of the centre and the history of its authors. These are regulations and rules of the centre from 1905, a report from the scholarship of the countin Joanna Ledóchowska foundation made by Antoni Łuszczkiewicz, a list of often very precious and currently lost books from the centre library, a programme of the very centre from the 1880s, an introduction to Sposób zakopański from 1899 by Edgar Kováts and his correspondence concerning the foundation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ church in Cracow illustrating the archirect’s views on art. When working on the history and architecture of the academic-education centre of Jesuit fathers in Chyrów the source materials from the very epoch and archive materials derived from among others the collections of the Archive of the Małopolskie Province of the Association of Jesus, the Archive of the Jagiellonian University and the State Archive.