Caspar Bekesh

KRASZEWSKI JÓZEF IGNACY, WILNO OD POCZĄTKÓW JEGO DO ROKU 1750, T. 1–4, WILNO, 1840–1842.

The name of Caspar Bekesh (1520–1579), a Hungarian nobleman and military leader, is connected not only with events in the Polish-Lithuanian state during the reign of Stephen Bathory, but also with Vilnius, for one of the hills by the River Vilnia next to the Hill of Three Crosses is still called Bekešas Hill. He was buried on this hill, and Stephen Bathory put up a monument to him in the shape of an octagonal tower. Part of the tower collapsed in 1838 when the River Vilnia washed away the side of the hill, revealing a skull and a cap assumed to belong to Caspar Bekesh in the ruins. They were retrieved by the captain of the Vilnius garrison Jan Juchniewicz, and his widow later gave them to Eustachy Tyszkiewicz, the founder of Vilnius Archaeological Museum. The finds rekindled the memory of the Hungarian military leader. The lithograph by Józef Oziębłowski (1805–1878) was an illustration to the third volume of Wilno: od początków jego do roku 1750 by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (p. 351), published in 1841. According to the inscription below the image, the artist based the likeness of the famous military leader on a portrait that was then in the collection of Duke Wołłowicz. This portrait, painted around 1730 and attributed to the French painter Alexis Grimou (1678–1733), is currently in the Museum of Archaeology and History in Elblag in Poland. A comparison shows that the lithograph is reversed, but the facial features and dress are rendered with precision.

Text author Rūta Janonienė

KRASZEWSKI JÓZEF IGNACY, WILNO OD POCZĄTKÓW JEGO DO ROKU 1750, T. 1–4, WILNO, 1840–1842.

The name of Caspar Bekesh (1520–1579), a Hungarian nobleman and military leader, is connected not only with events in the Polish-Lithuanian state during the reign of Stephen Bathory, but also with Vilnius, for one of the hills by the River Vilnia next to the Hill of Three Crosses is still called Bekešas Hill. He was buried on this hill, and Stephen Bathory put up a monument to him in the shape of an octagonal tower. Part of the tower collapsed in 1838 when the River Vilnia washed away the side of the hill, revealing a skull and a cap assumed to belong to Caspar Bekesh in the ruins. They were retrieved by the captain of the Vilnius garrison Jan Juchniewicz, and his widow later gave them to Eustachy Tyszkiewicz, the founder of Vilnius Archaeological Museum. The finds rekindled the memory of the Hungarian military leader. The lithograph by Józef Oziębłowski (1805–1878) was an illustration to the third volume of Wilno: od początków jego do roku 1750 by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (p. 351), published in 1841. According to the inscription below the image, the artist based the likeness of the famous military leader on a portrait that was then in the collection of Duke Wołłowicz. This portrait, painted around 1730 and attributed to the French painter Alexis Grimou (1678–1733), is currently in the Museum of Archaeology and History in Elblag in Poland. A comparison shows that the lithograph is reversed, but the facial features and dress are rendered with precision.

Text author Rūta Janonienė