The Great Hall of the observatory in Vilnius University

Periodical TYGODNIK ILLUSTROWANY (Warsaw).

Between 1875 and 1892, J. Jarmużyński, a graphic artist from Warsaw, made around 100 woodcuts for the weekly Tygodnik Illustrowany. An engraving by him that appeared in the magazine on 11 August 1877 (no. 85) shows the hall of the university observatory. One of the oldest observatories in Europe, and the oldest in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was established in 1753 by the mathematician and astronomer Tomas Žebrauskas, and prospered under Martynas Počobutas, a rector of the university, and a correspondent member of the Paris Academy of Sciences and a member of the Royal Society in London. After the university was closed by the Imperial Russian authorities in 1832, the observatory was taken over by the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in 1876 it was badly damaged in a fire. Jarmużyński’s engraving, published the next year, was a response to the damage. It shows the interior before the fire, with its Great Hall (also called the White Hall) in the Classical style, adorned with portraits of professors and patrons. In 1882, the observatory was closed on the order of Tsar Alexander III , and some of its equipment was distributed around other establishments in the Russian Empire.

Text author Laima Laučkaitė.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė, RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė

Periodical TYGODNIK ILLUSTROWANY (Warsaw).

Between 1875 and 1892, J. Jarmużyński, a graphic artist from Warsaw, made around 100 woodcuts for the weekly Tygodnik Illustrowany. An engraving by him that appeared in the magazine on 11 August 1877 (no. 85) shows the hall of the university observatory. One of the oldest observatories in Europe, and the oldest in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was established in 1753 by the mathematician and astronomer Tomas Žebrauskas, and prospered under Martynas Počobutas, a rector of the university, and a correspondent member of the Paris Academy of Sciences and a member of the Royal Society in London. After the university was closed by the Imperial Russian authorities in 1832, the observatory was taken over by the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in 1876 it was badly damaged in a fire. Jarmużyński’s engraving, published the next year, was a response to the damage. It shows the interior before the fire, with its Great Hall (also called the White Hall) in the Classical style, adorned with portraits of professors and patrons. In 1882, the observatory was closed on the order of Tsar Alexander III , and some of its equipment was distributed around other establishments in the Russian Empire.

Text author Laima Laučkaitė.

Source: Law firm Valiunas Ellex art album VILNIUS. TOPOPHILIA I (2014). Compiler and author Laima Laučkaitė, RES PUBLICA (2018). Compiler and author Rūta Janonienė