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