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VISITING THE GRAVES OF «BELGICA» EXPEDITION MEMBERS

— Arctowski & Dobrowolski

I met up with my bestie last weekend. Our plan for Saturday was to wander aimlessly around the city without looking where we were going. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to visit Powązki.

Old Powązki is a historical cemetery, the most important in Poland. It is the place where the most important Poles are buried: heroes, leaders, scientists, musicians and politicians...

Our two great polar explorers — Henryk Arctowski and Antoni B. Dobrowolski — are also buried there, in the military section. I would not forgive myself if I did not visit them, especially as I have never done so before. Their graves are very close to me, but my path has never crossed theirs. Besides, Powązki is a big place.

I bought each of them a blue candle as I couldn't afford more decorative ones (well, I buy too many books). We searched the graves for half an hour. But we found them!

First we went to Dobrowolski. I hadn't expected his grave to be so dirty and dusty. It was full of needles from a Christmas bouquet brought by schoolchildren. Polar explorers are not very important in Poland... most people associate the name 'Arctowski' only because it sounds similar to 'arctic'. This is a shame, because he was a great patriot and really did a lot for our country before we regained our independence.

I blew off the needles and wiped the dust off the gravestone with my hand. My lungs began to warn me that I was going to start coughing, so I gave up after a while. I took some dry leaves and lit the candle.

For Dobrowolski I feel admiration rather than warm sympathy. He came from a family overwhelmed by poverty, which in our country used to be a fate worse than death. As a twelve-year-old, Antoni worked for a living, teaching others for a pittance. After leaving school, the Tsarist authorities sentenced him to three years' imprisonment (which was ACTUALLY EVEN WORSE than poverty). He was sent to the Warsaw Citadel, notorious as a place of execution for patriotic activists. He was deported several times, but finally managed to escape from the Caucasus to Switzerland and finally to Belgium, from where he finally set off for Antarctica on board the "Belgica".

I think I'll have to reappear soon and clean his grave, because it's sad to see it in these conditions. The writing is hardly clear, so let me translate it for you:

•••

“ANTONI BOLESŁAW DOBROWOLSKI

1872-1954

PARTICIPANT IN THE BELGIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1897-1899. CREATOR AND RELENTLESS FIGHTER FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF SCIENCE AND ART.

---

ZOFIA DOBROWOLSKA (ULIŃSKA)

1873-1955”

•••

A silhouette of a glacier is engraved above his name. It's absolutely cute. 🥹

°•°•°•°•°•°

And Arctowski!

Unfortunately he's not buried next to Dobrowolski, but you could say they're in the same neighbourhood, separated by a few graves. As I suspected, this place was in much better condition! You could tell someone had looked after it because the flowers were not so faded and the paraffin in the candles was quite new. Henryk, like his dear fellow, was given a new blue candle and some critical comments about the stains on the gravestone. I plan to clean that up too, but it's not so tragic.

Of course, I'll drop a translation:

•••

“1871-1958

HENRYK ARCTOWSKI

GEOPHYSICIAN

ANTARCTIC EXPLORER

---

1875-1958

JANE ADDY ARCTOWSKA

HENRYK'S WIFE

DEVOTED TO POLISH YOUTH”

•••

I love the drawing of "Belgica" trapped in an ice pack! It's gorgeous and the tomb itself looks really beautiful 💙

°•°•°•°•°•°

I guess it's everything? I'll update this next time I'm there and manage to look after the temporary accommodation of our dear polar explorers. Hope you like it, take care! ❤️

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