Did you hear about the medieval pilgrim from Gdańsk who visited the Netherlands? The story begins around Christmas 1444, when something remarkable occurred in Amersfoort, near Utrecht: a local girl, Margriet Gijsen, purportedly had three visions, in which God told her to go to a canal outside the city and find a statue of the Virgin Mary. Margriet did so and pulled the statue out of the icy water. This event was interpreted as a miracle, and Amersfoort quickly grew into an well-known place of worship. Pilgrims from all over Europe came to honour the statue, particularly on the Sunday before Pentecost. The miracle of Margriet and ca. 550 other miracles related to the statue are recorded in the so-called Mirakelboek, which starts in 1444 and ends in 1545. The statue was especially popular with shipmen and evoked in case of sea storms, shipwreck and drowning.

One miracle tells of a man from Gdańsk, whose ship was lost in a storm at sea. He floated on a raft for nine hours, until he thought of the Holy Virgin from Amersfoort, asking her to save him. He promised to wear a shirt made of coarse hair – an instrument of penance. Suddenly, he saw a shining light from the east, together with an image of the Holy Virgin. The man soon drifted ashore and wore the shirt as he promised, until he travelled to Amersfoort. Upon his arrival, he offered the shirt to the statue in memory of his pilgrimage and as a token of his gratitude.

The story can be related to a pilgrim’s badge from Amersfoort, which was found in or near Gdańsk. The badge depicts the moment when Margriet pulled the statue of Mary out of the water. Such badges were made at the place of worship and could be purchased by pilgrims, who then took them back home. The badge shows the importance and popularity of Amersfoort as a medieval pilgrimage site, which really was visited by people from Gdańsk. Perhaps the man from the story took a badge home as well…

The painting was made ca. 1525. It hangs in the Oud Katholieke Parochie van de Heilige Georgius op ’t Zand in Amersfoort. The badge lies in the Muzeum Archeologiczne in Gdańsk (MAG/GD/255/133/03/3814, nr. GKPP 389).

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 15.

Coming Tuesday is King’s Day in the Netherlands. Did you know that William of Orange, who is often called the Dutch “father of the fatherland”, had an interest in the royal elections in Poland in 1575? He may even have considered making a bid for the Polish throne himself. At the time, William was leading the Dutch in a war against Spain. In March 1575, his councillor Philips of Marnix, Lord of Saint-Aldegonde, visited Cracow, where he met with the Polish nobleman and influential Calvinist Piotr Zborowski. The Polish throne was at that time vacant, and preparations were being made for the election of a new monarch. Zborowski wrote to William, praising his struggle “for religion and for the freedom of your fatherland”, and explaining how Marnix’s visit had been essential for “our actions”. It is not known what these “actions” were, however. Perhaps Marnix was meant to inquire about William’s chances, should he submit his candidacy for the Polish throne. As King of Poland, William’s odds in the fight against Spain would increase significantly. On the other hand, William may not have considered entering the elections at all. Perhaps Marnix simply wished to offer support to the Polish Calvinists’ “actions”, trying to influence the royal elections in the hope of gaining the favour of the future king. In any case, William did not make an official bid for Polish power. Instead, Stephen Báthory was elected King of Poland in 1576.

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 13. For more information, see this previous post.

Jaag je ploeg over de botten van de doden, the Dutch translation of Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, has been nominated for the Europese Literatuurprijs 2021, an award for the best European novel published in Dutch translation in 2020. But did you know that Tokarczuk already has a close relationship with the Netherlands? In early 2007, for example, she was Writer in Residence of the Dutch Foundation for Literature in Amsterdam. She performed research there for her book Bieguni (translated in Dutch as De rustelozen), which won the Polish Nike Award in 2008 and the Man Booker International Prize in 2018. Discussing her book, Tokarczuk said that it “incorporates elaborate details about the history of anatomy, a science that finds its foundation in the Netherlands of the seventeenth century. Because of my residency in Amsterdam, I was able to check all kinds of details.” Tokarczuk’s research led her to several of Amsterdam’s museums, antiquarian bookshops and the reconstructed anatomical theatre of the university in Leiden. “Looking back,” Tokarczuk wrote, “this has been a very creative, intensive and good time for me, for which I am very thankful.” In addition, Tokarczyk was Writer in Residence at the NIAS in 2009.

Prowadź swój pług przez kości umarłych was translated into Dutch by Charlotte Pothuizen and Dirk Zijlstra. Bieguni was translated by Greet Pauwelijn.

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 12.

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467/69-1536), the most famous and influential humanist of his age, maintained friendly relations with numerous Poles. He dedicated his works to Poles, was visited, read, printed and translated by Poles, and Poles had pictures of him hanging in their homes. Erasmus’s writings had a profound impact on the development of the Polish Reformation. “Polonia mea est”: “Poland is mine” or “Poland is favourable to me”, Erasmus famously stated in 1524. His Polish contacts included King Zygmunt I the Old, grand marshal Piotr Kmita Sobieński, archbishop and author Andrzej Krzycki (Andreas Cricius), and bishop and poet Jan Dantyszek (Johannes Dantiscus). One of Erasmus’s closest Polish friends was the reformed humanist Jan Łaski (Johannes a Lasco), to whom Erasmus even sold his library. More information about this story, and about the fate of Erasmus’s books, can be found here.

This portrait was made by Hans Holbein. It hangs in the Louvre in Paris:

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 11.

The Tuschinski theatre in Amsterdam has a lot to celebrate this year. Not only does it turn 100 years old in October, it was also crowned the most beautiful cinema in the world last week by the much-read Time Out magazine, which praised the building as an “elegant mash-up of art deco and art nouveau styles with sleek modernist touches”. The Tuschinski, which is nowadays owned by Pathé, was built by the Polish Jewish entrepreneur Abraham Icek Tuschinski (Tuszyński, 1886-1942), who was born in Brzeziny, near Łódź. He first came to Rotterdam in 1904, intent on travelling to the United States. He settled in the Netherlands, however, where he started a range a successful businesses, including four cinemas in Rotterdam,  established in 1911. Ten years later, the Tuschinski theatre opened its doors in Amsterdam, having cost around four million guilders. During the Second World War, the theatre was taken over by the Germans, who renamed it Tivoli. Abraham Tuschinski himself was captured and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was murdered in 1942. His famous theatre, which has been renovated several times, once again carries his name. To this day, it continues to amaze audiences with its characteristic façade and fairy-tale-like interior.

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 10.

Dutch-Polish historical relations comprise many close friendships. One such friendship existed between composer Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) and the Dutch-French painter Ary Scheffer (1795-1858). Scheffer was born in Dordrecht and came from a family of artists. In 1811, he moved with his mother to Paris, where he quickly gained popularity as a painter. He made portraits of numerous well-known people, such as Marquis de La Fayette and Franz Liszt. Chopin arrived in Paris in 1831 and would never return to Poland, becoming one of the famed expatriates of the Polish Great Emigration. Scheffer and Chopin met in Paris and became good friends. Chopin gave concerts at Scheffer’s home on the Rue Chaptal 16, and Scheffer made three portraits of his Polish friend. The painting shown here dates from 1847 and is one of the best-known depictions of Chopin. It hangs in the Dordrechts Museum, in the town where Scheffer was born. He became a naturalized Frenchman in 1850. A statue of Scheffer stands in the center of Dordrecht.

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 9.

Elisabeth Hevelius (1647-1693), who lived and worked in Gdańsk, is considered one of the first female astronomers. She was the daughter of Nicolaas Koopman and Johanna Mennings, who had married in Amsterdam and later settled in Gdańsk. When she was but sixteen years old, Elisabeth married the fifty-two-year-old scientist and beer brewer Johannes Hevelius. The pair shared a passion for star gazing and astronomy. They had a large and famous observatory in Gdańsk, where they studied the night’s sky. They also had four children. Elisabeth knew Latin and corresponded with various scientists. After Johannes’ death, Elisabeth continued their work. In 1690, with the financial aid of King Jan III Sobieski, she published Prodromus Astronomiae, a catalogue of 1.564 stars and their positions. The image is taken from a book from 1673, and it shows Elisabeth and Johannes at work in their observatory.

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 8.

On 7 January 1937, Princess Juliana, the later Queen of the Netherlands, married Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. The couple spent their honeymoon touring through Europe. Poland was their first destination. They stayed in Krynica-Zdrój, a spa town in the Beskid Mountains. To avoid the press, they travelled incognito as Count and Countess Von Sternberg, but the media caught up with them within a few days. The royal couple stayed in Hotel Patria, built by singer and movie star Jan Kiepura. In a Polish newspaper from 12 January, Prince Bernhard stated: “I have many Polish friends. Very many. So we came here.” The young couple had a great time in Krynica-Zdrój, where they were joined by numerous friends in order to ski, hunt, and party. Because of their presence, the town itself became famous. The princess and prince stayed in Krynica-Zdrój for four weeks, after which they left for Budapest.

This postcard from the Dutch Royal Library shows the royal couple in Poland:

*I originally wrote this post for the social media outlets of the Dutch Embassy in Poland. This was post no. 7.