Grafsky per., 5  

59.930580966306, 30.34597685737 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

Bust to Adam Mickiewicz in front of the building. Inscription on the pedestal
The longest word in Latin alphabet
Mickiewicz

Historical background

School No. 216 named after Adam Mickiewicz with in-depth study of Polish language has been established in Grafsky Pereulok in 1991. Next to the school there is a portrait sculpture of a famous Polish poet and writer.
Mickiewicz was a man of thorny destiny. When studying at the University of Vilnius (then Vilensky), he became one of the founders of the ‘Philomath Society’. First it was just a student association, and later it evolved into a patriotic political union. Nationalistic views of the Society were inconsistent with the internal policy of the Russian Empire. Six years later, in 1823, the members of the Society were arrested and prosecuted. A total of 108 members of student societies were involved in the process, making it the largest student political trial in Europe at that time. Several defendants, including Mickiewicz, were sentenced to exile in the inland areas of Russia.
Mickiewicz spent several years in Odessa, Moscow and St. Petersburg, whereupon he embarked on a journey across Europe, hopelessly struggling to return to Poland. While in Rome in 1848, Mickiewicz created the Polish Legion, which fought for the freedom of Lombardy. Later on, together with a group of the French and immigrants, he founded the ‘La Tribune des Peuples’, a periodical featuring a radical social programme. Following the intervention of the Russian embassy, the magazine publication stopped. After the French coup d'état of 1851 Mickiewicz was kept under police supervision. The last patriotic action by the poet was an attempt to form Polish legions to fight Russia after France engaged in the Crimean War. To this end, in September 1855 he arrived in Istanbul, where he unexpectedly died. He was buried in France, in the Polish cemetery in Montmorency. In 1900, the ashes of Mickiewicz were solemnly transported to Poland and laid to rest in a sarcophagus in the Wawel Cathedral.
Mickiewicz’s collected book ‘Poetry’, published in 1822, marked the beginning of Polish romanticism. ‘Konrad von Wallenrode. Historical Novella from Lithuanian and Prussian History’ is a nonpareil example of historical romantic poem of 14th century. Pan Tadeusz is a ‘national poem’, unique from a literary point of view, reflecting the world of the Polish gentry immediately in advance of Napoleon’s army invasion.

U architektów sławne jest przysłowie,
Że ludzi ręką był Rzym budowany,
A Wenecyją stawili bogowie;
Ale kto widział Petersburg, ten powie,
Że budowały go chyba szatany.

There is a famous proverb among architects,
That Rome was built by human hand,
And the gods made Venice;
But whoever saw St. Petersburg will say,
That it must have been built by Satan.

Present in routes of categories Lion & Unicorn