Vilnius to Honor Belarusian Photographer Jozef Czechowicz and Artists Sledzinskis. A Language Scandal Erupts Around the Plaques
The authorities of the Lithuanian capital have approved the installation of memorial plaques in honor of prominent artists of the XIX-XX centuries. The perpetuation of the memory of the photography pioneer and renowned painters has turned into a political dispute with the Polish minority over the decision to make the inscriptions exclusively in Lithuanian.
According to MadeinVilnius.lt, the Vilnius City Council has officially approved the appearance of two commemorative plaques on the historic wooden house at Giedraičių street, 32 in the Šnipiškės district. The first will be dedicated to photographer Jozef Czechowicz, the second to artists Wincenty and Ludomir Sledzinski.
A third plaque, in honor of musicians Pranas and Regina Tamasaitis, will be placed on Totorių street, 19.
Design and production will be financed from the city budget; the cost of one plaque will be 4400 euros.
Who is Czechowicz and why is he being honored?
The building on Giedraičių street has a unique history. Originally, it stood in the center of Vilnius, at the foot of Gediminas Hill, where Jozef Czechowicz's photo studio was located from 1866 to 1888. In 1892, the house was moved to Šnipiškės.
Jozef Czechowicz (1818—1888) was born in Polotsk county into a noble family and was baptized in the church in Ushachi. He is one of the pioneers of professional photography in the territory of modern Belarus and Lithuania. He was the first to systematically photograph not only portraits but also urban environments, interiors of churches and palaces. Czechowicz left behind more than 300 unique photographs of Vilnius, and also captured panoramas of Vitebsk, Grodno, and landscapes of Pavillie, including Mikhalishki, Zhodzishki, Bystrytsa, Danyushava, and Tupalshchyna.
Thanks to his works, historians and restorers have documentary evidence of how city architecture looked in the second half of the 19th century. His craftsmanship received international recognition: in 1876, the photographer became a member of the French Photographic Society.
Sledzinskis: from the 1863 uprising to monumentalism
After Czechowicz's death, his legacy and studio were taken over by his former partner Anna Baltsevich (1845—1923). In the same year, 1888, she married the Vilnius artist Wincenty Sledzinski (1838—1909), who settled in this very house.
Wincenty Sledzinski continued the work of his father Aleksander, a renowned Vilnius painter. Wincenty participated in the 1863 uprising, for which he was sentenced to 20 years of Russian exile. When he returned to Vilnius in 1883, he created religious and historical paintings that still adorn Vilnius churches today.
In the marriage of Anna Baltsevich and Wincenty, a son, Ludomir Sledzinski (1889—1980), was born in 1889 — a future prominent monumental artist. In the interwar period, he became one of the founders of the Vilnius Society of Plastic Artists (WTAP) and effectively formed the so-called "Vilnius School" of painting, which was based on the traditions of the Italian Early Renaissance.
Ludomir received prestigious state commissions, painted ceilings in the Palace of the Council of Ministers, and created frescoes for banks. In addition, he played a key role in preserving heritage: for example, in 1931, during a flood, he documented royal remains found in the catacombs of the Vilnius Cathedral.
Read: How the rampage of nature returned the bodies of Barbara Radziwiłł and Grand Duke Alexander, and why the mystery of their regalia's disappearance could only be solved now
Language conflict in the Vilnius Council
Despite the stature of the individuals, the decision of the Vilnius authorities provoked political disputes. According to information from the Polish-language portal Kurier Wileński, the text on all three plaques will be exclusively in Lithuanian.
Council members from the "Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania" (AWPL-ZChR) ignored the vote. Edward Trusevich, vice-president of the Union of Poles in Lithuania, noted that Vilnius's heritage is a common asset, and the absence of the language with which the artists' lives and work were associated contradicts the recognition of shared history.
At the same time, Trusevich clarified that the boycott of the vote by the Polish faction was officially related not to the text on the plaques, but to a protest against changes in the council's rules of procedure that limited the rights of the opposition. Nevertheless, representatives of the Polish minority stated their intention to submit a separate application for the installation of bilingual plaques, which is legally permitted by local self-government rules.
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1) Сябры рады ад «Выбарчай акцыі палякаў Літвы»
2)Чальцы рады ад «Выбарчай акцыі палякаў Літвы»