ALEKSANDER MROCZKOWSKI (1850-1927)
Zawrat pass (2,159 m - 7,083ft)
Poland
In Zawrat Mountain, 1905, oil on canvas, Tatra Museum, Zakopane.
The mountain
Zawrat (2,159 m - 7,083ft) is a narrow pass in the long eastern ridge of Świnica in the High Tatras separating Zawratowa Turnia (2,247 m) from Mały Goat Wierch ( 2,226 m). It is one of the two extreme points of the Orla Perci (western) route .
Zawrat is available for tourists directly from Świnica or from valleys lying on both sides of the ridge: Dolina Pięciu Stawów Polskich and Dolina Gąsienicowa.
The name Zawrat and its diminutive - Zawracik are quite often found in the Tatra nomenclature (for example, Zawracie near Wołowiec or Przełęcz nad Zawratami in the ridge of Roháče). They usually mean steep passes, switches or other similar, steep objects.
Zawrat was already from Zakopane to the Sea Eye in the 19th century. The first recorded tourist crossings: Jakub Krauthofer and Jan Para in August 1842. The first winter crossing (with the participation of a woman, which was rare at the time): Jan Grzegorzewski, Miss Stanisława Pisarzewska and her brother-in-law, landowner from Mazovia Leon Józef Marian Duczymiński with guides: Bartłomiej Obrochta , G. Rojana and Józef Trzebunia - January 21, 1894. In the nineteenth century, the passage through Zawrat was considered difficult, it was a test of tourist skills. On Zawrat, there were m.in. Stanisław Witkiewicz (his tour from 1888 described in Na przełczy ), Stefan Żeromski (1892), Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Jan Kasprowicz, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, and Włodzimierz Lenin.
By 2012, 17 fatal accidents occurred in Zawrac.
The painter
Aleksander Mroczkowski was a Polish painter who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in the studio of Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, Feliks Szynalewski and Leon Dembowski, and then in 1873-1877 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in the studio of A. Wagner and O. Seitz.
He created in a realistic style, he often took up the subject of Tatra landscapes and rural landscapes, such as Landscape with a homestead (1878, Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź ) and W harvestwa (1882, National Museum in Warsaw). He also painted portraits, genre scenes, historical and sacred compositions, he also dealt with decorative painting.
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
