Zofia Kossak-Szczucka na beskidzkiej ziemi

Abstract

The author of Crusaders came to the Beskidy foothills region in 1922, and after several months, she decided to settle in Górki Wielkie, near Bielsko Biała, permanently. She lived there with her family until World War II and since 1957, when she returned from a ten-year stay in Great Britain. It is puzzling that she missed Górki Wielkie so much although she was not born there. When writing books about Silesia (Unknown Country, In Silesia, Adventures of Kacperek the Gnome from Gorki, The Big and the Small, The Polish Year, The Custom and the Faith), she would present only the people from the Beskidy foothills region as honest, worthy patriots. She emphasized their immersion in the countryside, the peculiar sense of time, religiousness, customs, and their consistent abidance in Polishness. Describing Beskidy, she maintained, that to grow into [this countryside] is easy, but to part with it is difficult, and she noticed many symbols in it, she often used the figure of hyperbole. To her, the Silesia Beskid is the most beautiful place in the world.