THE FATE OF THE TAPESTRY OF THE VILNIUS CATHEDRAL AGAINST THE DRAMATIC EVENTS OF 1931

The article aims to present hitherto unpublished research on Marian Morelowski’s role and activities in saving the priceless collection of Vilnius Cathedral tapestries in the wake of the consequences of the tragic flood in Vilnius of 1931. In 1931, the winter in the lands of north-eastern Poland was very cold and abundant with snowfall. As late as mid-April, there was still snow in the fields, and low temperatures persisted. The melting of snow masses deposited throughout the Vilnius region caused the waters of local rivers to rapidly rise, resulting in the flooding of Vilnius with its precious monuments, including the Cathedral. Paradoxically, the flood contributed to the great discovery that occurred during the restoration effort in the cathedral’s basement. The royal tombs of Alexander Jagiellon and Sigismund Augustus’ wives Elisabeth Habsburg and Barbara Radziwiłł were found there. However, the scale of damage caused by the flood was so great that further restoration work required a great deal of money, which began to exceed the capabilities of the church authorities. The Vilnius Metropolitan Curia, threatened by the need to stop the work to prevent a building disaster without public consultation, decided to obtain the funds needed for further work from the sale abroad of ten priceless 17th-century tapestries stored in the cathedral treasury. Prof. M. Morelowski, a socially and academically active art historian from Stefan Batory University in Vilnius, joined the cause of saving these particularly valuable textiles. Through research of documents belonging to Morelowski’s legacy collected at the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius and the Vilnius University Library in Vilnius, as well as archival materials held by the Manuscripts Department of the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław and the Archives of Modern Record in Warsaw, and by conducting interviews with selected individuals, it was possible to find a great deal of new, unknown and unpublished information on the essence of the research problem.