Sandomierz is one of oldest and historically most important cities in Poland. The beginnings of settlement within the boundaries of the city and its adjoining area date back to the foremost times, which can be certified by numerous archaeological discoveries made within the city and its surrounding area. The first traces of human presence in this area originate in the earlier period of the Stone Age – the Neolithic era (5200 B.C. - 1700 B.C.).
However, the main development of the city appeared mainly in the period of the early Middle Ages. The development was possible, among others, due to the very attractive and convenient position of Sandomierz on important commercial trade routes - on the border point of three geographical regions: the Sandomierz Uplands, the Sandomierz Valley and the Lublin Uplands.

The Ruins of Sobień castle, - are located at a height of 564 meters above sea level. The origins of this stronghold date back to the 13th century. It guarded the trade route. Build in the 14th century the castle belonged to the king, in the next century it came into private ownership becoming the family seat of the Kmita family. In chronicles it is written that Piotr Kmita hosted the Polish king Vladislaw Jagiello together with his new bride from Sanok, Elizabeth from the Pilecki Granowski family.
Bohdan Zhukiewicz (photo zakapior)
translated by Justyna Rymarowicz

   Of all the former republics of the USSR, Ukraine is considered to be one of the most important. With a population of 47 million and a territory as large as France, Europe's new neighbor is crucial for both Russia and the West. In addition to its natural resources, heavy industries and access to the Black Sea, Ukraine is a major transit country for Russia's oil and gas. Although independent since 1991, this emerging democracy has yet to form its national character. Like many post-Soviet states, it is in the throes of an identity crisis.
   In order to better understand contemporary Ukraine, the non-profit organization Altemus commissioned a team of young East European photographers from Sputnik Photos collective and Ukrainian writers, to travel the country and capture its ethos. Their photographs and stories reveal a country caught between two worlds - communism and liberalism, tradition and modernity, but also a country rich in diversity and resilient in spirit. From the Donbas coalmines to Carpathian mountain villages, the Crimean peninsula to the capital of Kiev, they bear witness to a country in full flux, on a journey to find itself and its place in the world.
Altemus

Lidia Maria Czyż, Maciej Bilek,

Selected episodes from the Subcarpathian Voivodeship’s pharmacies tradition.
The Provincial Pharmacists Association in Galicia.

The oldest pharmacy in the Subcarpathian region was probably an outhouse founded by Marcin Barian-Rokicki in Biecz in 1549. Błażej, Jan Dutkowic and his son Sebastian, Krzysztof Nowakowski and Icek, the pharmacist, were first mentioned by names pharmacists in Rzeszów. Pharmacists from Przemyśl were granted a privilege concerning the exclusive sale of goods supporting health by the king Sigismund III Vasa on June, 12, 1591. From the time of incorporating this region into a new Austrian province, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.

The Ruthenian movement in Slovacia, Ukraine and in Poland

„Before a codification”
Lord,
Our Nation will rise.
There is no return
To life full of tears.
Our fathers’ voices
Will be carried by wings.
Our prayers
Will heal the souls pierced.
Jurko Charitun 

Sebastian Dubiel-Dmytryszyn
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz

     Socio-political changes which took place in the countries of East-Central Europe by the end of the 1980s released the mechanisms encouraging the national groups to organize bids for independence and to restore their national identity. The ethnical revival led also the small ethnic groups including the Carpathian Ruthenians to the fight for their own language, culture and for national self-identification. The new reality created more space for the ethnic-national minority groups, enabled people to represent their own matters and to manifest cultural activity, but at the same time it displayed the question concerning the national identification. During the period of communism the Ukrainian identification was the only one which gave the Ruthenians an opportunity to organize and lead cultural life, which for the majority of them was not satisfying. After the year 1980 an animation of the Ruthenian national orientation occurred. Nationalistic processes co-occur with an inner conflict between this part of the group who considers themselves to be a separate nation and between the group for whom the Ruthenians are the ethnographical group of the Ukrainian nation. A destruction of the group’s identity was caused by many factors whose background lies in a competition between national parties which began in the half of the 19th century. The national identification became the matter of choice…

Donna, Tom

WAWEL FOLK ENSEMBLE
Detroit, Michigan

Celebrating their 46th Anniversary, Wawel has proudly performed the music and dances of their forefathers since the Ensemble’s founding in 1965 as the first adult Polish performing troupe in the Detroit area. The group’s name was inspired by the Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland’s former capital.
wawelfolkensemble.com

Zbigniew Biliński, Bogdan Ziobro, Lidia Maria Czyż.

History of pharmacies from Jarosław.
Pharmacy „under the Angel” in Frysztak on the Wisłok river.
Pharmaceutical Dańczak family in Sokołów Małopolski.
A monograph on the history of a pharmacy in Dynów by San.

First note concerning Jarosław on the San comes from 1152 and first notes about pharmacists are mentioned in the town documents from 1600, the year of the death of Stanisław, the first pharmacist. In the first half of the 17th century 15 pharmacists serving as mayors, councilors, jurors and often donating money to public expenditure (Jakub Prywicki, pharmacist, donated 200 florins to a collegiate church orchestra) were working in Jarosław. Also, notes about dispensing of prescriptions from Krasiczyn deserve to be mentioned. Józef Sawiczewski (1762-1825), a famous professor of Pharmacy at the Jagiellonian University came from the nearby Zarzecze. In December 1869 three pharmacists were mentioned in the municipal records: Józef Rohm, Aleksander Bohus and Edmund Mańkowski.

SONDEJ Andrzej

In Rzeszów took place a meeting with a great English historian Norman Davies. This event was organized in the Wanda Siemaszkowa Theatre by Znak publishing house and  Nova bookstore and it gathered a lot of Davies’ readers and fans. Norman Davies promoted his new book Europe at War 1939-1945. No Simply Victory.
Translated by Justyna Rymarowicz


photo by Józef Gajda

            Yuriy Yaremchuk - Mark Tokar - Igor Hnydyn

3 YAR – it is the band presenting the music of the known Ukrainian composer and saxophonist Yuriy Yaremchuk.
The musical aesthetics (idea) of the band includes the elements of various music styles, combining them in a specified rational order, presenting the author’s perception of the world with the help of sound and a composition.
The composition and improvisation of the band include the elements of jazz, new music (free jazz, contemporary music), academic avant-garde and ethnic music. The band enables to better realize the ideas resulting from the common mutual inspiration of Yuriy Yaremchuk and the musicians from the band.
Aleksander Borovkov
translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz


Nasty

Arkadiusz ORECHOV
translated by JB

I come from Lviv and I’m painting in water-colors. The old steam engines are my lifelong passion. When I was a child my favorite toy was a carton steam engine with carriages. Moreover, my favorite book was entitled “The Iron Horses” and it was also connected with the steam engines. The  book had a marvelous pictures, which presented a various types of steam engines, which I usually compared with those real on the train stations. It was the beginning of 50s when the steam engines started to  play a crucial role in the railway. They were mainly manufactured in Poland. The goods trains were usually hauled by TU 23 while the passenger trains were hauled by PT 31.  I still have in mind, that when I got off from the tram I didn’t hear the tram, trolleybus bells or horns – the only thing I could hear was the steam engines’ whiz. Every single smell which came from the railway station for me was obviously connected with the steam engines’ smoke.
On platforms the smoke consisted of   a mixture of  vapour, the train’s hum, the carriages’ squeak and the announcement for passengers. All of those connected with the sun, which came through the station’ glass roof  created an amazing image of the Lviv  train station.  I still remember, that I really enjoyed looking at the steam engine, which pulled in the platform. It started to slow down. The steam engine’s buffers touched the buffers of the first carriage. The engine driver’s helper checked the connections and looked carefully through  the train’s element . The carriages started to be filled with passengers. And finally, there was a signal for the train departure. The thick smoke was flowing  from the steam engine’ chimney-pot and the train  slowly started to move, and  in the same time the train’s wheels taped the regular rhythm.   
photo Arkadiusz (bo)

Born in 1952 in Nienadówka near Rzeszów. In 1972 he graduated from Plastic Arts High School in Jarosław. Chosen by the Ministry of Culture and Art to study in Germany from 1972 till 1978 he studied in Hochschule fur Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. In 1978 he received a diploma from the department of book graphics. From 1978 till 1990 he occupied the position of the artistic manager in National Publishing Agency, branch in Rzeszów. Currently he prepares graphic designs of books, calendars, photo albums, he illustrates tales for children and poetry volumes. He made illustrations for a tale entitled “Little Orphan Mary and the Gnomes” and for four other tales. He illustrated “The Anthology of Poetry for Children” and poetry volumes by Leśmian, Norwid, Tetmajer, Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Liebert, Asnyk and by many other contemporary poets.
He took part in the seventeenth All-Poland Plein Air Meeting for Illustrators (Ogólnopolski Plener Ilustratorów), where he made illustrations for the works by Kochanowski (“Ballads and Romances”), Mickiewicz (“Master Thaddeus”), Sienkiewicz, Słowacki and Reymont, and for the Bible. Apart from the design works he also deals with drawings. He has been a participant of The All-Poland Plein Air Meeting for Illustrators for 20 years. Since 2004 he has been a member of Kazimierska Konfraternia Artystów.

translated by Joanna Hardukiewicz
visit
http://pl.pogranicze.eu/index.php?categoryid=11
http://art.pogranicze.eu/

YANOVICH Igor
translated by JB

... was born in  Kiev in 19944, but he lives and works in Lviv. He is a famous Ukrainian artist, whose works are known not only in Ukraine, but also in America, Europe and Asia. His paintings are greatly influenced by  idea of abstractionism.
Yanowich  graduated from  Lviv Institute of Applied and Decorative Art (Chair of Art Pottery). In 1986, Yanovich became   a member of Artists’ Union of USSR and since 1988 he worked with “Express-Avangard” (Union at Culture Foundation of the USSR). In 1988-91 he participated in Union exhibitions in the USSR and abroad (Austria, Germany, USA) and cooperated with galleries “Blank-Art” and “Atelier Karas” (Kyiv), “Sovangard Art Gallery” (Vienna, Austria) and “Golitsyn” (Berlin, Germany).
He has taken part in more than 60 international exhibitions in Europe, America and Asia. He organized 16 individual exhibitions in Ukraine, Austria, Germany and Poland. His works can be found in private collections, but also in museums all over the world (Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Belgium, USA, Canada, Poland, Romania and China). Igor Yanovich lives and works in Lviv. 
He creates his monochromes by using his own technique, which is based on powdered oil paint. Then he makes a stiff liquid out of it and leading it on the canvas. Sometimes he mixes different colures in order to reach a new artistic effect.
photo Igor (zakapior)