Cover design, page layout and design: Sylwia Rogowska-Kusz

Conversion to an ebook: Robert Fritzkowski

Translation into English: Aleksandra Radziwoń

Cooperation: Maksymilian Słoniewski

Photograph on the front cover: The Palace in Białowieża. A photograph from 1894.

Photograph on the back cover: The statute of a European bison erected in Zwierzyniec. A photograph from the end of the 19th century.

© for this edition by Swietłana Czestnych and Michał Słoniewski

© for the text by Michał Słoniewski

ISBN 978-83-932501-6-5

Copying and/or duplication of the photographs and other contents of this book in any form without the consent of the copyright owners and the editor is strictly prohibited.

The authors have used its best efforts to determine the authorship of the illustrations used in the book. Any person who could help determine the author or sources of the information is  kindly asked to contact the authors.

MAX s.c. Jolanta i Michał Słoniewscy

Spała 2023

–free excerpt–

In the first millennium of the new era the territory of what is today known as the Białowieża Forest was inhabited by different tribes. The biggest one of them was the Yotvingians, natural hunters and warriors.

The entire territory was covered by a thick, primeval forest. The high humidity of both air and soil allowed for the quick vegetation of trees and plants. Thanks to that the trees that were not cut in those times grew to enormous sizes. Nature, without any human interference, destroyed and then revived again the thick all by itself. Located upland, the primeval forest was not flooded even during the spring thaw. It was thus a natural protective environment for many animal species. The biggest original species included first and foremost the aurochs (Bos primigenius) and the European bison (Bison bonasus).

At the turn of the first and second millennium fights and wars were fought between the Yotvingians, Lithuanians and Slavs. The continual fights and marches by the Slavs at the end of the 13th century, also with the participation of the soldiers from the Teutonic Order, resulted in the complete annihilation of the Yotvingian tribes. From the 14th century the territory of the primeval forest belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1385 Lithuania entered a union with Poland. After accepting baptism and marrying Jadwiga, Władysław Jagiełło was crowned the king of Poland. From then on the forest was within the Polish borders. Władysław Jagiełło, and then later on the next Polish kings, among others Casimir Jagiellon, Sigismund I the Old, Sigismund II Augustus, Stephen Báthory, Augustus III and Stanisław II Augustus, often organised hunting trips for big game, mainly the European bison, in the Białowieża Forest. Hunting manors were built in the area of today’s Białowieża in order to make their hunting trips more comfortable.

After the third partition of Poland in 1795, the Białowieża Forest came under the Russian control. Yet, it was not until 1860 that a Russian tsar would come to hunt in the Białowieża Forest. At the same time the natural resources of the primeval forest were being overexploited. The trees were felled for wood in a wasteful manner; also poaching thrived at an impossible scale. A turning – and positive – point in the history of the forest was the hunting trip of Tsar Alexander II Romanov and the Prussian and German princes in 1860. Even though its organisation and bloody course aroused controversies, the hunting trip has also awakened the interest of the Romanov dynasty in the constantly deteriorating condition of the forest’s nature. And so, the first practical measures were introduced in order to counteract the negative situation.

A pack of wolves attacking a herd of European bison. A drawing by Mihály Zichy

Jagiełło hunting European bison. A drawing by Nikolay Samokisz

After a hunt in the Primeval Forest, 1409. A drawing by Vasiliy Nawazow

Stephen Báthory watching the beaters walk away. A drawing by Vasiliy Nawazow

A hunting trip by Stanislaw August in the Białowieża Forest on 31st August 1784. A drawing by Vasiliy Nawazow

Tsar Alexander II in a hunting stand during the hunting trip in 1860. A drawing by Mihály Zichy

Alexander II planting commemorative trees after the hunting trip in 1860. A drawing by Mihály Zichy

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Spała 2023

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