Foreword by H.E. Luís Cabaço, Ambassador of Portugal in Poland
It is on 13th May 1922 that Franciszek Ksawery Orłowski, Polish envoy to Portugal, presented his credentials before António José de Almeida, president of Portugal. Historically, the event marked the re-establishment of Portuguese-Polish diplomatic relations. Before that, in June 1919, my country had officially recognised independence of the Republic of Poland, now re-born, however the first Portuguese envoy in Warsaw, Vasco Francisco Caetano de Quevedo, handed in his credentials to president Stanisław Wojciechowski only as late as on 4th July 1923.
Today we are two like-minded countries in terms of values, interests, and the very vision we share for the Future. Arm-in-arm we are members of the EU and NATO. Equally, we are unanimous for our goals. The past 100 years have produced just enough evidence that our relations are deep, rich and meaningful. Nevertheless, these relations have never been subject to any in-depth investigation: there have been no publications which would provide us with a full picture. As Portugal’s ambassador in Warsaw, I could not imagine anything more fitting to commemorate this centenary than to launch this first attempt at a thorough research which would help us capture the history we have lived together for 100 years.
I have decided to task Professor Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski of the University of Warsaw, Faculty of ‘Artes Liberales’, with this trailblazing endeavour: he is himself a well-established scholar in the country for Portuguese-Polish as well as Spanish-Polish relations, author of an excellent study entitled ‘Portugalio, dziękujemy! Polscy uchodźcy cywilni i wojskowi na zachodnim krańcu Europy w latach 1940-1945’ (‘Thank you, Portugal! Polish civil and military refugees on the Western edge of Europe in 1940-1945’). I would like, therefore, to pay my thanks to Professor Ciechanowski in the first place: I thank him for a remarkable work he has accomplished. I am grateful for over two years he spent carrying out research in various archives in the world despite the heavy impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: in Poland, at the Central Archives of Modern Records and the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw; in Portugal, at the Historical and Diplomatic Archives, the Historical Archives of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic and the National Archives of Torre do Tombo in Lisbon; in England, at the Archives of the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London; in the United States of America, at the Hoover Institution Archives in Stanford, and in many other places. This pioneering research has brought about two tangible results. One: the present exhibition, which gives us a brief overview of 100 years of our shared history; two: a monograph which is coming out in 2023. The monograph will feature in detail significant developments in diplomatic, political, economic, and cultural relations between Portugal and Poland throughout the last 100 years. I consider this publication indispensable for furthering tight bonds of friendship between our two states and nations. The research itself, however, is not only aimed at filling the current gaps in what we know on the subject; the compensation here will already be the exhibition and the monograph. The studies should above all open up new avenues for scholars of the great History and, by the same token, for anyone interested in these smaller, more particular stories we have shared and been bonded by despite our location on the opposite ends of Europe, our common home.
Luís Cabaço,
Ambassador of Portugal in Poland
100 years of friendly relations.
100th anniversary of the re-establishment of Portuguese-Polish diplomatic relations (1922-2022)
Exhibition organiser:
Embassy of Portugal in Poland, Camões Institute in Warsaw
Exhibition co-organiser:
Faculty of ‘Artes Liberales’, University of Warsaw
Content and script of the exhibition:
Professor Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski, Faculty of ‘Artes Liberales’, University of Warsaw
Graphic design:
Julian Konopelski, Camões Institute in Warsaw
Production:
LAMI Marek Sarnecki
The exhibition features materials from the collections of: the late Juliusz Karski (ZJK), the National Digital Archives in Warsaw (NAC), the Polish Press Agency in Warsaw (PAP), the Archives of the National Archives of Torre do Tombo in Lisbon (ANTT), the Historical Archives of the Presidency of the Republic in Lisbon (AHPR), Cristina M. Tozer Morbitzer (ZCTM), the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (London) (NMM), the National Library of Portugal in Lisbon (BNP), the Museum of the Royal Castle in Warsaw (ZKW), the National Museum in Warsaw (MNW), the Museum of the Polish Army in Warsaw (MWP), the Albertina Museum in Vienna (ALB), the Historical and Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lisbon (AHD), the National Archives in Schiphol (Netherlands) (NA), the late Teresa Kowalewska Ferreira (ZTFK), the late Michał Maćkowiak (MM), Maria Szumlakowska Hebdzyńska de Yepes (ZMSHY), Elżbieta Wittlin-Lipton (ZEWL), António Pedro de Moncada de Sousa Mendes (ZAMSM), Count Piotr Potocki (ZPP), Jan Stanisław Ciechanowski (ZJSC), as well as from the following sources: Franciszek Bogdan S.A.C., Father Wojciech Turowski, Paris 1963 (FBK), Tadeusz Nowak Cieplak, W cieniu historii. Wspomnienia, Olsztyn 2003 (TNC), Stefan Włoszczewski, Na przełomie dwóch epok, Warsaw 1974 (SWN).
Photo captions
Photo on the board 1: Thomaz Ribeiro de Mello, envoy of the Portuguese Republic in Warsaw (left), and Marian Szumlakowski, a newly appointed envoy of the Republic of Poland in Lisbon, (the first based there), on the platform of Warsaw’s Main Station during the latter’s departure for Portugal. 6th July 1933 © NAC
