Ogrodzieniec Castle
Europe was experiencing the waning of the Middle Ages. The French and English knights were perishing in the Hundred Years’ War; the Turks had just begun their conquest of the Balkans, and cities decimated by the plague were being traversed by woeful processions of flagellants. The Renaissance had not given birth to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and Istanbul still held the name of Constantinople, as the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The printing press and America had yet to be discovered. It was then, in the second half of the 14th century, that construction of a defensive fortress began on one of Ogrodzieniec’s rocky hills. It was to be part of a network of fortresses meant to guard the south-western border of the Polish Kingdom and its capital, Krakow, against Bohemian rulers from the Luxembourg dynasty.
The Artist
He started carving as a child after he saw the famous altar of Wit Stwosz in Cracow during a school trip. In order to make money to equip his first sculpting studio, he dug trenches for the city’s water drainage. He was an apprentice to Władysław Hasior and watched Henryk Burzec at work. His sculptures were exhibited in Poland, the United States and Germany. Yes, Włodzimierz Seweryn's biography would make good material for a movie script. Those who know Włodek Seweryn are not worried about all the success going into his head. The boy is young (…) his work arouses many people’s attention and applause. It’s not hard to fall into trouble from there — wrote a journalist, who introduced the young artist in a local newspaper called Wiadomości Zagłębia in 1988.
Piece of Art
Created in three stages
Stage One
During the very first days of work the artist encountered all the expected difficulties of carving in limestone. In one place the stone was as soft as chalk, and in the next it became so hard that even diamond cutters could not handle them.
Stage Two
The specific nature of the "raw material” wasn’t the only problem — there was also a lack of suitable tools. Seweryn’s workshop had tools to carve in wood, not stone.
Stage Three
The army of limestone warriors stands on a chessboard made of partially from oak wood and partially from fragments of stone taken from the castle. The board stands on four legs of stone.
The Chess Set
The figures formed by Włodzimierz Seweryn’s hand and chisel allude to the history of the Ogrodzieniec Castle. In the chess set, the king piece resembles Casimir the Great, the ruler who built the fortress. An attentive observer will notice in the queen’s piece's robes a similarity to the attire of Casimir's wife, the Hessian princess Adelaide, as she is depicted in one historical church painting. The rooks situated in the corners of the chessboard are made in the likeness of the castle’s gate tower. Next to them stand the knights — steeds with fluttered manes. The adjoining bishop pieces are represented by knights in armor. The pawns in the front line wield swords and shields. What’s significant, is that none of the figures are „fully” finished — each piece has some undressed stone left on it with the original patina from the castle, which the artist refers to as „the stamp of the ages”.
Unique chess pieces made by Włodzimierz Seweryn will soon gain immortality. The first step towards this goal was done in Tychy, where a company called Oberon 3D scanned the entire set of limestone figures in a process known as reverse engineering. Now, if the original chess pieces are sold, it will be possible to faithfully recreate them from wood and then exhibit the replica at the Ogrodzieniec Castle. The process of scanning each figure took from 10 to 15 minutes. It was a time of a peculiar play of lights, reminiscent of an incredible thunderstorm merging with an Aurora borealis.
Certificate of Authenticity
of chess figures and chessboard
In 2020, as part of the Protection of Monuments Program of the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport, conservation of the gate tower of the Ogrodzieniec Castle took place. During the process, stones were taken out of the tower and the ones which could not be reused were removed. With the permission of the monuments conservator, the obtained material was used to make 32 chess pieces and part of a chessboard. I certify the authenticity of the origin of the stones and assure you that the chess pieces made from them are unique, and that the above presented copy is the only one in existence.
Acknowledgments
This project would never have succeeded if it were not for the involvement of people such as Aleksander Harkawy, an art conservator, who helped us choose the stones from which these unique chess pieces were to be made. We’d like to express our gratitude to Mrs. Anna Pilarczyk, the Mayor of Ogrodzieniec, for the municipality's financial assistance in the project. We would also like to thank Łukasz Konarzewski, the Silesian Provincial Conservator of Monuments, and Aleksandra Janikowska-Perczak, the Head of the Częstochowa Branch of the Provincial Office for Monuments Protection, for their considerate attitude to our idea.
