Basil de Weryha-Wysoczański

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The Chevalier de Weryha-Wysoczański-Pietrusiewicz
Born(1816-04-23)23 April 1816
Wysocko Wyżne, Austrian Empire
Died25 October 1891(1891-10-25) (aged 75)
Odessa, Russian Empire
NationalityPolish
Occupations
  • Wholesale merchant
  • landowner
  • town property owner
  • philanthropist
AwardsSilver Medal on the Ribbon of Saint Stanislas
The Wukry coat of arms

Basil, 1st Chevalier de Weryha-Wysoczański-Pietrusiewicz[1] (23 April 1816 – 25 October 1891) was a Polish wholesale merchant, landowner, town property owner[2] and philanthropist from Odessa.[3]

He came from an old noble family of Walachian[4] boyar[5] stock and was the 4th son of Jan, 2nd Chevalier Wysoczański de Pietrusiewicz.[6] He had one daughter, Wilhelmine, who married a Swiss rentier and died at age 19 in Cannes,[7] as well a favoured place of her father and of the international nobility in general.[8] The son of his niece Anna[7] was composer Yaroslav Yaroslavenko, for whom de Weryha-Wysoczański stood sponsor.

Biography[edit]

Born in the Austrian Empire, de Weryha-Wysoczański made his money, as his biographer informs us in 1892, with vodka supplies for the army during the Crimean War. As a result, he bought landed estates and town property and ‘became a merchant on a grand scale’. According to his biographer, he once lost a whole ship on the sea but more than made up his losses. He soon got rid of a café-pâtisserie on Odessa's famous Deribasovskaya Street and, as his biographer puts it, ‘became a fully-fledged gentleman capitalist’. His biographer estimated that de Weryha-Wysoczański's cash alone amounted to £11.700.000.[9] In 1861 he was awarded the Silver Medal on the Ribbon of Saint Stanislas[10] and in 1876 received a confirmation of the title of Hereditary Chevalier of Galicia with the Wukry coat of arms,[2] extended to all direct descendants in the male line of his elder brother Gregory, some of whom still living to this day.[4] He died in Odessa in the Russian Empire.

Philanthropy[edit]

St. Nicholas Church in Wysocko Wyżne donated by Basil, 1st Chevalier de Weryha-Wysoczański-Pietrusiewicz, built by Jan Lewiński

De Weryha-Wysoczański donated £2.340.000 for scholarships, for the education of children.[11] After the death of his only daughter, he gave in Odessa, in February 1885, £900.000 for orphaned girls who would be paid dowries.[12] He founded the Saint Nicholas Church in Wysocko Wyżne, Austro-Hungarian Empire,[3] the consecration of which took place on 13 October 1891.[13] Its architect was Jan Lewiński and its polychromy was carried out by Teofil Kopystyński. It is a large church with both neoclassical and neobyzantine elements.[14]

In popular culture[edit]

In 1930 de Weryha-Wysoczański's life was made into a biographical novel by Ivan Fylypchak by the title Willpower (Lwów 1930; second edition Sambor 1999).[3] De Weryha-Wysoczański features in it with his real name, although other names were changed, as well as some facts for reasons of dramatisation.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Adelige Häuser XXX, Limburg a. d. Lahn 2008, vol 145, p. 420, ISBN 978-3-7980-0845-8, OCLC 1570546.
  2. ^ a b Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch, Adelige Häuser IV, Marburg 2018, vol 8, p. 497, ISBN 978-3-9817243-7-0, OCLC 995606854.
  3. ^ a b c Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, A Chevalier from Poland. The Memoirs of Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, Kibworth Beauchamp 2016, p. 8, ISBN 978-1785891618, OCLC 956765261.
  4. ^ a b Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch, Adelige Häuser IV, Marburg 2018, vol 8, p. 487, ISBN 978-3-9817243-7-0, OCLC 995606854.
  5. ^ Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, A Chevalier from Poland. The Memoirs of Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, Kibworth Beauchamp 2016, p. 1, ISBN 978-1785891618, OCLC 956765261.
  6. ^ Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, A Chevalier from Poland. The Memoirs of Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, Kibworth Beauchamp 2016, p. 9, ISBN 978-1785891618, OCLC 956765261.
  7. ^ a b Gothaisches Genealogisches Handbuch, Adelige Häuser IV, Marburg 2018, vol 8, p. 498, ISBN 978-3-9817243-7-0, OCLC 995606854.
  8. ^ Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, A Chevalier from Poland. The Memoirs of Chevalier Rafael de Weryha-Wysoczański, Kibworth Beauchamp 2016, p. 79, ISBN 978-1785891618, OCLC 956765261.
  9. ^ Demeter Więckowski, Basil Wysoczański and the New Church in Wysocko Wyżne [in Russian], Lwów 1892, chapters 5-6.
  10. ^ "Wiener Zeitung", 29 June 1861.
  11. ^ Semen Behei, Stefaniia Behei, Formuvannia natsionalʹnoi svidomosti ta elity, Lwów 2001, p. 9.
  12. ^ Demeter Więckowski, Basil Wysoczański and the New Church in Wysocko Wyżne [in Russian], Lwów 1892, p. 18.
  13. ^ "Kuryer Lwowski", 19 October 1891.
  14. ^ Grzegorz Rąkowski, Ukraińskie karpaty i podkarpacie: Czȩść zachodnia, vol 1, Pruszków 2013, pp. 436-7, ISBN 978-83-62460-31-1.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Adelslexikon XVI, Limburg a.d. Lahn 2005, vol. 137, p. 117, ISBN 3-7980-0837-X, OCLC 1570546.
  • Sylwester Korwin-Kruczkowski, Poczet Polaków wyniesionych do godności szlacheckiej przez monarchów austryjackich w czasie od roku 1773 do 1918. Dalej tych osób, którym wymienieni władcy zatwierdzili dawne tytuły książęce względnie hrabiowskie lub nadali tytuły hrabiów i baronów jak niemniej tych, którym zatwierdzili staropolskie szlachectwo, Lwów 1935, p. 54.
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