A Polish Engineer who defended Peru

A beautiful cover from Poland - I love the colour of the first day cover - a pleasant sky blue ( I found the reason for it after learning about the stamp ) 

200th birth anniversary of Ernest Malinowski

At an altitude of over 4,800 metres above sea level in the Peruvian Andes stands a monument. It is emblazoned with the following inscription in both Polish and Spanish: 'Ernest Malinowski 1818-1899. Polish Engineer. Peruvian Patriot. Hero of the Defence of Callao in 1866. Builder of the Central Trans-Andean Railway.'

1812, Malinowski’s father Jacob fought for Napoleon during the Russian campaign. Ernest, one of Jacob’s four children, was born six years after this in the Russian partition of Poland. In 1830, Jacob Malinowski chose once again to fight against the Tsars – he joined the November Uprising, a Polish rebellion against Russian rule. After the uprising was defeated, he had to leave partitioned Poland. He went to Dresden with his son, Ernest’s brother Rudolf. Ernest soon joined them there. The family eventually went to France where they settled, and Ernest would never move back to his fatherland. The November Uprising would come to play an important part in Malinowski’s life – had it not been for his father’s participation in the rebellion, he might never have come to Peru.

In France. Ernest Malinowski studied at the prestigious National School of Roads and Bridges. After graduating in 1838, he started to work as an engineer building railroads near Paris. In 1852, he moved to Peru where, according to a six-year contract he signed, he was to build roads, bridges, and provide technical education.

Malinowski ended up doing far more than that and stayed much longer than planned. In Peru, apart from opening a technical school and building railroads, he helped carry out monetary reform, worked on the rebuilding of the war-devastated town of Arequipa, and, last but not least, saved the country from the Spaniards by winning the battle of the port of Callao.

In 1868, the Peruvian Congress opened a tender for the building of a railroad in Peru, connecting the Andes with the Pacific coast. It was won by American investor Henry Meiggs, who entrusted Malinowski with designing this railroad. When the Pole first presented his design, some thought it was impossible to realise. Building a railroad with complex bridges and tunnels at altitudes exceeding 4,000 metres above sea level seemed like too much of a challenge to certain people. Nevertheless, the design was accepted by Peru’s president, Manuel Pardo, who, unsurprisingly, was a personal friend of Malinowski the war hero. 

Work on what was to become known as the Central Trans-Andean Railway commenced on 1st January 1870. It took eight years to complete. The second section, which was finished in 1893, extended the line to the town of La Oroya. By then the railway in question was 218 kilometres long and the impossible had been realised – Malinowski had built the highest altitude railway in the world.

The Central Trans-Andean Railway held that record for over a hundred years. 

I love the design of the stamp where the face of Ernest is shown like clouds - a fitting tribute to the man who built railway bridges on clouds ! 

Thanks Wojtek for this beautiful cover and stamp ! I love it :) I should say this is definitely my most favourite stamp of 2018 !