An FDC issued in 2008 for the 450th anniversary of Poland Post - uprated with 2014 stamps from Poland 馃嚨馃嚤
The minisheet bears the images of Prospero Provono , Sigismund II Augustus, Sebastiano Montelupi with the image of Krak贸w city in the background. Let’s dig into the history behind this image and the subtle influence of Italy behind Poland Post.
The earliest record of a postal system in Poland is, from the year 1387, of merchants who organised a private system and introduced horse riders to replace foot letter carriers. 
King Sigismund Augustus
On 17 October 1558 Sigismund II Augustus appointed Prospero Provano, an Italian merchant living in Krak贸w, to organise a postal service in Poland. He was paid 1,500 thalers per annum by the royal treasury to run the postal service. He merged all the private postal services into a single postal service. Royal mail and mail from some monastic orders was carried free. All other mail was paid for.
Prospero Provono, initially in the service of Queen Bona, dealt mainly with the trade of textiles and wine. He became a Cracow canteen and, being a leaseholder of royal estates, led Wieliczka to great prosperity. He was the starost of B臋dzin, and together with the Jew Joachim from Brest-Litovsk, he built saltworks in B臋dzin and nearby Ujejscy.
The death of the queen Bona Sforza ( an ambitious and energetic member of the powerful House Of Sforza that ruled the Duchy of Milan and the second wife of King Sigismund I Old ) in 1557 was the factor that influenced the emergence of the Polish Post, because King Sigismund II Augustus had to maintain permanent and regular correspondence with Italy in order to collect his inheritance. The King needed frequent contact with the Italian principalities of Bari and Rossano, which were part of the Bona 's inheritance.
Provano received from the king a tenement at Floria艅ska St. 14, which has been preserved and is still standing today, it houses the hotel "Pod R贸偶膮".
Hotel Pod R贸偶a - Krak贸w
Above the entrance there is a beautiful Latin inscription: "Let this house stand until the sea ant dries, and the turtle does not roam the world" . This tenement house was " the postal and receiving point of the Royal Mail.
Privilege of Zygmunt August for Prosper Prowan
Establishment of the Krakow - Venice mail and nomination of the noble Prosper Prowanper, Sigismund August, etc. - In this letter, we hereby announce to you that - keeping an eye on our own and our subjects' convenience that both us and Italy could more conveniently send letters as also other things to do there - we arrange permanent communication, that is, we establish a so-called post, i.e. spaced horses Krakow - Venice, running constantly during marked periods, years and days. In order that the post could be fulfilled even better and more efficiently, we appoint Prosper Prowanper, Our Mediator in Krakow, whose nobly born Proteus, whose righteousness and agility are well known to us: we are managing this letter so that everyone will recognize him and consider him the director and guardian of this post. At the same time, we give full and unlimited power to manage and manage this post together with the prisoners, as well as to administer and fulfill everything that belongs to the office of the director and guardian of the post.
Provana, however, started a conflict with the Thurn und Taxis family, who controlled postal communications in Austria, Hungary and Italy since 1516. This resulted after four years in the withdrawal of the benefit granted to Provan. The Polish King decided to transfer the Polish postal system to the Taxis family and did this on 11 July 1562. Christopher Taxis received the same annual salary as Provano.
The postal service of the Taxis was composed of the
Italian post (Cracow-Vienna-Venice)
Lithuanian Post (Cracow-Warsaw-Vilnius).
The postal messenger left Cracow each Sunday morning, arrived in Vienna on Wednesday and then left for Venice, where he arrived after seven days journey.
The courier set off to Lithuania each week on Wednesday, in order to arrive in Vilnius after a week's journey. Therefore, the letter from Cracow to Venice took 10 days and from Cracow to Vilnius 7 days.
Christopher Taxis ran the system as a commercial venture and because of his extravagance the postal system deteriorated. Sigismund II Augustus terminated the contract with the Taxis family after two years.
On 9 January 1564 Peter Moffon was appointed postmaster general by the Polish King. Moffon, another Italian merchant living in Krak贸w, was given the postal contract for five years. Because of a significant regress in the regularity of this post, on 15 June 1569 he was replaced by Sebastiano Montelupi, who was one of the richest Cracow bourgeois.
Montelupi's Royal Post was responsible for delivering the parcels to the king once a week, when the ruler was residing in any location within the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, or once every three weeks when he was residing in Lithuania. The route to Venice was operated every 15 days and to Vilnius every 17 days. For his services Montelupi received 1300 thalers yearly and used the payments for private consignments. Furthermore, the royal carriages were also at his disposal.
The Italian House - Montelupi Kamienica
The Montelupi Kamienica located in Cracow at Rynek G艂贸wny no. 7 was the principal office of the post office. When it was operating as a postal centre stagecoaches to Venice departed from here.
When King Sigismund Augustus died in 1572, Montelupi continued the service at his own expense for two years. The public postal service then ceased for a period of some 11 years, although a system reserved to royal use was rebuilt from 1574 onwards.
On 29 January 1583 Sebastiano Montelupi and his nephew (and adopted heir), Valerio Montelupi, were given a contract to run the postal service for five years. When giving the contract the King, Stefan Batory, introduced a uniform postal rate of 4 groszy per letter not exceeding 1 艂ut (about 12.66 grams) for any distance in Poland. This was the first uniform postal rate to be introduced in the world. Sebastiano Montelupi died in 1600 aged 84 and Valerio Montelupi continued to run the postal service till his death in 1613.
A postal system that was created to maintain a link between Krak贸w and Milan - almost 4 centuries ago !
Thanks Wojtek- I am glad the cover finally made it to me - after taking a circuitous route ;)
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