Kósciuszko - a man , hero and a mound

A cover from Krakow , Poland 🇵🇱 with stamps on its iconic hero and cachet of one of Krakow’s topographic monuments :) 

150th death anniversary of  Tadeusz Kosciusko 

Date of issue : 14-10-1967

200th death anniversary of Tadeusz Kosciusko 

Date of issue : 04/02/2017

Kosciusko statue in Philadelphia 

Date of issue : 01-07-1979

Polish manor houses - mansion in Liw

Date of issue : 2000 

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (February 4 or 12, 1746 – October 15, 1817) 

was a Polish-Lithuanian military engineer, statesman, and military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States. He fought in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the U.S. side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising.


Kościuszko moved to France in 1769 to study. He returned to Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1774, two years after its First Partition, and took a position as tutor in Józef Sylwester Sosnowski's household. After Kościuszko attempted to elope with his employer's daughter and was severely beaten by the father's retainers, he returned to France. In 1776, Kościuszko moved to North America, where he took part in the American Revolutionary War as a colonel in the Continental Army. An accomplished military architect, he designed and oversaw the construction of state-of-the-art fortifications, including those at West Point, New York. In 1783, in recognition of his services, the Continental Congress promoted him to brigadier general.

After the Polish–Russian War of 1792resulted in the Second Partition of Poland, he organized an uprising against Russia in March 1794, serving as its Naczelnik (commander-in-chief).

The defeat of the Kościuszko Uprising that November led to Poland's Third Partition in 1795, which ended the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's independent existence for 123 years. 

In 1796, following the death of Tsaritsa Catherine the Great, Kościuszko was pardoned by her successor, Tsar Paul I, and he emigrated to the United States. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson's, with whom he shared ideals of human rights, Kościuszko wrote a will in 1798 dedicating his U.S. assets to the education and freedom of U.S. slaves. He eventually returned to Europe and lived in Switzerland until his death in 1817. 

Kościuszko Mound ( kopiec Kościuszki) in Kraków, Poland, erected by Cracovians in commemoration of the Polish national leader Tadeusz Kościuszko, is an artificial mound modeled after Kraków's prehistoric mounds of Krak and Wanda. A serpentine path leads to the top, approximately 326 metres (1,070 ft) above sea level, with a panoramic view of the Vistula River and the city. It was completed in November 1823. Inside the mound, urns were buried with soil from the Polish and American battlefields where Kościuszko fought. Kościuszko Mound is one of Kraków's four memorial mounds, consisting of two prehistoric mounds, Krakus Mound and Wanda Mound, and two modern ones, Piłsudski Mound and Kościuszko Mound.

Kosciuszki Mound , Krakow - heaped up in 1820-1823

Rebuilt in 1999-2002 

Postcards showing the mounds of Krakow 

Postmark 

A postmark offered in Krakow postoffice to commomerate the 225th anniversary of Kosciusko uprising. 

On 24 March 1794, Tadeusz Kościuszko, a veteran of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War, announced the general uprising in a speech in the Kraków town square and assumed the powers of the Commander in Chief of all of the Polish forces. In order to strengthen the Polish forces, Kościuszko issued an act of mobilisation, requiring that every 5 houses in Lesser Polanddelegate at least one able male soldier equipped with carbine, pike, or an axe. 

To destroy the still weak opposition, Russian Empress Catherine the Great ordered the corps of Major General Fiodor Denisov to attack Kraków. On 4 April both armies met near the village of Racławice. In what became known as the Battle of Racławice Kościuszko's forces defeated the numerically and technically superior opponent. After the bloody battle the Russian forces withdrew from the battlefield. Kościuszko's forces were too weak to start a successful pursuit and wipe the Russian forces out of Lesser Poland. Although the strategic importance of the victory was close to none, the news of the victory spread fast and soon other parts of Poland joined the ranks of the revolutionaries.

The postmark commomerates the Battle of Raclawice that happened on 4- April - 1794 ! 

Thanks Wojtek for the beautiful stamps and the postcards - I am sure Krakow looks beautiful from atop the Kopiecs :)