“Baroque” to travel from Rydzyna to Lviv

Rydzyna, a small Polish town near the German frontier, is the site of a castle once owned by King Stanislaw Leszczynski. Recently it was the site of the First Baroque International Festival, attended by delegations from Poland, Germany (Zweibrucken), France (Luneville), and Ukraine. The Ukrainian delegation, represented by the folk group The Cossacks of Hetman Mazepa, was made up of Lvivites from the automobile fan club ZAZ- Kozak and the Sich Cossack Society in Zolochiv. Interestingly, the future Polish king, who would become the sworn enemy of Peter I of Russia and ally of Charles XII of Sweden and Hetman Ivan Mazepa, was born in Lviv.

The festival was launched by Ukrainian Cossacks firing a cannon. The most spectacular event was a carnival with the richly attired delegations of the four participating countries parading down the town’s thoroughfare. For three days demonstration performances took place beneath the walls of the Baroque castle. The Germans demonstrated their Baroque dances, the French performed scenes from Leszczynski’s court, while the Ukrainian participants did what they know best: they made merry and urged others to join the festivities. In addition to performing wonderful folk numbers and singing songs, they cooked up a thick gruel known as kulish, a genuine Cossack treat, fired an ancient cannon, and served the heady honey-based alcohol called medovukha.

The cultural event in Rydzyna was the first in a series of Baroque festivals that in the next few years will be hosted in Ukraine, France, and Germany. Next year the festival will be held at Zolochiv Castle in Lviv oblast. Its objective is to promote tourism excursions. Probably the most thrilling one in the Lviv region is known as the Golden Horseshoe, a guided tour of the medieval castles of Lviv oblast: Olesko, Pidhorets, Zolochiv, and Svirzsh.