A TRIP ROUTE

INTERESTING STORIES

One of the most famous citizens of the Venetian Republic was Giacomo Casanova. This adventurer, traveler and writer who lived in the 18th century gained his memory thanks to his "Memoirs" in which he vividly presented life in European capitals. Thanks to the numerous descriptions of love conquests contained therein, his name has become synonymous with the seducer. In 1765, Casanova came from St. Petersburg to Warsaw, he also visited Lviv and Puławy. He was kindly received by Stanisław August Poniatowski and hoped to become the royal secretary. However, these plans came to naught, because in 1766, in a pistol duel, he severely wounded the belly of the great Crown lieutenant, Franciszek Ksawery Branicki (co-founders of the Targowica Confederation). It was for the Italian dancer Teresa Casaci, and Casanova had to hide in the Reformed monastery on Senatorska Street, because his life was seriously threatened by the magnate's supporters. The echoes of this matter spread throughout Europe, and Casanova prided himself on a duel with such an important person for the rest of his life. However, he fell out of favor with the king, who in 1766 ordered him to leave the country.

INTERESTING FACTS

Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most famous cathedrals in the world, thanks in part to the novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" by the French writer Victor Hugo. It was erected on an island on the Seine, called Île de la Cité, and its construction took over 180 years. In the cathedral treasury there is a reliquary of the Holy Cross tree, which was present at the coronation of Polish kings since the times of Władysław Jagiełło. Jan II Kazimierz Waza abdicated in 1668, and then left for France, where he became abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. During his departure from Poland, he illegally robbed part of the crown treasury, and the treasures taken by the last Vasa never returned to the homeland. Just before his death, the king gave them to his sister-in-law, Anna Gonzaga (sister of the Polish queen Maria Gonzaga), and the latter, in turn, in 1684 gave them to the Benedictine abbey in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, located on the outskirts of Paris. Jan Kazimierz died four years after his abdication, and the cause of death was reportedly an attack of apoplexy after receiving news of the fall of Kamieniec Podolski. In 1676 he was buried in the Wawel Cathedral and his heart is in the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

IT IS WORTH SEEING

Meteors are a sandstone and conglomerate rock massif located in central Greece, at the end of the Thessaly Plain near the city of Kalampaka. On the tops of the rocks there is a complex of Orthodox monasteries, which began to be built from the beginning of the 14th century. Monasteries accumulated huge treasures then, profiting from land estates in Thessaly, Wallachia and Moldavia. Meteors were the scenery for one of the great productions about the adventures of James Bond, entitled For Your Eyes Only, which premiered in 1981. The plot of the twelfth official film about the adventures of a British agent refers to the themes of Ian Fleming's stories, and the character of James Bond was played for the fifth time by Roger Moore. Agent 007 must this time investigate the mystery of the missing British transmitter used to manage the United Kingdom's fleet.