Kamila Follprecht

Jan Tomasz Drachny (1770–1822) came from Cieszyn and was the son of Józef Drachny (dec. 1816), an architect and constructor. In 1797, he settled in Krakow and was accepted into the Krakow guild of builders and stonemasons. In the period of 1802– 1816, he was employed as a Building Inspector in the Municipal Building Office subject to the Krakow Town Council. In 1816, after becoming the Municipal Constructor of the Free 136 Kamila Follprecht Town of Krakow, he dealt with, among others, the purchase of specialised tools necessary for the work of the office, and prepared a list of abandoned buildings, in other words, those in very bad technical condition, in eleven municipal boroughs of Krakow. As a constructor and architect, he created a wide range of plans for building or extending Krakow’s townhouses, and as a clerk he supervised and authorised many of them. He created numerous plans and measurements connected with urban changes in the Krakow agglomeration.

Established by the Town Council in 1887, the Krakow Town Archives of Former Records enriched its resources thanks to donations from inhabitants – both archival materials or museum items, and books. However, operating from 1878, the Local Archives of Records of the Courts for the Nobility in Krakow, under the Galician authorities, only began to obtain the trust of benefactors after it was taken over by Polish authorities in 1919. These activities continued from 1952 in the form of the State Archive of the Krakow Province, founded through a merger of both archives (currently the National Archives in Krakow). Supporting the museums and libraries founded in Krakow in the 19th century that collected souvenirs of the past greatness of the Republic was regarded as a patriotic duty, providing an opportunity to safeguard for future generations family documents, materials created by those active in various fields or institutions and organisations which have ended their activities. The Archives always gratefully accepts donated archival materials connected with Krakow, Malopolska or Galicia, as the mission of the state archives is to store all archival materials that could be a source of information concerning the history of Poland and its inhabitants.

Bierczyński (1891–1970), a graduate of law at Jagiellonian University, led the “Falcon” unit, which set off from Wieliczka on 25 August 1914 to join the Legions forming in Krakow. He served in the 2nd Infantry Regiment, participating in the winter offensive of the II Brigade and the tough battles in Carlibaba (17–21 January 1915) and Korolówka (6–7 March 1915). During the fighting, he described the events from the life of a legionary, however, only fragments of his typed journal remain, covering events from 25 August until 21 October 1914, then from 10 January until 9 March 1915 and from 11 to 31 May 1915. They contain interesting information not only about the military activities, but also about the daily life of the legionaries, the view of the organisation of military actions, news about legionaries as well as descriptions of places in which the divisions were stationed.