An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill

Podlasie Academy of Culture at the Białystok Cultural Centre and the Polish Film Institute have the pleasure of inviting you to a film:

An Epitaph for Barbara Radziwill

June 30th, 2019, 3 PM
Forum cinema, 5 Legionowa Street
tickets: 8 PLN, available at the Forum cinema’s box office (5 Legionowa Street), BCC/LZC’ box office (19 Warszawska Street) and on bilety.bok.bialystok.pl
accompanying lecture: Marek Teler

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the second half of the sixteenth century. The story of love of the last monarch of the Jagiellonian dynasty, Sigismund II Augustus, to Lithuanian noblewoman Barbara Radziwiłł, who later became his wife. King Sigismund Augustus, married to Elisabeth Habsburg suffering from epilepsy and barren, during one of his trips to Lithuania meets Barbara from the Radziwiłł family. He falls in love with her so much that he is willing to marry her. Elizabeth dies. However, the Queen Mother Bona does not accept the relationship with Barbara Radziwiłł and tries to persuade his son to marry a French princess. Senators also demand from the King to renounce the relationship with Barbara. The King firmly rejects the demands and introduces Barbara to Wawel, bringing about her coronation. During the ceremony, the Queen collapses. Soon after it becomes clear that she is very ill. On her deathbed, she is asking her husband to bury her in Vilnius.