CULTURE
Polish diplomat visits Zagatala district of Azerbaijan
Baku, April 11 (AZERTAC). The Polish Consul in Baku Aleksandra Grabowska visited Azerbaijan`s Zagatala distrcit.
She visited the museum and the fortress in Zagatala. In the nineteenth century, this city served as a place of exile for Polish insurgents.
The guest was informed that the Polish exiles started to arrive in Zagatala after the suppression of the November Uprising and were incarcerated in the fortress, construction of which began in 1830. The Fortress, of which today's most remarkable attractions are the citadel, the building for gun powder storage and the three entrance gates along with a picturesque complex of military buildings, was actually being used until recently by the Azerbaijani military. Only last year the fortress was handed over to the municipal authorities and thus became open to the public again.
Other important landmarks associated with the history of Poles in the Caucasus are the former Catholic Church and the old Christian cemetery, with the former now being private property and the latter being a part of the city park.
A Pole who played an important role in the town's history was the botanist and zoologist Ludwik Mlokosiewich, director of the Museum of Natural History in Zagatala. The exhibits collected and preserved by him in the second half of the nineteenth century are still presented in the museum, which itself is a part of the Zagatala National Park. Mlokosiewich is the author of several publications on the characteristics of biological diversity in the Caucasus and he identified several previously unknown species of flora and fauna that have been named after him, including the Caucasian black grouse (Lyrurus Mlokosiewichii) and Caucasian peony (Paeonia Mlokosewitschii).