The ceremony of unveiling the monument-bench took place on September 29, 2016. The author of the monument was the artist, painter and sculptor Bohdan Ronin-Walknowski. The bench was placed in front of the commune office in Dobra. It was created on the occasion of the writer's 150th birthday. The monument was created thanks to the financial support of the Danish Oticon Foundation. The monument depicts Elizabeth von Arnim seated on a bench, holding an open book in her hands. On the back of the bench there is a commemorative plaque with a quote from one of the writer's books. Old photos showing Elizabeth von Arnim sitting on a bench in front of the palace in Rzędziny, who was busy reading a book, contributed to the creation of the bench. These photos also served as a model for the creation of the bench. Elizabeth von Arnim, née Mary Annette Beauchamp (born August 31, 1866 in Kirribilli, Australia, died February 9, 1941 in Charleston, United States) - an English writer of Australian origin. The action of her first two novels ("Elizabeth and her garden" 1898 and "Lonely Summer" 1899) was located in the place where she created them. And it was the estate of her first husband (Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin) - Nassenheide (now Rzędziny, Dobra commune near Szczecin). She described their common home, i.e. the local palace, called by the locals 'the castle' (it does not currently exist - it did not survive the turmoil of war, specifically the Allied air raids of 1944) together with the garden that she founded herself, or rather "from scratch" (of course in English style). In her novels, she also described the village of Boeck (Buk) and the church there, where she attended services (and as heirs to a local estate, the von Arnim family had "an isolated box with a room at the back" in this establishment, as she herself described). In Buk and Dobra, there are two, according to the local rumor, the only monuments in the world to Countess von Arnim.
Translated by Google •
In the know? Log-in to add a tip for other adventurers!