Magdalena Agnieszka Sapieżyna

What people wore

Festive Attire Regardless of Weather

Peasants often prioritized wearing their best festive clothes for Sunday church services regardless of the weather, sometimes wearing heavy wadded caftans or fustian skirts even in summer heat. These outfits served as a visual marker to distinguish sacred festive time from the everyday grind of work.

Daily life

Lighting and cooking tools

Light depended on cost: poorer households used tallow candles made from animal fat, while wealthier homes burned more expensive beeswax candles. Cooking tools included suspended cauldrons or three-legged pots used over fires, and iron frying pans.

Work

Industrial Labor and Transport

Zinc ore, or galman, was a major industrial product in the Tenczyn area, with an annual production of 600 to 800 barrels. Peasants were obligated to transport this ore by sledges during winter to river ports on the Vistula.

Music

Musical instruments used in local ensembles

Music ensembles at a boarding school in Slutsk regularly used instruments like trumpets, French horns, oboes, violins, and kettledrums purchased in Königsberg.

At the table

The Famous Warka Beer

Beer from Warka was so highly regarded that even Pope Clement VIII reportedly requested it on his deathbed.

Getting around

Splendid processions of the magnates

Magnates displayed their immense wealth by traveling in elaborate caravans that included dozens of wagons, hundreds of horses, and sometimes exotic animals like camels and pack mules. These processions were grand spectacles that required hundreds of attendants to manage, protect, and serve the noble traveler.

What it cost

Uniform cost for a militia guard

In Toruń during the mid-18th century, a city militia guard had to save about 1 złoty polski to purchase missing parts of his uniform.