Case file · Folklore / legend
Pan Twardowski, the Polish Faust
Twardowski, a Kraków nobleman said to have sold his soul to the Devil for knowledge and magic, is first mentioned in Łukasz Górnicki's 'Polish Courtier' of 1566.
1566 CE · 50.04, 19.95 · status: legend
The account
The legend has him signing the pact at night in the quarries of Krzemionki in Kraków, riding a painted horse and summoning the ghost of Queen Barbara Radziwiłł for King Sigismund Augustus. When the Devil caught him he escaped by singing a hymn and was left hanging on the Moon. A 'magic mirror' said to be his hangs in the church at Węgrów.
The sceptical view
Attempts to identify a real Twardowski, perhaps a German scholar at Kraków, remain speculative.