Maria Kinga Świdzińska

Scientist and horse breeder. From 1974, in Golejewko, she conducted scientific works on Thoroughbred horses, which were very valuable for Polish breeding. In 1981, she defended her doctoral thesis on the evaluation of thoroughbred sires.

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She was born on August 6, 1935.

Maria Kinga Świdzińska in Krakow as the daughter of Ignacy and Anna Potocki. She spent carefree childhood years together with her three brothers in her mother's estate - Izdebki and in Rymanów Zdrój, a health resort belonging to her grandfather - Jan Potocki.

The outbreak of war resulted in a dramatic escape from the Germans to Volhynia, where he was seized by the Bolshevik army and returned to the then GG to Rymanów.

The period of World War II was an extremely difficult time for the family. The beginning of the occupation is the underground activity of Anna and Ignacy. In their villa in Rymanów, they ran a transfer point for Polish officers through Slovakia to Hungary.

The most difficult period began in 1941 as a result of the denunciation of one of the employees about Ignacy Potocki hiding hunting weapons. Sentenced to death, Ignacy hid for four years under a changed name in the vicinity of the Solska Forest, where he continued his underground activity, saving, among others, escapees from the camp in Zwierzyniec.

Anna Potocka and her children moved to Izdebki, where the house was in fact a hiding place for conspirators, Home Army officers and people with death sentences in hiding. It was not until 1944 that Anna and her children left for the estate of her brother, professor of law Andrzej Mycielski, to his hometown of Łuczanowice. There she finally met her husband. When the Soviet army occupied Kraków, the family settled in the city, and Anna ran a private canteen, earning a living.

After the end of the war, Ignacy Potocki, who was a balneologist, went to Lower Silesia in search of work, where he started his career as a driver. Miraculously avoiding arrest during the Stalinist period, in 1950 the family settled in Szczawno Zdrój, where Ignacy was employed as a balneologist.

It was here that Maria Kinga Świdzińska had closer contact with horses, having herd of Stallions in Książ right next to her. Here she began to learn horse riding. At that time, after watching the movie "The Great Prize", the fascination with these animals was so huge that I decided to become a horse breeder. (…)

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Author of the text: Katarzyna Głuszek

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