Published: 2026-06-29

Surveyors of the royal economies in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the reign of Stanisław August

Stanisław Zawadzki
The Quarterly of the History of Material Culture
Section: Studies and Materials
DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM74.2026.1.002

Abstract

The article presents the teams of surveyors working in the geometry departments of the Royal Estates (economies) Grodno, Alytus, Šiauliai, and Brest-Kobryn, as well as their salaries. Ninety-one specialists active during the reign of Stanislaus Augustus have been identified. The first part of the article concerns geometric departments in the economies. The biggest number of surveyors were employed in the Grodno economy, but the highest wages were in the Brest-Kobryn economy. The second chapter presents several surveyors about whom more accurate data were found. Józef Markiewicz headed the Grodno geometry school. This school had a great influence on the surveying project in economies because it had educated the specialists necessary to carry out the mapping project. Michał Połchowski was a surveyor in the Brest-Kobryn economy and, in addition to the maps of those estates, he also drew a set of eleven maps showing the route of Stanislaus Augustus’ travel through the Brest-Kobryn economy to the Sejm in Grodno in 1784.

Keywords:

measurements, maps, Antoni Tyzenhauz, Michał Połchowski, Józef Markiewicz, Dnieper–Bug Canal

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Zawadzki, S. (2026). Surveyors of the royal economies in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the reign of Stanisław August. The Quarterly of the History of Material Culture, 74(1), 31–60. https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM74.2026.1.002

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