Leon Lasocki – landowner and nephew of Maria Walewska
The Lasocki family was an old, wealthy and distinguished noble family from Mazovia, one branch of which even received the title of count from Pope Nicholas V. Over time, however, the estates were divided, and the family lost its influence and wealth.
In section 158 at Stare Powązki, near Okopowa Street, stands an impressive tomb erected for Leon Lasocki and his family.
Leon Lasocki (his middle name was Adryan, the name under which he appears in some documents) came from a wealthy and influential Mazovian noble family. He was the grandson of Adam Lasocki, heir to Brochów, huntsman of Rawa, castellan of Sochaczew, starosta of Mokrsko, and holder of the Orders of St. Stanislaus and the White Eagle. The family owned numerous estates in Mazovia. Leon's father was Michał Lasocki (heir to Iłów), and his mother was Anastazja (or Antonina) Łączyńska, daughter of the starosta of Gostynin and sister of Maria Łączyńska, better known as Maria Walewska, called Napoleon's Polish wife. Leon himself was heir to the Czerwonka estate in Mazovia. He was born in 1819 in Iłów, which belonged to his father, and died in 1864 in Czembar (today Bielinsk) in Russia, more than 1,800 km from Warsaw. He may have been there because of his involvement in the January Uprising.
Leon Lasocki's daughter was also laid to rest in the tomb. The inscription on the plaque reads:
Maryja Lasocka, only daughter of Leon and Bronisława née Łuszczewska. She lived 15 years. She died in
Gleichenberg on 27 August 1873, leaving once again, through her death, her surviving
mother and brothers bereaved.
"Her soul pleased God
Therefore He hastened to take her away
From among corruption"
Wisdom, ch. 4
Not I, but she
Was to mourn me.
J. Kochan.
The death of such a young person in an Austrian spa town suggests that Miss Lasocka had been ill for some time. One of Leon Lasocki's sons was Michał Piotr, who married Maria Jadwiga Wiktoria Karska in 1892. The sacrament was celebrated at the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the New Town. Both were laid to rest in the tomb at Stare Powązki. Michał died in 1938, while Maria (her gravestone gives her middle name as Jadwiga, so perhaps that was the name she used in everyday life) died two years earlier, in 1936.
The Lasocki family tomb was created through the collaboration of two figures important to Warsaw's architecture and art of the period. The tomb itself was designed by Emil Falkowski, while the statue of the Saviour was made by Leonard Marconi. At the time, Falkowski was a well-known builder who worked with the Marconi family, whose contributions to Warsaw's art and architecture were particularly significant. Falkowski supervised the restoration—or rather, the replacement—of King Sigismund II Vasa's Column in Castle Square. He also built the staircase inside the Grand Theatre and oversaw the construction of the town hall.
Leonard Marconi was a sculptor and a member of a family that left many memorials in Warsaw. He was the son of Ferrante Marconi, the grandson of the eminent Italian architect Leandro, and a cousin of another Leandro Marconi, the son of Henryk. Unfortunately, most of his works have been destroyed, but in front of the Muranów cinema we can see a fountain bearing three figures holding an oar, a trident and a net (the fountain originally stood on Krakowskie Przedmieście).