Good, As For a Lithuanian

The complicated figures that mythology gave us were replaced or reinvented, made cleaner and more comfortable: heroes who are purely good, whose causes are purely just, whose hands, whatever they do, remain unstained.

Born Into Betrayal

Depending on who you were in the Commonwealth, you could experience a completely different reality. For the magnate class - it was a paradise; for the peasants who worked their land it was a life of serfdom; for the urban class it was purgatory.

Lithuania's Myth of Origins

Čiurlionis was painting at a time when various stories had not yet been separated, when the past was still open and mysterious. Which past to choose as a foundation of a nation?

What Happened to Judith Leyster?

In some countries, when a woman marries, her original surname is erased entirely and replaced with her husband's surname, either by choice or by law. In others, where women are legally required to keep their birth names, the administrative system still marks the connection: marriage appears as an official note in her records, linking her identity to her husband name.

Black Legends: How Powerful Women Were Destroyed

When queens held power, they became targets — their names systematically destroyed by legends more powerful than facts. Like the portrait of Beatrice, their images were shaped not by who they were, but by what others needed them to be.

Bona Sforza: Making her own rules

Like Matejko's jester, Bona Sforza deserves a closer look. The choices she made as queen — in matters of economy, diplomacy, and royal power — reveal a complex figure navigating impossible circumstances, yet these same choices would later be twisted into evidence of dangerous foreign influence.

The Mysterious Death of Bona Sforza

Jan Matejko captured the mystery and doubts that remained unanswered 300 years later. Even now, knowing the sequence of events that happened before and after Queen Bona's death, the exact truth of what occurred in that room remains unknown.