White Eagles
It wouldn't be too much to say that being dubbed a Knight of the White Eagle is something akin to being dubbed a Knight of the Round Table. The 300 year old order is the highest Polish honour, and owing to the vicissitudes of Polish history, the award has a deeply mythical aspect. Outlawed by various conquering regimes, the order was consistently resurrected, most recently during the communist era, when the government in exile guarded over the traditions of the Eagle (the communist party instituted their own top laurel - the Order of the Constructors of the Polish Peoples Republic). To celebrate the tercentenary of the White Eagle, the Royal Castle is now a lavish a lavish show, drawing on three hundred years of regalia and other related material. The exhibition is being organized by outgoing President Aleksander Kwasniewski, himself the 12th Grand Master Of The Order and, incidentally, a former communist - this is a complicated country...!
Yesterday the President welcomed a new Eagle into the fold, when composer Krzysztof Penderecki was dubbed. Cracovian film maker Andrzej Wajda was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta, as was the philosopher Andrzej Walicki.