In the footsteps of Łukasiewicz- Rzeszów

Rzeszów

Rzeszów is the largest city in south-eastern Poland. It was a private city until the mid-nineteenth century. In 1782, Rzeszów became the centre of the Pilzno district, and then the Rzeszów district. From 1944, it had the status of the capital of the Rzeszów Province, and since 1999 of the Podkarpacie Province. Currently, about 200 000 inhabitants live in this city.

3- Maja Street. A tenement where Edward Hübel’s pharmacy was located.

A „Luftmachine” tenement. On the facade of the building there is a plaque commemorating the meetings of Ignacy Łukasiewicz with Edward Dembowski and Franciszek Wiesołowski in the years 1845-1846.

The Łukasiewicz family moved to Rzeszów in the early 1830s. In the years 1932-1936, Ignacy Łukasiewicz attended the Piarist gymnasium. In June 1936, after his father's death, 14-year-old Ignacy left for Łańcut due to the worsening financial situation. For the next four years he worked there as an apprentice in the pharmacy of Antoni Swoboda. In 1940, Łukasiewicz passed his tyrocinal exam in front of the Regional Pharmacy Committee in Rzeszów. A year later, he returned to Rzeszów and found employment in the regional pharmacy of Edward Hübel. In addition to a monthly salary of 12 florins, Łukasiewicz received an apartment in a neighbouring tenement house. The future pioneer of the oil industry worked for six years in Edward Hübel's pharmacy. At that time, he was heavily involved in independence activities. As an agent of the Polish Democratic Society, he used to meet in "Luftmachine" with Edward Dembowski and Franciszek Wiesiołowski. In 1846, Ignacy Łukasiewicz was arrested for political activity and spent two years in prisons in Rzeszów and Lviv.e.

The secondary School in Rzeszów, a former Piarist gymnasium.

The grave of Józef Łukasiewicz in the Old Cemetery in Rzeszów.

A plaque commemorating the meetings of Ignacy Łukasiewicz with Edward Dembowski and Franciszek Wiesołowski in “Luftmachine” in the years 1845-1846.

.A commemorative plaque at the place of Ignacy Łukasiewicz's family house in Zaduszniki.

Trivia

Rzeszow University of Technology

In 1974, to honour the pioneer of the oil industry, the Rzeszów University of Technology, which is the largest technical university in south-eastern Poland, was named after Ignacy Łukasiewicz, and in 2022, in the nearby village of Jasionka, the "Łukasiewicz" Podkarpackie Science Center is planned to be established. A year after taking the name of Ignacy Łukasiewicz, his portrait which was a gift from the Polish Pharmaceutical Society was hung in the Senate Hall of the Rzeszów University of Technology on October 16, 1975. On June 22 2001, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the university, a bust of the patron by Władysław Kandefer was unveiled on the square between the Lecture Hall Complex and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Aviation.