page_title: Feliks Sobański
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Feliks Sobański / Career
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Вход в Петропавловскую крепость с северной стороны
context_page_description: Feliks Hilary Ludwik Michał Sobański was a Polish landowner, social activist, supporter of the arts and philanthropist. He was awarded the hereditary title of 'count' by the Holy See. His name is associated with the grand palace and grounds in Guzów in Masovia, Poland.
context_section_description: Sobański (like his father before him) was elected marshal of the nobility for the district of Bracław (in present day Ukraine). When in 1862 his colleagues decided at an assembly in Kamieniec Podolski to seek to join the counties of Podolia and Wołyń to Congress Poland, he opposed the idea, but was out voted. Representations were therefore despatched to the Russian authorities. As a result, all the marshals were suspended from office, including Sobański, and were taken on remand to the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. They were charged with Sedition. He was sentenced by decree of the Russian Senate to exile in the depths of Russia. He was later allowed to move to Odessa and, finally, given leave to return to Podolia. 
  Following his release he travelled to France. While in Paris, he was caught up in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. He arranged with the International Red Cross to hire an ambulance and personally assisted in the removal of the wounded from the battlefield. Between 1872 and 1885 he concentrated on estate and rural matters. He invested huge sums in rebuilding and refashioning the Guzów Manor, turning it into a French renaissance-style palace with a park in the English style. He was also concerned with the welfare of rural workers.
  In 1875, he became a co-founder of the Museum of Industry and Agriculture in Warsaw (whose vice-president he would remain until 1913). That same year, joined the committee of the Warsaw arts academy, the Zachęta. He ran an architectural competition under its auspices in 1878 to design a parish church for the Mill town of Żyrardów, for which he donated the land. Also with the arts academy, he sponsored scholarships for young artists. He was involved in the Stanisław Moniuszko Music Society, which raised funds to aid the impoverished composer. 
  Sobański financed an extensive portfolio of church and other buildings and monuments, such as in Radziwiłłów, the chapel in Guzów, restorations in Obodówka and Wiskitki, paying for three marble altars to be brought from Italy for the church of St. Augustine in Warsaw or the restoration of the Sigismund's Column. He also funded travel bursaries for seminarians studying for the priesthood in Warsaw. He was rewarded in 1880 with a hereditary title of nobility from Pope Leo XIII.
caption: Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg
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