Sternitzky Family and the Queens of Poland and France
by James W. Sternitzky, Ph.D.
Map of a portion of Trebnitz County showing Klein Ujeschütz (top-middle)
and the City of Trebnitz with Polnishdorf (bottom-middle).
The source of the map (above) and the description of the manor (below) is:
Bach, Aloysius.
Geschichte und
Beschreibung des fürstlichen jungfräulichen Klosterstifts
Cistercienser-Ordens in Trebnitz.
Archiv
für die Geschichte des Bistums Breslau,
vol. 2.
Neisse: 1859.
From page 123 of the above book by Aloysius Bach:
"Daselbst ist ein Freigut, das ehedem adlige Besitzer hatte. Man findet einen
Kauf über dieses Gut, welcher 1701 vom kaiserlichen Hofe confirmirt worden ist. Dieses Gut wird in den Trebnitzer Annalen ein stetes Andenken behalten,
weil daselbst (Maria) die Gemahlin des Königs Ludwigs XV. von Frankreich, eine Tochter des Königs Stanislaus Leczinsky von Polen, geboren worden ist.
Sie starb 1767.
(s. Frau von Campan, Memoiren über die Königin M. Antonia von Frankreich)."
Translated as:
There is a free estate, which formerly had aristocratic owners.
One finds a purchase of this property, which has been confirmed in 1701 by the imperial court.
This property is retained in the annals of Trebnitz as a constant memorial because there
was born Maria, the wife of King Louis XV of France, and daughter of King Stanislaus Leczinsky
of Poland.
Maria died in 1767 (see Madame de Campan's Memoirs of Queen Marie Antoniette of France).
House Number 5 on Garten Strasse in Polnischdorf, Trebnitz.
Photo courtesy of
Zbigniew Lubicz-Miszewski, Curator of the Trzebnica Regional Museum.
The names of the villages, cities, county and streets were renamed after 1945 when Silesia was resettled by Poles.
Klein Ujeschütz
is now named Ujeździec Mały.
Trebnitz (the city and the county) are now named Trzebnica.
Garten Strasse is now named Ulicy Ogrodowa.
Below is a biographical note regarding the birth of Maria Leszcynska on the 23rd of June in 1703:
Translated as:
Maria Leszcienska (the correct spelling is Leszcynska), volume
III, page 177, born on the free manor of the family Sternitzke in the
suburb Polnischdorf, belonging to Trebnitz (Silesia). The mother, the wife
of King Stanislaus I Leszcynski, probably made frequent pilgrimages
(starting in Polnisch-Lissa where the king owned the property named
Sulkowski) to Trebnitz and there once she was surprised by the birth of a
child.
Information from Frau von Campan in her Memoirs of the Queen
Marie Antoniette.
Maria (or Marie) was the daughter of King Stanislaw Leszynski of Poland and Catherine Opalinska. Marie married King Louis XV of France and was the grandmother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X. A special celebration was held in Trzebnica in 2003 to mark the 300th anniversary of Marie's birth. The Sternitzke house is no longer standing. The Staromiejska (Old Town) Restaurant now stands at Number 5 on Ogrodowa Street.
Tradition states that her mother was on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Saint Hedwig, which is indeed credible considering the mother's great piety and its proximity to her residense at Lissa. The place of the birth of Maria is the so-called Sternitzky farm in Polnischdorf (now belonging to the municipality). Another story exists placing the birth of Maria at the house of Count Proskau in Breslau, but that theory was based on a handwritten manuscript, a list of coins and medals in the Breslau City Library.
[Note the Sternitzky spelling of the family name.]
Source: Friedensburg, Ferdinand and Hans Seger. Schlesiens Münzen und Medaillen der neueren Zeit.
Im Auftrage des Vereins für das Museum schlesischer Altertümer. Breslau: Selbstverlag des Vereins, 1901, page 71.