Lehistan Stories · Episode 2
Kulczycki and coffee
Vienna, 1683: what the record says, and where the coffee legend begins.
1683–1885 · 86 s
The story
Vienna, summer 1683. A vast Ottoman army has the city under siege.
Inside the walls is Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, a Turkish-speaking interpreter from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In August he slips out in Turkish clothes, crosses the Ottoman camp, and reaches the relief army of Charles of Lorraine.
He brings back a promise that help is coming. Vienna holds.
On the twelfth of September, King Jan the Third Sobieski leads the relief, and the siege is broken.
Then comes the story every Viennese café tells: sacks of strange beans left in the Ottoman camp, which only Kulczycki recognises as coffee.
He opens a café, and teaches Vienna to drink it with milk and sugar.
Historians say most of this was written a century later. Vienna's first licensed coffee house opened in 1685, under Johannes Diodato.
But Vienna chose its hero. Its café owners made Kulczycki their patron, and in 1885 he was given a statue on a Vienna street that bears his name.
And in Polish, coffee is still kawa — from the Turkish kahve.
What is documented, and what is told
The courier mission is documented: in August 1683 Kulczycki left besieged Vienna in Turkish clothes and came back with word that the relief army was coming. The coffee story is a legend: the abandoned sacks of beans, his café, and the milk and sugar were written down about a century later, and Vienna's first licensed coffee house was opened in 1685 by Johannes Diodato.
Sources
- Wilanów Palace Museum, Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki
- Wikipedia, Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki
- TURKPOL, Words that travelled
- Marzanna Pomorska, Maciej Kwaśniewski, Za co Polacy kochają Turcję / Polonyalılar Türkiye'yi neden sever (2023)
Credits and rights
The stories draw on Za co Polacy kochają Turcję / Polonyalılar Türkiye'yi neden sever by Marzanna Pomorska and Maciej Kwaśniewski (2023). The book is its authors' work: we tell the stories in our own words, check every fact independently and reproduce none of its text or pages.
Historical paintings are in the public domain. Each is credited with its artist, collection and source.
Archive pictures
- View of Vienna during the siege of 1683, Folbert van Alten-Allen (public domain)
- Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, Anonymous, late 17th century (public domain)
- Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, Unidentified painter, 1680 (public domain)
- The siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, Romeyn de Hooghe, 1683 (public domain)
- Sobieski at Vienna, Jan Matejko, 1883 (public domain)
- Georg Franz Kolschitzky, Anonymous plate, after 1683 (public domain)
Scenes marked "Illustration" are AI-generated and show no real people. The voice-over and the music were produced with AI tools.
The films and texts are © TURKPOL, shared under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 licence: you may share and adapt them for non-commercial purposes, crediting "TURKPOL, Lehistan Stories" with a link to this page.
Licence: CC BY-NC 4.0 · For any other use, write to info@turkpol.org.pl.