Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki

Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki
Portrait of Kulczycki in Turkish attire, Czartoryski Museum
Born	1640 Kulczyce, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Died	19 February 1694(1694-02-19) (aged 53–54)
Nationality	Polish
Occupation	Merchant, spy, diplomat, soldier, coffee-house proprietor
Known for	Heroism during the Battle of Vienna. Opening one of the first coffee house in Vienna

Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki of the Sas coat of arms (German: Georg Franz Kolschitzky, Ukrainian: Юрій-Франц Кульчицький, Yuriy Frants Kulchytsky; 1640 – February 19, 1694) was a Polish nobleman and diplomat of Ruthenian descent. For his actions at the 1683 Battle of Vienna when he managed to get out of the besieged city to seek help, he was considered a hero by the local people. According to a legend which appeared 1683 he is often recited as starting the firstcafé in the city, using coffee beans left by the retreating Ottoman Turks. However, more recent sources prove that the first coffeehouse in Vienna was opened by the Armenian Johannes Theodat in 1685.

Kulczycki was born in 1640 in Kulczyce, near Sambor, (then part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, now western Ukraine). According to modern Ukrainian authors, he was born into an old Orthodox-Ruthenian noble family, Kulchytsky-Shelestovich, although his father had converted to Catholicism, the state religion of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. As a young man, Kulczycki joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks during which time he demonstrated a gift for languages and worked as an interpreter.

He was fluent in Polish, Ruthenian, Serbian, Turkish, German, Hungarian and Romanian languages. Kulczycki started to work as a translator for the Belgrade branch of the Austrian Oriental Company (Orientalische Handelskompagnie). When the Turkish authorities began repressing foreign traders as spies, he avoided arrest by claiming Polish citizenship and moved to Vienna, where through his earlier work he had gathered enough wealth to open up his own trading company in 1678.