Thursday Dinners

Thursday Dinners (Polish: obiady czwartkowe) were meetings of artists, intellectuals, architects, politicians and statesmen held by the last King of Poland, Stanisław II August in the era of Enlightenment in Poland.

Stanisław II August became affectionately known as "King Stan" (Polish: Król Staś). He was a patron of the arts and learning, and it was during his reign that Poland's Age of Enlightenment or the Golden Age began (in the 1730s–40s) and reached its peak, only to go into decline with the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. During the Age of Enlightenment, Warsaw was modernised and became a favourite meeting place for notable people in the world of art, literature, intellectuals and statesmen. The King invited important figures of the time to his Thursday Dinners and founded the School of Chivalry. At that stage Warsaw had replaced Kraków as the centre of Poland.

The dinners were held first in the Royal Castle in Warsaw and later in the Water Palace between 1770 and 1784. During the dinners, which typically lasted three hours and resembled French salons, the King dined with his guests and discussed literature, art and politics. The number of guests varied over the years, but there were about 30 regulars, including counts, generals, politicians and bibliophiles like Ignacy Krasicki, Franciszek Bohomolec, Adam Naruszewicz, , , Hugo Kołłątaj, Jan Śniadecki and his brother Jędrzej Śniadecki, Stanisław Konarski, Tomasz Adam Ostrowski and Chancellor Andrzej Zamoyski.

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